Fender Acoustasonic is another electric-acoustic hybrid guitar that’s worth discovering. From the construction and design to the hardware, you’ll get a guitar you’ve never seen before.
For you to appreciate what I mean, I’m going to discuss some of the enticing features of this instrument. Additionally, I’ll delve into the details and check something for improvement in this guitar, if there are, for you to be aware in case you’ll take the risk of buying this one.
But, why do I say take the risk? ‘Coz, you’re going to spend about $2000 of your hard-earned money. Yet, check it out first!
- Able to produce different tones and sounds
- Versatile, comfortable, and easy to play
- Do well when strumming, fingerstyle, percussion, electric, etc.
- High E-string pops out of the nut
- The finishing detail isn’t that perfect
- Sounds quiet, better to be connected to an amp
Contents
Features
This guitar has lots of stunning features, but, I’ll only discuss some of the most useful ones. Starting with the craftsmanship and the materials used, to its playability and sound. Of course, I’ll also give you some reasons why it’s a good buy for its price.
Great Build and Craftsmanship
A single-cutaway six-string guitar made of solid Sitka Spruce top with a mahogany neck, back, and sides, this guitar seems to be well-built. It has an ebony fingerboard with dot inlays and 22 narrow-tall frets. I have the Natural finish with a traverse body bracing, b-w-b top binding, and rosette with a satin urethane finish.
This guitar has two knobs in front. You can see one like those in most electric guitars, which control the volume when it’s plugged in. The second one is a little interesting as it’s a bit tricky and challenging, yet very useful to achieve the sound you want.
The second knob should be used with the Voice Selector (a five-position lever switch) to change the guitar’s tone to one of the 10 different sounds. For each notch on the switch, you can produce two sounds — one is by turning the knob fully counterclockwise “A” and the other one by turning fully clockwise “B”. If you like a blend of these two sounds, just leave the knob in the middle.
It’s a size of a standard Telecaster, much lighter, but is more powerful enough to produce a wide range of tones only accessible with expensive guitars. It weighs only 4.82lbs with 15 x 11 x 7 in dimensions, which is perfect for me and those gigging guitarists.
As mentioned, the neck is made of mahogany with the familiar modern deep “C” profile and walnut center stripe. The Telecaster-style neck has 42.8mm width at the nut and 51.33mm at the 12th fret. Likewise, it has 20.9mm depth at the nut and 23.5mm at the 12th fret.
It has a 25.5-inch scale length and a 22-fret fretboard made of rich ebony. The fretboard has a 12-inch radius with classic dot inlays. At this price, it has the B-Flex truss-rod with headstock end adjustment. The headstock features the chrome Fender modern cast/sealed staggered tuners.
The Graph Tech TUSQ synthetic nut is very smooth at the corners, like the fret ends, to avoid any hitches. The bridge is a modern asymmetrical made of ebony with Graph Tech TUSQ saddle.
The guitar’s electronic system is the one responsible for its versatile tonal quality. It has two pickup systems — the Noiseless magnetic pickup between the soundhole and the bridge and the Fishman piezo bridge pickup. The former delivers some Telecaster-style tone with hum-free performance, which is great even without an amp. The latter is the difference-maker since it’s the one responsible for giving that sweet tone for various music styles.
Unique Playability
While playing this guitar, I realized that it offers a unique sense of comfort I haven’t had with my other guitars, even from the more expensive ones. The neck is made of mahogany with beautiful ebony fretboard and well-polished frets.
The setup was good, but the action can still be lowered to get a great result. Moving up and down the fretboard is very easy, so you can produce acceptable tones without any problem. It’s an exceptional slide guitar too.
One slight problem that I see was its lack of tone control. Since it has a magnetic sound that is pristine, yet lacks the depth of the neck pickup voice. This guitar stays in tune even when you keep on playing for hours. Perfect for gigging and practicing.
Sound – Versatile Tonality
I tried different guitars, but this one has a unique organic feel and voice. The Spruce top, mahogany body, bracing, and soundhole are designed to deliver what it promises. When using the Mod knob, you can turn it fully counterclockwise or fully clockwise. Fender calls the former “A” setting and the latter as “B” setting.
10 Voicing
Just to give you a background about its capability, let me share with you Fender’s promises with this Acoustasonic guitar. At position five, you’ll mimic full acoustics — Sitka Spruce/rosewood dreadnought sound at “A” and Alpine Spruce/rosewood auditorium at “B”. Position four offers alternative acoustics — Engelmann Spruce/maple small body at “A” and Sitka Spruce/mahogany dreadnought at “B”.
Read: 10 Best Fender Acoustic Guitars (Reviews)
You can also mimic enhanced acoustics at position three with Sitka Spruce/Brazilian rosewood dreadnought sound at “A” and at “B” for added body pickup to the sound ideal for hand tapping. For position two, you’ll achieve acoustic/electric blend which helps you get that Sitka Spruce/mahogany dreadnought at “A” and at “B” if you want to blend electric pickup to the sound. Lastly, at position one, you’ll achieve electric sound with Fender electric clean at “A” and Electric semi-clean at “B”.
There is no screen to guide you with these settings, but, after playing several times, it’s just easy for me to locate the best settings for me. To summarize, it’s like you are just choosing between dreadnought, auditorium, and parlor-sized guitars, but only in one instrument.
Do you know how it produces such interesting sounds? The strings.
This guitar has phosphor-bronze strings which work well with the Fishman electronics onboard. Try it, and you’ll know, specifically at position three, “B” setting, you’ll get a real acoustic-sounding guitar. And since it offers a bevy of sounds, you’ll never get bored and there’s a lot more to discover and experiment on.
Value for Money
A lot of people think that this guitar is overpriced. But, if you take a closer look at its finish, body/satin neck, and overall quality craftsmanship, you know it’s a good deal.
The electronics onboard, the hardware and the 10 voicing options give you more versatility and provides you with different sounds rolled into one instrument. And, though it only comes with a soft gig bag and not the hard case, it’ll give you more comfort and portability.
So, overall, this is a great guitar for me and I highly recommend it to everyone, especially beginners who are still experimenting with the sound they want to produce.
Verdict
No doubt, aesthetics-wise, it’s perfect. Its sonic capability is superb, given the fact that you’ll get up to 10 different sound settings. This guitar is perfect both for onstage performances and studio recordings.
The Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster may not completely replace all the acoustic and electric guitars out there, but the fact that you can play either acoustic or electric guitar with only one instrument — it’s amazing.
From the construction to the voicings produced, I can say that this is a great buy. I don’t mind buying this expensive hybrid guitar. I know it can last a lifetime. So, what’s your say? Let me know by leaving your comments below.
Genius guitar! A work of art to look at and feels so great to play.
Heres the thing…. If you wanna record a song with an electric gtr… go buy one, if you also need acoustic gtr parts… buy another gtr. Pretty sure you wont get a better sound than from this puppy and will save yaself a bunch of hard earned busking cash!!!!