NAMM 2019: Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster

SFIV1967

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We had discussed the new Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster shortly in another thread, but I thought it is a cool new instrument and deserves it's own thread. I got to know the name of Brian Swerdfeger first when I bought my first Taylor T5 in 2006 I guess. Well and now he works for Fender and created that cool new guitar. Him creating the T5 line back at Taylor certainly helped developing the concept at Fender. And FMIC's Tim Shaw is also well known to LTG members from his time at Guild. Not to mention Larry Fishman. Anyway here's a nice video of the "Making of":



Ralf
 

Nuuska

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hello

That looks quite interesting - havin' Guild Sonbirds and a solid-body electric - the combination has always intrigued - besides i have played some Telecasters and never acquired taste for them - but this seems different - who knows . . .
 

AcornHouse

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I've heard a few demo clips from it, and it all sounds incredibly underwhelming to my ears. Its all very artificial sounding. The acoustic settings don't sound like a good acoustic, and the electric settings don't sound like a good electric. A typical modeling guitar like we've seen before. It may do well as a stage acoustic, but not 2 grand worth.
 

SFIV1967

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Its all very artificial sounding.
Sure, but still I think it is a cool new Fender product. Here's a review I liked:







Also in terms of looks, that version would be the one I would like:

318D0C70-F4C5-408E-84C5-C7C195C8288C-1024x576.jpeg


Ralf
 
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chazmo

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I'm going to give a tangential "ooh" and "aah" on those striped ebony fretboards, which I'm sure are now easy to get through Taylor's efforts in Cameroon. To be clear, I think they're awesome!
 

chazmo

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20 minutes in when he runs a loop on the acoustic sound and then switches to the electric settings to solo over it is just remarkable. Very, very cool. I'm not much of a leccie, but that is quite brilliant.
 

PittPastor

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This was my favorite video:

Nathaniel Murphy is an amazing player. And he makes a lot of guitars sound good. That said, I've seen him do some of this stuff on archtops, and they don't have the clear sounds (I'm speaking especially of the harmonics and percussion). I honestly think he sounds better on this than anything else I've seen him play.

Overall, I think it has a pretty good sound, actually. I don't care for the modeling. But I like the one that mixes the "3D pickup" that gets the Z-Axis of the top. I think that has some very interesting sounds, and picks up the percussion well. The full out Tele doesn't sound exactly like a tele, but it's in the ball park. I could see this as being a real nice guitar to take to an open mic night.

All that said... $2000 is just too much. At least for me. If it were half of that I'd be seriously tempted because it fits so many places. But I just couldn't see dropping $2000 on it personally.

Still, nice to see fender trying new things.
 
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adorshki

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All that said... $2000 is just too much. At least for me. If it were half of that I'd be seriously tempted because it fits so many places. But I just couldn't see dropping $2000 on it personally.

Still, nice to see fender trying new things.
Considering a Guild F65ce listed for $2295.00 in '01, that sounds pretty reasonable to me in inflation-adjusted dollars.
 

davismanLV

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Considering a Guild F65ce listed for $2295.00 in '01, that sounds pretty reasonable to me in inflation-adjusted dollars.
I agree with Al. New guitar, new technology, made in the USA, from Fender and I think it's really versatile.... for 2K? I think that's quite a deal!! And I can't help but like it. Now if I could play like any of these guys it would be more fun, but that's never gonna happen. But I can listen for free...... :encouragement::encouragement:
 

PittPastor

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I agree with Al. New guitar, new technology, made in the USA, from Fender and I think it's really versatile.... for 2K? I think that's quite a deal!! And I can't help but like it. Now if I could play like any of these guys it would be more fun, but that's never gonna happen. But I can listen for free...... :encouragement::encouragement:

I guess that's true.

But doesn't matter anyway. I don't have anything in my guitar budget. If I tried it, I would also have to cover the "Seeing the divorce lawyer cause my wife is leaving me" budget. And I really can't even think about that!

And I agree with you. I'm kinda digging that look. Especially the fretboard.

But I would probably waste the potential. Nathaniel Murphy isn't playing the fender, he is beating it into submission. It's just incredible talent.
 

adorshki

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I agree with Al. New guitar, new technology, made in the USA, from Fender and I think it's really versatile.... for 2K? I think that's quite a deal!! And I can't help but like it. Now if I could play like any of these guys it would be more fun, but that's never gonna happen. But I can listen for free...... :encouragement::encouragement:
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.
 

PittPastor

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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.

Naaaa. You guys bring up a good point. Worth it to me is not the same thing as "priced right."

They probably have it about right. It's new tech. You can never go up with that price. So you need to hit the market where you can get some action but still recoup the R&D investment.

One thing I wish, since they basically have the Fishman Aura tech in it anyway, and a usb port -- why not let us download the modeled sound of the guitar we want. I suspect that might be coming in NAMM 2020 if this thing does well for them.
 

adorshki

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I guess that's true.

But doesn't matter anyway. I don't have anything in my guitar budget.
And to be clear I didn't mean to "challenge" your price point, that's a personal parameter 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.
And yeah that fretboard needed about 30 seconds of scrutiny before I decided I could live with it.
And like it.
 

adorshki

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Naaaa. You guys bring up a good point. Worth it to me is not the same thing as "priced right."
Wild.
Somehow you managed to quote me while I was editing my post to answer your post that popped up after I answered Davsiman's but it made more sense to answer you directly.
Now I hear echoes too.
 

GuildFS4612CE

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We had discussed the new Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster shortly in another thread, but I thought it is a cool new instrument and deserves it's own thread. I got to know the name of Brian Swerdfeger first when I bought my first Taylor T5 in 2006 I guess. Well and now he works for Fender and created that cool new guitar. Him creating the T5 line back at Taylor certainly helped developing the concept at Fender. And FMIC's Tim Shaw is also well known to LTG members from his time at Guild. Not to mention Larry Fishman. Ralf

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...the guitar was demo'd at the breakfast session on Sunday and sounded good thru the pro systems they had in the hall...but I don't think they used both systems together...they did demo the contact mic or whatever they use to amplify tapping...took best in show at NAMM but I don't think the people making the award knew or appreciated Brian's contributions...also note, Brian worked with Fishman on developing those fancy PUPS with the stacked PC Boards rather than magnets and coils...very interesting and nice man.

Note: they had some lovely show samples of the guitar...quite attractive.
 

dapmdave

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I've heard a few demo clips from it, and it all sounds incredibly underwhelming to my ears. Its all very artificial sounding. The acoustic settings don't sound like a good acoustic, and the electric settings don't sound like a good electric. A typical modeling guitar like we've seen before. It may do well as a stage acoustic, but not 2 grand worth.

I think I agree with this assessment. And note he's using pedals which change the tone and characteristics, especially of the electric sounds.

But it's one more attempt to capture the holy grail of guitars, isn't it? One guitar to rule them all!
 

walrus

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This review shows just about all of the possibilities of the guitar:



walrus
 
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