Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe vs Fender CN-60S
Reasons to Get
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe over Fender CN-60S
Reasons to Get
Fender CN-60S over Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe
Other Key Differences
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe vs Fender CN-60S
Shared Features
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe vs Fender CN-60S
Common Strengths
- Solid Top Wood
- Expensive Wood
Common Weaknesses
- Pickup Alter Switch/Knob
- Locking Tuners
- Compound Radius Fretboard
- Luminescent Sidedots
- Strap Lock
- 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- Active/Passive Preamp
Table of Contents
Price History Comparison
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Which One is Better Overall?
After going through our comparison algorithm, the results show that the Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe is probably the better product overall with its final score of 84 compared to the Fender CN-60S's 70 score, which is a significant difference.
The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe wins when it comes to sound, playability, build quality. On the other hand, the Fender CN-60S has the upper hand when it comes to value for the money.
If you got small hands, none of these instruments will make a big difference when it comes to comfortability.
Which One is Better for Beginners?
Both meet 4 out of our 8 criteria items for beginner friendliness. This takes into account the type of frets, scale length, nut width, bridge type, fretboard radius, and neck profile to determine the easiest combination for new players. If you're looking for your first guitar to learn how to play, you can't go wrong with either of them.
New Player Friendliness
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe- Comfortable shape
- Easy-to-use bridge
- Tall frets
- Comfortable neck
- Comfortable fretboard
- Narrow nut
- Short scale
- Soft Strings
- Locking tuners
New Player Friendliness
Fender CN-60S- Comfortable shape
- Easy-to-use bridge
- Comfortable neck
- Soft Strings
- Comfortable fretboard
- Tall frets
- Narrow nut
- Short scale
- Locking tuners
Nevertheless, when it comes to choosing an instrument, you should pick the one more compatible with your personal style. Still, below we'll try you to give you our results as objectively as it's possible to help you decide.
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe Overview
- From Martin's 2022 Modern Deluxe series
- Made in United States
- 6 strings
- 24.9"'' scale
- 16" Fretboard Radius
- Solid Spruce with VTS top
- Solid East Indian Rosewood back
- Solid East Indian Rosewood sides
- Genuine Mahogany neck
- Ebony fretboard
- Bridge pickup: Fishman Gold Plus Natural I (Preamp/Active)
- Ebony bridge
- Acoustic Vintage Deluxe Set neck
- 20 Medium Gold frets
- Gold Side Mount tuners
- Compare Specs >
Fender CN-60S Overview
- From Fender's 2017 Classic Design series
- Made in Indonesia
- 6 strings
- 25.3"'' scale
- 16" Fretboard Radius
- Solid Spruce top
- Laminated Mahogany back
- Laminated Mahogany sides
- Mahogany neck
- Walnut fretboard
- Bridge pickup: (/)
- Walnut bridge
- Acoustic Fender 'Easy-to-Play' shape with rolled fretboard edges Set neck
- 18 Vintage frets
- 3-In-Line with Amber Pearloid Buttons tuners
- Compare Specs >
Sound Quality Comparison
The most important thing that will determine the tone of an acoustic guitar is the wood. Let's take a look at the differences between both .
Woods Used in Both
Mahogany is a fairly rare wood nowadays. It's used mostly for bodies due to its relatively lightweight. Gibson popularized it with their Les Paul guitars during their golden years, so this wood has a lot of good reputation behind it. The most expensive type comes from South America and it's still used by Gibson even today. Find out more about Mahogany.
Spruce has a light color with tight grain patterns. It's very stiff but relatively light. It's known for producing a well-rounded tone with a broad dynamic range. Find out more about Spruce.
Woods Used in the Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe
Ebony is a high-end wood, so it is not cheap. It's only used for fretboards because it's also very heavy. It does an excellent job as a durable material while looking elegant. Find out more about Ebony.
Rosewood is an almost purple-looking wood that is used mainly for fretboards since it's heavy, rare, and expensive. It's sometimes used on acoustic guitar bodies to create stronger warm tones. Find out more about Rosewood.
