NAMM 2019: Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster

dreadnut

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Would like to give one a test drive. It doesn't have that sharp-edged chrome hardware which I hate about Fenders.
 

davismanLV

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Pitt Pastor thanks for the link to that youtube vid..... that guy is ON FIRE and I like his style and I think he shows just SOME of the potential for this amazing new design. Wow!! Thanks for posting that!!! :encouragement::encouragement:
 

davismanLV

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And to be clear I didn't mean to "challenge" Pittpastor's price point, that's a personal choice I'd never argue with.
Was just trying to offer another perspective.
In fact I'd have a hard time with $2000.00 on anything myself right now, except for the One True F40 maybe.
Price is not based on what we PERSONALLY can afford..... okay, so Al, if you're gonna back pedal, do it on someone else, okay???

There's not one guitar in my house I can afford.... but I still have them.

Al, you made a good point, don't back down...... ONLY Tom Petty can do that......
 

GAD

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I have to say I think they're pretty cool.

When the Taylor T5s came out I thought they were SO ugly. Then I played one (orange with a bigsby) and was pretty blown away by how great it played. I just couldn't get past the look of the thing.

These look like some sort of cool retired master woodworker made it for fun to sell at a flea market and it ended up being the best thing ever.
 

davismanLV

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I have to say I think they're pretty cool.

When the Taylor T5s came out I thought they were SO ugly. Then I played one (orange with a bigsby) and was pretty blown away by how great it played. I just couldn't get past the look of the thing.

These look like some sort of cool retired master woodworker made it for fun to sell at a flea market and it ended up being the best thing ever.
yes, what it looks like vs. what it does..... we're seeing a new trend. It's called progress.....:encouragement:

plus the longer i look at it, the better i like it.....
 

adorshki

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Ralf, I haven't had a chance to watch the vid yet...but I did have a chance to have a nice chat with Brian at NAMM...while not a tech, I had a tech question...I wanted to know how they had solved the impedance mismatch problem with transducer vs mag PUP...he kindly gave me a clue...Ohm's Law...Parallel circuits...since I didn't have an opportunity to try a guitar out...noise zoo...the usual suspects 'cranking it'...guitar center on steroids...I wondered if they had the ability to combine the transducer and PUP...answer yes...and adjust the balance...before the output on the guitar...people have been trying for years...whether perfect or not, it is quite an achievement...
I'm reminded of Acornhouse's Crossroads double-neck project in which that exact question came up.
Don't recall if he ever completed that, might go resurrect thread to ask.
:smile:

Price is not based on what we PERSONALLY can afford..... okay, so Al, if you're gonna back pedal, do it on someone else, okay???
Al, you made a good point, don't back down...... ONLY Tom Petty can do that......

Oh I wasn't backpedaling, I just realized the tone of my first post could have been misunderstood.
And "price point" was probably a poor choice of woods, er, words.
Yeah, the maker's price has nothing to do with a given customer's "I'm a buyer"'s price, but that's where discounting might come in.
But like we used to say with cars, "If you don't like it then it doesn't matter what the price is, right?"
As for "hard time with $2000.00" it's not about the number it's about the fact that with 3 guitars already in hand and barely room to care for those properly, the only other purchase I'd even consider would be the One True F40.
Even then I'd only go maybe $3000.00 tops.
But really I'm just not in the market.
It's said that fully 80% of people who by replace their cars with another one don't actually need a "new" car.
I'd hazard the percentage is somewhat higher for guitar players.
:glee:
 

F312

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It has a nice acoustic ring to it, and would be easy to play and take care of, so soon as I can check one out I'm in, if it does it to me.

Ralph
 

Bill Ashton

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I knew that Carvin had done this first...

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/C...MI-YK42cOY4AIVip6zCh3q4QltEAYYBSABEgJAwvD_BwE

Fender also had a pretty nice looking one previously...not that horrible fiberglass-body thing, but regular Tele shape, Twisted-Tele p'up in the neck position and then a wooden bridge assembly. Never got to see one in the flesh, but it appealed to me more than the modern one...or the Carvin!
 

chazmo

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As a non-'leccie, I think this thing will live or die based on how people like the bespoke Fishman electronics. To me, it seems incredibly impressive to have that variety of sounds coming from on-board electronics. But, most 'leccies love their pedal boards, right? Will they want this?
 

GAD

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As a non-'leccie, I think this thing will live or die based on how people like the bespoke Fishman electronics. To me, it seems incredibly impressive to have that variety of sounds coming from on-board electronics. But, most 'leccies love their pedal boards, right? Will they want this?

