Farida CT-29 review

This is the most modestly priced in Farida's CT series, and appropriately enough, it's not as versatile as its siblings. It might not have the nickel Kluson tuners, either, but it still holds its tune. It similarly feels solid. And it has plenty of chutzpah and personality.

While the CT-29 is truly Farida born and bred, it's as though it has a little Tele in it and a little Danelectro, too. It has two single coils - a lipstick-style super-slim pickup in the neck, a standard single in the bridge. The latter is seated in an ashtray bridge.

In contrast to the recently-reviewed CT32, its bolt-on maple neck is slim but with a slightly rounder profile, which upon consideration would benefit greatly from bulking up further - it'd round out its vintage tone with a matching feel.

The body, meanwhile, is a solid slab of Alnus nepalensis (otherwise known as Nepal alder), native to China, and tonally similar to alder.

Farida recommends the CT-29 similarly for jazz and pop-punk. Yet because the CT-29 runs a neat line in country twang from the bridge pickup and surf-rock jangle from the neck, it seems that this is the series' nod to vintage roisterers, bar-room divorce ballads and uncouth garage-rock players who go heavy on the tremolo and reverb and easy on personal hygiene.

It's impossible not to enjoy the guitar's sharp, retro attack. Sure, any brighter, and that bridge pickup would have planets orbiting it, but you'd have to throttle your amp and its EQ to get the CT-29 sounding shrill.