Acoustasonics: Are they only for plugging in?

mart · March 2021

More seriously, @mrkb, I'd be interested to hear a bit more about your experiences, a bit like munckee's question, and how these differ from, say, a 335 or 330.

munckee said:

mrkb said:

I’ve got one and thankfully have worked out what they are for. I play songs on it!

Do you find them much more useable than an acoustic with a pickup? Do you like the electric sounds?

Hattigol · March 2021

I don't really get why people don't understand about these. They're effectively an acoustic that you can rock out on. No?

Jetfire · March 2021

Hattigol said:

I don't really get why people don't understand about these. They're effectively an acoustic that you can rock out on. No?

Its not that we dont understand it, its just stupid marketing. Its a modelling acoustic which isnt very loud unless you plug it in and you can plug into a electric amp and rock out with it.

Tannin · March 2021

Hattigol said:

I don't really get why people don't understand about these. They're effectively an acoustic that you can rock out on. No?

But they aren't acoustics. They don't make a sound. Well, not one you'd want to hear. They are just a weird sort of electric. I suspect that they mainly sell on looks.

Stavros · March 2021

I think the Tele one looks really cool, and the JM version in the promo vid sounded pretty good to me, so I’d love to try one.

Bit taken aback by the negative comments but suppose they’re a marmite thing.

Tannin · March 2021

^ Correct! And everybody knows that vegemite is much better than marmite.

Creed_Clicks · March 2021

Aren't these a posh version of the Denelectro Convertible?

Lewy · March 2021

Creed_Clicks said:

Aren't these a posh version of the Denelectro Convertible?

Not really. The convertible is just a guitar with an electric pickup and an undersaddle piezo. What you get out of it is the raw sounds of those two pickups. The raw sound of a piezo pickup is, by and large, terrible especially by today's standards of what a plugged in acoustic can sound like.

The Acoustasonic has three pickups...a magnetic, a piezo and a body sensor, but most critically they are all managed and blended by the onboard Fishman Aura acoustic imaging tech, so what you get from the guitar plugged straight into a PA are a range of different acoustic models as well as some electric sounds.

If you plugged a Convertible straight into a PA everyone would be in for a thoroughly miserable time. You could get yourself a Fishman Aura spectrum DI, or a Tonedexter to try and get the piezo sounding as good as the Acoustasonic...wouldn't quite work though because you'd have to spend a lot of time tweaking. And you could take a guitar amp to plug into for using the lipstick pickup and that would sound good...but by this point you're so far away from the use-case that the Acoustasonic is aimed at you may as well just take an electric guitar, and acoustic and backline for both.

ToneControl · March 2021

AlbertC said:

Tannin said:

I haven't figured out what they are for.

They're the answer to a problem that no one knew existed

Was it that Fender couldn't build something as nice as a PRS Hollowbody in their factories, so worked out how to build something cheaper and Fender-shaped instead?

ICBM · March 2021

Lewy said:

If you plugged a Convertible straight into a PA everyone would be in for a thoroughly miserable time.

Not so - in fact it sounds pretty good... just not quite like an acoustic guitar. I've also perfectly successfully DI'd a Rickenbacker semi-acoustic, that sounded fine too.

(These assume you use a proper DI box or a buffered tuner pedal or something, so the guitar isn't seeing a 10K input impedance of a 1/4" line in.)

Creed_Clicks · March 2021

@Lewy I had a Dano before, and blended it sounded different. Crap to some, but it was a sound that could be used in specific ways. The piezo did sound pretty crap, but again, it was a sound in itself... If I had to choose which acoustic sound was better, it would be the acoustasonic for sure.

ICBM · March 2021

Just to be clear, I meant the original-type Convertible with only the lipstick pickup.

Freebird · March 2021

Creed_Clicks · March 2021

Ok, that video has changed my mind a bit on these. It sounds like its own thing. I'd love to see it in a more experimental context. Can you blend both pickups? I assume so.

Snags · March 2021

@Creed_Clicks if it's like the other acoustasonics, each switch position (5-way) is a different pair of models, which are at the extremes of the "tone" (i.e. not a tone control) control, I don't think you can balance e.g. the humbucker and the piezo, but you can choose your blend between whichever two models are on the switch position currently selected.

ToneControl · March 2021

Freebird said:

that capo has come down a few notches!

Jez6345789 · March 2021

I find a certain irony that forumites, in general, give them a fairly hard time but Fender has and are selling bucket loads.
If I had a use I would have one they sound better than a lot of Electroacoustics thanks to the Fishman modelling stuff.

Tannin · March 2021

^ Fender acoustics sell like crazy too, and we all know what they are like.

ICBM · March 2021

Tannin said:

^ Fender acoustics sell like crazy too, and we all know what they are like.

