Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster - Matte Black Reviews

I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up this guitar. It is very lightweight but feels sturdy at the same time.
Neck is fast, action is perfect but the sound really sets it apart. Plugged it directly into an Acoustasonic 150 amp and the tone possibilities are very pleasing. Not to mention that that the tele electric sounds great with or without effects. The MIM does not have the inner body pickup which is worth the higher price.

Playing in a cover band, I need a guitar that gives me a spectrum of sounds. I showed up at rehearsal with the Acoustasonic and played a song where I was able to switch from acoustic setting to full blown overdriven electric!!!
My singer was in disbelief!!!! I'm even able to do guitar solos!!

Well worth it!!!

This guitar is totally amazing to play the sounds are fantastic. I am no expert, I am just a beginning guitar player. Should have started many years ago. If you play blues, folk or rock the sounds this Fender can make is a all around guitar.,
Sincerely, Jim Lawson

Just a note of info. I own 26 guitars. I have beenplaying music for nearly 40 years. This guitar is a true gift for an acoustic guitar player. The versatility of the tones are truly amazing. The bonus is the comfort and playability. Keep the sound clean and you'll here the true workmanship. This one is for you.

This guitar is great and does everything it says. Easy to play with that familiar tele feel but with so much more to offer acoustically. Love the aesthetics and the sound.....

Feel in your hands and incredible range of sound capabilities. Worth every penny. A silky smooth buttery sound and feel. Coolest axe I got.

Mere hours after I received this guitar from Sweetwater I wrote back to Riley to say "they will have to prize this guitar from my cold dead fingers" and that is how it will be... it is utterly amazing. Be realistic... unplugged it's good for the couch, perfectly loud enough for practice and maybe a small singalong but not more. Plug it in however (Fishman Loudbox in my case) and it just comes alive... 10 blend-able voices, each of which immediately sounds like you're playing the original instrument in the studio, just perfect. The pure electric pair are pretty good, not full on Telecaster by any stretch but electric enough to make a great contrast to the awesome acoustic tones. With one position slightly dirty, soloing over a looper sounds phenomenal. Yes you could go and buy a decent acoustic and a half-decent Tele for the price, but you couldn't buy 10 such instruments each switchable in seconds and that's what you have here.

I could not be happier or more impressed with Fender/Fishman and this marvel and judging by the fact that currently Sweetwater can't keep them in stock for more than 5 minutes it seems I'm not alone. Shout out to Riley for reserving me one!

I placed an order for this at the end of January since they were not available anywhere locally. As far as I know they still aren't... I was able to obtain a Space Grey unit. As much as I love that guitar I love the black one I received from Sweetwater a little bit more because it is freakin beautiful and it is exactly what I wanted to begin with. I get that I'm blessed to be in a position to have two of these when other folks are having a hard time obtaining just one. I've been playing guitar since 1973. Let that sink in. My main acoustic six string guitars are a 1979 Guild F40-BLD(!) and a Gibson Blues King. This isn't either of those, it is an entirely different animal unto itself. These are meant to be plugged in. Sure, you can play them unplugged, they have excellent sustain and and are loud enough to write songs and sing against. That said, plugged in they are unmatched. They rule when plugged in. These are pretty much an open mic dream. And their compact, electric guitar size doesn't hurt either. I'd buy every version if I could and I'm not kidding.

I was lucky enough, keeping my ears to the ground when Fender released this guitar and I was able to get one of the absolute first ones that Sweetwater had gotten in. No hesitation on my part, I had not played it but I really liked the concept of designing from the ground up around a long standing Telecaster platform and marrying the skills of so many great people in the industry.

When it arrived, it instantly became my go-to guitar with the great range it has, the ease of playing and it only weighs 6 pounds. The internal battery life is rated at 20 hours, it will play with the charger engaged in case you have missed your charging window.

I own many guitars and played for over 50 years this is the first one I pick up every night, it's that good.