Can we meet for coffee somewhere so I can convince you to stop using the term, 'leccies? :laughing:

I think what will make the guitar sell is seeing some famous musician using one.

Watching those guys in the demos play, I think this would be a killer tool for the single guitarist playing small gigs. With that guitar and a looper one person could do a lot of entertaining.
 

chazmo

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Bwahahaha GAD. Don't like "'leccies" ??

Of course, you're right about the famous musician thing. It's a Fender product though so there's no doubt that's coming soon.
 

Nuuska

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...while not a tech, I had a tech question...I wanted to know how they had solved the impedance mismatch problem with transducer vs mag PUP...he kindly gave me a clue...Ohm's Law...Parallel circuits...since I didn't have an opportunity to try a guitar out...noise zoo...the usual suspects 'cranking it'...guitar center on steroids...I wondered if they had the ability to combine the transducer and PUP...answer yes...and adjust the balance...before the output on the guitar...people have been trying for years...whether perfect or not, it is quite an achievement.......



Hello

I suppose - that guitar has battery and preamp for the transducer ( + modelling circuitry ) - the output impedance of that amp can easily be adjusted so - ( i.e. w series resistor ) - that a passive magnetic pu and switch circuitry "see" it as another mag pu.

That would do without any modelling fancy.


BUT - there is a small computer inside. So achieving any balance is simply matter or setting parameters.

Are there any pictures of backside?

I visited someone few weeks ago - he has a Line6 Variax for sale - he has Line6 Variax Acoustic 700, too. I tried the both - plenty of different sounds - some better, some not so - aftertaste remains : I like my cheapest acoustic better . . .
If I were touring guitarist in a band with many other instruments, then I could easily see use for those - but playing alone - no . . .

One day I'm going to see this Fender and see if they made it any better.
 

fronobulax

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I think what will make the guitar sell is seeing some famous musician using one.

I note that the similar Carvin noted above was a Craig Chaquico model. Is he famous enough to make the point? I note his involvement with Jefferson Starship, Starship and a couple Slick/Kantner projects but is that enough?


[h=1][/h]
 

SFIV1967

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Are there any pictures of backside?
Funny, did they forget to drill two holes ????

1600-ASTeleNat_backbody.jpg


That one looks different!

fender-acoustasonic-telecaster-black-with-gig-bag_2_1200x.jpg




The guitar comes with a 20h USB rechargable 9V Lithium Ion Battery and a red LED there that starts flashing before the battery is empty.


bdc42f-asdfasdf.jpg


Ralf
 

adorshki

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I note that the similar Carvin noted above was a Craig Chaquico model. Is he famous enough to make the point? I note his involvement with Jefferson Starship, Starship and a couple Slick/Kantner projects but is that enough?
[h=1][/h]
He never really was my cup of tea but a couple of years back I discovered he went on to achieve success in the "New Age/Smooth jazz" market, to my initial surprise followed by an immediate "it figures" moment.
From the usual source:
"His first album, Acoustic Highway (1993), was the number one Independent New Age Album of the Year in Billboard Magazine and a number one on the Billboard New Age Albums chart,[19][20] while his second album, Acoustic Planet (1994), reached number one on the same chart[21] and received a GRAMMY Award nomination for Best New Age Album. The album borrowed from African and Native American music.[11] The song "Just One World" was launched into space on a satellite that was part of NASA's Space Ark program.[4] His most recent album, Fire Red Moon, was Chaquico's first blues album and it reached number fifteen on Billboard's National Blues Chart. Since then Chaquico has cemented his standing as one of the top-selling contemporary jazz/New Age artists, selling over a million copies of his solo material."

So yes, probably an ideal endorser for the instrument.

PS, at GAD:
I will keep my promise to you never to use the "l" word myself, again.
I was actually kind of surprised to see Chaz use it since as far as I know I was the only guy to ever use it here prior to that.
 

Bill Ashton

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Frono, the one I posted was a "Chaquito" model, but will admit it took me some to find out who he was. Not disimilar to "our" Doyle Dykes, pretty much recognized as a "player."
That said, pretty sure that Carvin had a very similar model before they did the signature one, she was just the first I found...