Woods Used in the Fender CN-60S
It's a hard wood with a chocolate color that is often used to give an elegant finish. Since it's quite expensive and rare, it's mostly used for guitar tops. Find out more about Walnut.
Winner: Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe.
Electronics
The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe comes with a preamp that allows you to connect it to an amp, unlike its competitor. This allows it to have more versatility and sound quality if you want to record with it or play live.
Winner:Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe.
Final Sound Quality Scores
Build Quality Comparison
When it comes to build quality, we like to take into account everything used to build the instrument. This includes materials, hardware and the quality control expected depending on the country where it was built. Let's see how the Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe compares to the Fender CN-60S.
Country of Origin
The manufacturing country can tell a lot about the build quality of an instrument. The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe is built in United States while the Fender CN-60S is made in Indonesia.
The United States is considered one of the best electric guitar manufacturers in the world. A guitar made in this country is supposed to have world-class quality control. Nowadays, guitars made in other countries can beat some of the ones made in the US, but most of the time, this country offers the best you can get. Of course, that comes at a price.
Indonesia is becoming the most popular country for guitar building because they can make good instruments for a low price. Some people think that they're 'the new China' when it comes to build quality. But the truth is that Indonesian guitars are more consistent, although Chinese quality has improved a lot in the last few years.
Winner: Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe
Nut Material
If you want your guitar to stay in tune and sound good, you need a well cut nut. Nut quality can be inconsistent even when comparing two copies of the same model. The best way to make sure you're nut will be well done is by getting a nut made by an expert company like TUSQ or Micarta.
The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe has a Bone nut. It's a type of nut found in high-quality instruments. They sound similar to Ivory since they give a lot of sustain and a bright sound (at least when striking open strings). The only problem they can run into is that you may get a bone piece that simply doesn't sound as well as others because that's just how natural materials are.
On the other hand, the Fender CN-60S comes with a Plastic nut. This is a low-quality nut that you might want to consider upgrading soon. Bone and TUSQ nuts are the best for guitars with a fixed or simple tremolo bridge.
Winner: Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe.
Fret Material
Most fret wire is made of nickel silver. This material eventually wears down after a lot of use and most instruments end up needing a complete fret replacement. However, some expensive models come with stainless steel frets. This is what you should aim for if you can afford it.
In this comparison, the Fender CN-60S is the only one that has stainless steel frets. These frets will basically last for the entire life of the guitar. They will never need polishing nor replacement. And not only that, but some people also notice that bending and vibratos are much easier to perform when they upgrade to stainless steel.
Winner: Fender CN-60S.
Tuners
Both come with regular tuners. The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe's are Gold Side Mount while the Fender CN-60S's are 3-In-Line with Amber Pearloid Buttons
Winner: Tie.
Here is the list of features that were considered when choosing the winner in the Features subcategory:
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe
- Gold Frets
- Made in United States
- Expensive Wood
- Bone Nut
- Top Brand Pickups
- Electronics
- Compensated Saddle
- Solid Top Wood
- Solid Side Wood
- Solid Back Wood
- No Locking Tuners
- No Compound Radius Fretboard
- No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- No Strap Lock
Fender CN-60S
- Expensive Wood
- Solid Top Wood
- Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
- No Locking Tuners
- Made in Indonesia
- No High-Quality Nut
- No Top Brand Pickups
- No Electronics
- Low-Quality Material Saddle
- Laminated Side Wood
- Laminated Back Wood
- No Compound Radius Fretboard
- No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- No Strap Lock
Final Build Quality Scores
Playability Comparison
Let's now compare their playability. Bear in mind that the instrument will feel different depending on your hand size and play style. That's why you should always test before buying. But if you can't or want a second opinion on it, we can still take a look at each of the important measurements of the instrument for you. This way, we can predict how easy a guitar might be to play, or how different it will feel compared to the other.
Remember that, even though the difference might seem small, every inch counts when it comes to feeling of the instrument in your hands. Any variation can completely change how comfortable a guitar feels in your hands.
