Fender Review: Gemini III

History:

Purchase: I bought this guitar at Athens Music on Atlanta Highway in Athens, GA. I traded a Guild SG copy with a Bixby bridge(probably circa 1975) and then paid another $100.00 on top of that. In retrospect, I think I overpaid... this guitar should have been $200 flat out and the Guild guitar was probably worth $200.00 alone.

What I Like About This Fender Gemini III: I have played this guitar as my knock-around guitar for a long time. The body and neck have held up pretty well, although it could stand a truss-rod adjustment at this point. Is is a great guitar to bring out to the campfire... to play around the kids and know you can leave it in the room without worrying too much. My kids have knocked it over a hundred times.

What I Do NOT Like About The Fender Gemini III: I wanted a cheap guitar to kick around with, and that is what I got. The bridge is pulling off the body, one of the pegs has popped off and is now held on with just a small nail. The action has gotten horrible. There is not much projection from the laminated top. The tone is reasonably well balanced (leaning a little to the high side), but lacks any sort of strength on either the high end or low end.

Fender Gemini III Quality Rating: Laminated back, top and sides. Painted black. Stained (I think) walnut fingerboard.

Review Summary: Not a bad knock-around guitar, but I don't think I would buy it again. I think I paid a slight premium for the Fender name and could have gotten a Yamaha to kick around with that would have held up a little better and saved me about 25% of the cost. This was clearly a case where Fender was skimming the bottom by leveraging the name brand.

Rating of this Fender product: 2

This Fender Gemini III Acoustic Guitars Review Submitted By: S. Lee Jones

Review Date: 2003-11-29