From that statement, I suspect you don’t

.

crunchman · March 2021

BingMan said:

If you want an acoustic guitar, get an acoustic guitar

if you want an electric guitar, get an electric guitar

trying to do both in one guitar is always going to be compromised...

I watched a video on YouTube of billy strings playing one of these fender things and not even he could make it sound good

Just my opinion, but I can think of better things to be dropping £1.5k on

It's main use is as a stage electro. I have the Tele version, and it sounds significantly better through the PA than my Stonebridge with a K&K Pure Mini. It's probably slightly better sounding than my Martin with a Fishman blender pickup although that's marginal. The pickup in that Martin would about £250 to buy, and the gooseneck mic makes it feedback prone. Given the feedback resistance of the acoustasonic and the fact that it is more physically robust, it's a much better stage electro in a real world situation than an acoustic with an added pickup.

The electric sounds are an extra option that will be useful in certain situations, but it is primarily a stage electro, and a very good one.

Personally, with the limited recording I've done, I'm still better sticking a mic in front of a real acoustic. Even there though I could see a use for it. I've got a huge bay window with big heavy curtains, and I still had to drape extra blankets around to get a half decent mic'd acoustic sound the old fashioned way. It would be a lot less hassle to record an acoustic track with one of these, and it would work ok in a mix.

You wouldn't want it as your only guitar, but it's a useful tool.

My big gripe with it is that you can't get an output of the electric pickup without the modelling. That would be really useful to me. I would happily sacrifice one of the other sounds to get that. I don't know if there are plans for any firmware updates. I'm not sure if the USB port could be used for that, or whether it's purely used as a charging port.

Freebird · March 2021

ToneControl said:

Freebird said:

that capo has come down a few notches!

It's been down one time, it's been down two times, and it's never going back again!

ArchtopDave · March 2021

Well put by @crunchman. I bought mine for the same reasons. Additionally, mine has a perfectly decent unplugged sound for practice at home - this was a very peasant surprise, as I wasn't expecting a Tele shaped guitar to function at all well in this regard.

Lewy · March 2021

crunchman said:

My big gripe with it is that you can't get an output of the electric pickup without the modelling. That would be really useful to me. I would happily sacrifice one of the other sounds to get that. I don't know if there are plans for any firmware updates. I'm not sure if the USB port could be used for that, or whether it's purely used as a charging port.

There's another USB port on the main circuit board inside - an older mini USB type (or at least it was on the Tele I had). I suspect that's where you'd do any updates/diagnostics. I did out of curiosity hook it up to my Mac to see what happened and nothing did - it wasn't recognised as a drive or anything. I also opened up the Fishman Aura librarian I had from when I used to have a Spectrum DI just on the crazy off chance it might show up in there but it didn't. I was half expecting someone would have hacked one by now but it appears not.

I agree whole heartedly on the desirability of just having the mag pickup output without the amp modelling....it might still need some processing applied to make it work but something more neutral than the tweed deluxe sound would be good.

ToneControl · March 2021

ICBM said:

Tannin said:

^ Fender acoustics sell like crazy too, and we all know what they are like.

From that statement, I suspect you don’t .

I don't know
I tried some way back and could tell they weren't competing with Santa Cruz, Goodall, Lowden, Avalon, etc.
How good are they?

ICBM · March 2021

ToneControl said:

I don't know
I tried some way back and could tell they weren't competing with Santa Cruz, Goodall, Lowden, Avalon, etc.
How good are they?

Of course they don't compete with those - or even Martins, Taylors etc. They're not meant to, and I expect that Fender know very well that they would never be taken seriously if they tried.

They are very good quality and value for money entry-level acoustics, up to mid-priced electro-acoustics. Apart from the Acoustasonics they don't do anything above about £700, but every one I've played has been well-made, sounded decent and played really well - at least as good as any other maker in the same price range and type, and usually a bit more distinctive-looking.

Tannin · March 2021

They are mediocre at best. I can think of ten different brands that do it better for the same money.

Fender strings, on the other hand, seem to be excellent. At least the brass 12s and 13s I've been using lately are. I don't know if they make them or just buy them in from somewhere, but they are cheap, feel good,. and sound great.

monquixote · March 2021

Having watched a few of the videos if I was doing a band, or live duo where I was mostly doing acoustic with the odd requirement for an electric sound I'd 100% get one of these.

I don't think I'd have one for home use, but it seems like an excellent live solution.

mart · March 2021

Tannin said:

...
Fender strings, on the other hand, seem to be excellent. At least the brass 12s and 13s I've been using lately are. I don't know if they make them or just buy them in from somewhere, but they are cheap, feel good,. and sound great.

I believe they're made by D'addario - see this thread
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/fender-strings-question.273831/page-2

Creed_Clicks · April 2021

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Acoustasonics: Are they only for plugging in?

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