Description
Review of the Barcelona D500 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Bundle
The Barcelona D500 is a full size dreadnought acoustic in a natural finish, described with a spruce top, mahogany back and sides and a merbau fingerboard, sold as a bundle with a gig bag, spare strings, a tuner, a strap, picks, access to Fender Play online lessons, an Austin Bazaar instructional DVD and a polishing cloth. It is aimed at a beginner or a hobbyist who wants a conventional dreadnought with the learning material already included.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Conventional dreadnought layout with a spruce top over mahogany back and sides. This is the standard combination for a steel string acoustic and it is the sound most people picture when they think of an acoustic guitar.
- Dovetail neck joint. The listing specifies a dovetail rather than a bolt on joint, which is the traditional construction and transfers body vibration into the neck with less loss.
- Coated strings. The listing states the strings resist humidity, dirt and sweat, which extends their playable life noticeably compared with uncoated bronze.
- Scooped bridge with reduced string tension, which the listing links to less finger fatigue. Lower tension genuinely does matter for untrained fingertips in the first months.
- Learning material included. Online lessons and an instructional DVD ship with the bundle, which is more than most acoustic packages provide.
Cons
- The specification table for this listing is empty. Every material claim comes from marketing text with nothing to cross check it against, so no scale length, nut width, weight, string gauge or fret count is published anywhere.
- The listing does not say whether the spruce top is solid or laminated. That is the single most consequential fact about an acoustic guitar and its absence here is significant.
- A merbau fingerboard is an unusual choice. It is a dense tropical hardwood and reasonable in principle, but it is far less common than rosewood, so there is little reference point for how it wears.
- A dreadnought is a large body shape. It is the least comfortable of the common shapes for a smaller player to reach around, and this listing offers no smaller alternative.
- The bundle includes a DVD, which many households can no longer play.
Detailed Product Description
The top is spruce. On an acoustic guitar the top does nearly all the acoustic work, turning string vibration into moving air, and spruce is the traditional soundboard timber because it is stiff for its weight and therefore lets a thin panel move freely. What this listing does not say is whether that spruce top is a single solid panel or three laminated layers, and the difference is substantial: a laminate is damped by its glue lines and stays much the same for its life, while a solid top is louder, more responsive and changes as it ages. The comparison is set out in the guide to solid top versus laminate acoustic guitars.
The back and sides are mahogany, which gives a drier, more focused sound than rosewood and is the usual pairing with a spruce top at this level. The fingerboard is merbau, a dense hardwood from Southeast Asia. Density is what matters in a fingerboard, because it resists denting under string pressure and slows fret wear, and merbau is dense enough for the job even if it is uncommon.
The neck joins the body with a dovetail joint. This is the older and more labour intensive method, in which a tapered tenon on the neck wedges into a matching socket in the body. It is generally considered a mark of more careful construction than the bolt on joints used to speed up production, though it also makes future neck resets a specialist job.
The body is a dreadnought, the large square shouldered shape that dominates steel string acoustic guitars. The internal air volume is what produces the strong low end and the carrying power that made the shape standard for strumming and accompaniment. Its drawback is size, and how it compares with smaller shapes is covered in the guide to guitar body shapes.
What Comes with the Product
- The D500 dreadnought acoustic guitar in natural
- A gig bag
- A spare set of strings
- A tuner
- A strap
- Picks
- Access to Fender Play online lessons
- An Austin Bazaar instructional DVD
- An Austin Bazaar polishing cloth
No capo, stand, string winder or hard case is listed, and the duration of the online lesson access is not stated.
Who It Suits
This suits an adult beginner or a returning hobbyist who wants a full size dreadnought and values having the lessons, the tuner and the bag arrive together. The inclusion of structured learning material makes it a reasonable choice for someone with no teacher lined up.
It suits less well a child or a small adult, for whom a dreadnought is a lot of guitar, and it suits less well a buyer who wants to know exactly what they are getting, since the specification table is empty and the solid or laminate question is unanswered. Worth comparing are the Fender dreadnought acoustic bundle, the Fender FA-115 dreadnought bundle and the Epiphone Songmaker DR-100. The wider selection sits in the beginner starter kits section, and what a package like this normally covers is set out in the guide to what is in a guitar starter bundle.
How to Maintain
Use the polishing cloth on the strings after every session. Coated strings last longer than uncoated ones but they still collect skin oils, and wiping them down extends that advantage rather than replacing it.
Keep the guitar in the gig bag when it is not being played, away from radiators, sunny windows and cold garages. Acoustic guitars are more sensitive to humidity than solid body electrics because the top is a thin panel under constant tension. The warning signs are a top that bellies upward behind the bridge, an action that climbs over a season, or hairline cracks along the grain. Storage advice is covered in the guide to how to store a guitar.
Tips and Recommendations
Start the online lessons in the first week rather than saving them. Structured material is most valuable when a beginner still has no idea what to practise, and the value of bundled lesson access drops sharply once someone has found their own routine.
Keep the coated strings on longer than the usual guidance suggests. Coated sets are designed to resist the corrosion that normally ends a set’s life, so changing them on the same schedule as plain bronze wastes them. How to judge the right moment is covered in the guide to how often to change guitar strings.
Confirm the top construction with the seller if it matters. It is the one specification that will determine how this guitar sounds in five years, and this listing does not state it.
Product FAQ
Is the spruce top solid or laminated?
The listing does not say. No specification table is published for this product and the description only says spruce.
What is the fingerboard made of?
Merbau, a dense tropical hardwood. It is less common than rosewood but hard enough for the job.
What learning material is included?
Access to Fender Play online lessons and an Austin Bazaar instructional DVD. The length of the online access is not stated.
What is the scale length?
Not published. The listing gives no scale length, nut width or fret count.