Nut Width
The nut width will affect the separation between strings at the nut. In this comparison, the Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe has the wider nut with 46mm (1.811'') vs 43mm (1.693''). This is a 3mm (0.118'') difference
This means that it will be more difficult to do bar chords on the Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe, especially closer to the nut. However, it's also easier to play without muting strings accidently. This favors people with big hands.
Scale Length
The scale length is one of the things that influences playability the most. This is the distance between the nut and the bridge and will affect everything from low action allowance, difficulty to perform bends, fret separation, and even tone.
The Fender CN-60S has the longest scale: 25.3". The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe is only 24.9" long. This is a 0.4'' (10.2mm) scale length difference.
This longer scale means that the strings need more tension to get in tune. This is good if you want to avoid fret buzz, which can happen when the strings are too loose and touch the frets while vibrating. This is especially important when playing in lower tunings. This will also let you reduce the gap between fretboard and strings (low action) to make them easier to press down. However, this higher tension will also make it harder to perform bends and vibratos as the strings will feel stiffer.
This also means that the frets have a longer separation between each other, so this will make it harder for people with smaller hands when playing some chord positions.
Another characteristic of a longer scale is that it makes the guitar sound 'snappier' or brighter. This is due to the extra separation between harmonics and overtones produced by the tension. This influences tone more than any other factor (except the pickups).
Lastly, remember that you can also affect the tension of the strings by changing your string gauge. You can use a thicker gauge for more tension and a lighter one for less tension.
Neck Profile
No single neck shape is better than others. However, most people tend to prefer a thinner necks because it doesn't get in their way when playing fast and most hand sizes can adapt to it pretty well. However, some people still prefer thicker necks for a better grip, especially if they have big hands.
In this case, both have different neck shapes:
The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe has a Asymmetrical type of neck. Even though this neck shape looks like a poorly-made job, it's, in fact, the neck that most naturally adapts to the arc of your hand when grabbing a guitar neck. You'll notice that the lower part of your palm makes a more pronounced, deeper curve while the upper part makes a more subtle arch. This is the shape that adapts the best to that natural arch your hand makes while playing.
The Fender CN-60S, on the other hand, has a C neck. This is what you'll find in most modern guitars. Most people feel like the thickness of a C neck is simply the less intrusive one for playing fast, while at the same time allowing you to grab the neck easily for resting if you want to.
Fretboard Radius
Most guitar fretboards are not flat; they usually have a curve or arc across their width. A curved fretboard will make it easier to perform chords without muting strings, while a flatter one will make it easier to play single notes, which is good for bending and soloing in general. The best fretboards have a compound radius that varies across the fingerboard, but they're not common since they take a lot more work to build.
Both the Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe and the Fender CN-60S have the same fretboard radius of 16". This fretboard radius is really different from Stratocasters, but it's also a lot flatter than Les Paul fingerboards. It'll favor plating single notes over playing chords. This doesn't mean you can't use it for rhythm, but a more curved fretboard offers better playability for chords. Bending and sliding without losing sustain will also be more likely in a flat fretboard like this one.
Hand Size Comfortability
Everyone has a different hand size, and that's why it's recommended to try a guitar before buying, even if others tell you that it's comfortable to play. However, we can know whether a guitar favors small or large hands just by knowing its exact measurements.
After taking into account the scale length, nut width, neck profile and fretboard radius, we can conclude that both in this comparison favor small hands .
Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe:
Fender CN-60S:
Fret Size
The Martin 012-28 Modern Deluxe has Medium frets, which should be taller than the Fender CN-60S's Vintage frets.
Some people prefer taller frets because they result in more sustain since the strings get pressed cleanly without interference from the fretboard. However, if they're too tall—like Jumbo frets—, you might change the pitch of the strings accidentally if you press too hard because you won't be touching the fretboard with your fingers. This is also why some guitarists with a heavy grip prefer smaller frets. They like to feel the fingerboard to avoid pressing down too hard and getting out of pitch.