As to the comparison to the Taylor T5, my little group here busted a player about his so bad that he finally sold it. This was some years ago, like to think that we have matured now, and I recognize that even though we didn't like the "look," it was probably a pretty good axe. The Fender may well shake out like that...
 

fronobulax

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To be clear I had heard of Craig Chaquico long ago. In an analogy to fans of Sir Paul who love the Beatles but merely acknowledge Wings, I was aware of the various post Jefferson Airplane projects even though (Jefferson) Starship was a pale initiation IMO.

I find it interesting that the guitar concept under discussion was tried before, as was a celebrity signature model/endorsement and many of us were unaware of that. Was the guitar concept before its time? Was the celebrity not well known enough? Are we too focused on Guilds to forget innovations from other manufacturers?

I wonder if a tool analogy applies here? There are many things that can be done with a Swiss Army knife or a multi-tool or an adjustable wrench. But none of those multi purpose tools is "easier" to use than a tool dedicated to one job. So there are people who are going to find they prefer two instruments over the convenience of this guitar. There will be others who will endorse the convenience. No right or wrong, just different jobs being done with the tools.
 

chazmo

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Fro, that's absolutely right. However, the real innovation here (to me) seems to be in the electronics on the Acoustisonic that can give a pretty close approximation of an acoustic guitar. The question to me is do people want to play an electric guitar to get an acoustic sound? I'm talking about live performance here, mostly. I would think YES! Especially folks who don't have band roadies and would prefer less equipment. Also, as we all know, playing a real acoustic with a band is always challenging with feedback, etc...

What's missing here are some additional modeled sounds, like (dare I say it...) a 12-string!!!!!
 

PittPastor

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Pitt Pastor thanks for the link to that youtube vid..... that guy is ON FIRE and I like his style and I think he shows just SOME of the potential for this amazing new design. Wow!! Thanks for posting that!!! :encouragement::encouragement:

Guys like that alternately inspire me, and make me want to quit. But what I loved about it was the musicality. After I watched that, I was humming the thing for an hour. It wasn't just "Let me show off how many notes I can play" -- they worked.

I'm talking about live performance here, mostly. I would think YES! Especially folks who don't have band roadies and would prefer less equipment. Also, as we all know, playing a real acoustic with a band is always challenging with feedback, etc...

What's missing here are some additional modeled sounds, like (dare I say it...) a 12-string!!!!!


I think with something like this, they don't know quite yet what the players want. They need to get it to market, hopefully create some buzz, and then get the players to tell them what's missing after they try it out for awhile.

Maybe no one else remembers this (or cares) but when the IBM PC was first announced, it came with a port for a cassette tape player. IBM didn't know if people were going to buy it for the office (where they would use the new technology of 5 1/4" floppy drives) or for home computer use where people would load game programs from cassette tapes. (That used to be a thing, kids...)

Future revisions quickly dropped the cassette drive because it was embraced by small businesses.

I think Fender needs market feedback so they are getting a reasonable model out, with a (mostly) reasonable price, and hope it does well enough to get a revision 2. I definitely think future models will have downloadable modeled sounds. It just seems like a natural way to go. I think they stand a pretty good chance of having a success here, and sticking with it until they get it really right.

Problem is, if that is true, that makes buying the first one kind of risky. Dropping $2000 for the version 1 ("Oh, you mean the one where I can't download the Olson SJ sound...?") is going to be tough when the new one comes out and you can setup whatever digital models you want.

I think they hit a pretty good medium here, though. If you think about it from a playing perspective, how many models could you really go through on stage in the middle of a song? A 16 position dial (like they have on the Aura Pedal) would be over-kill. The 5 position switch is about max, I think. The mod-dial is simple enough that you can blend a sound in the middle of a song, but hitting the right position on a switch as you move from verse to chorus sounds tricky to me.

That said, a 5 position switch where you could customize what tone went where would be really useful. It would be great to decide which 2 sounds you can mod dial between.

Or maybe not. That's kind of the point. You can go crazy trying to think of what people might find useful. The only way to really know is getting it in the hands of the innovators and musicians, let them push the boundaries, and see what really works live.

Because to me, Fender is after the live performance here. In the studio you can switch between acoustic or electric as needed. I see this as for the guy who is performing live and wants to switch tone mid-song.

I want to try this out. The sound of an Acoustic, the play-ability of an Electric. Yeah, count me in.
 
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chazmo

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[ . . . ]Because to me, Fender is after the live performance here. In the studio you can switch between acoustic or electric as needed. I see this as for the guy who is performing live and wants to switch tone mid-song.

I want to try this out. The sound of an Acoustic, the play-ability of an Electric. Yeah, count me in.
Right on. Completely agree.
 
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