I bought this guitar to give me something of quality to play at outdoor gigs as I didn't want to tote either Martin in and out of the extreme humidity. First time I plugged it in was into a Fender SFX (the pretty one, haha) and the acoustic tones blew me out the water right away. The ability to blend them is amazing. In position 3 (w/body pickup) I'm getting a tone that is very similar to my HD 28. I was not impressed with the Tele sounds at all through this amp. For the first gig, I was using a Fishman Loudbox Performer and let me tell you, this amp was made for this guitar! All tones just sing.
The versatility that this guitar affords me is priceless - being able to go from a driving tune to something melodic to just dirty, all with the flip of a switch and the turn of a knob just makes my music better.
This thing is light as a feather, super comfortable (& I don't even have a main strap for it yet), love playing on the shorter neck - action is great out of the case.
No, you're not going to mic this guitar and play for a group - hopefully you weren't planning to do that anyway - but the tone images on this thing are great.
I know you're probably expecting a hard case at this price point, but the gig bag that comes with it is outstanding. I'm kinda glad that I got this gig bag as it cuts down on the weight significantly.
The selling point for the American over the Mexican version for me was the body pickup - and I'm glad I followed my gut. The body pickup gives this thing so much more.

After watching the videos from Fender explaining the design of this instrument, I was very intrigued by it. I've always wished that I could get really good acoustic tones from something that felt like an electric. Not like I mind playing a real acoustic once in a while, but truthfully I very much prefer the feel of an electric - especially Telecasters. That's where the concept of this guitar seemed to fit in so nicely. I read a lot of reviews before deciding to purchase it. Wow. People either loved it or hated it. But based on their reviews, I wasn't always sure they were looking for the same thing that I was looking for in it. So I bought it.
First impressions were the following: super light, looks pretty cool overall, matte finish on wood was interesting (almost organic), thicker gauge strings than I wanted (after about a month, I changed them to Elixir Nanoweb Extra Light Phosphor Bronze .010-.047 which turned out to be awesome!), Fender logo in headstock very cool. The sounds of the acoustics were almost disarmingly good. It honestly took a while to reconcile this really light (almost toy feeling) guitar in my hands with the large acoustic sounds coming from my amp.
Now that I have owned the guitar for about 6 months, I thought it would be a good time to actually write a review of it - to get past my initial impressions and see how I feel about it over time.
Bottom line - I really like it! It fulfills exactly what I was looking for - big, full acoustic sounds from something that feels and plays like an electric. I pick it up way more than I ever did with my acoustic. The sounds continue to impress me - and being able to dial in between sounds with the "mod" knob gets used more than I thought. It's actually quite handy. And the variety of sounds from the five positions combined with the use of this mod knob are plentiful - and provide some fun dialing in just the right sound.
To balance out this review, here are a couple things I wish were different. I wish the position selector switch was ebony instead of plastic. I love the ebony neck, the ebony bridge, and the ebony volume and mod knobs. They add to the organic look and feel of this instrument. Would have liked Fender to find a way to have an ebony one there, too. The plastic just feels out of place. Also, when playing standing up, it does have a bit of a neck dive because the body is so light. Most of the time I am sitting, so it doesn't matter much to me, but it might to some others. And, like others have said, I think it should have come with a hard-shell case for this price. The "deluxe" gig bag is certainly a nicer gig bag, but it is still a gig bag.
Overall, I feel good about this guitar. It has provided me with an interesting piece that feels like an electric that can create a wide variety of interesting acoustic tones -which is just what I was looking for. It might depend on what you are looking to accomplish with it, but for me it fits the bill nicely.

after four gigs, the guitar completely went dead. It had no sound at all. Guitar played beautifully before this happened.

I reviewed this guitar a year ago when I first purchased it, a glowing review... it sounds and plays wonderfully. This review is just over a year later and it is starting to exhibit issues. In the attached picture you'll see that two parallel ripples have developed in the top running through the bridge; they were not there a year ago. I've owned Taylors and even a Seagull 12-string and never seen this, let alone a year into ownership. It's even more worrying given that the instrument is lightly strung with .010's. This guitar has never left my home, lived on a professional stand in a quiet dining room nowhere near HVAC vents or direct sunlight. Yet, the top has started to ripple... that's what you get with a new design I guess (I was an early purchaser). I contacted Fender, and was asked to "take it to a service center"... well OK... I went, they told me they weren't interested in helping before I even got to take it out of the bag. Yes I'm sore... this is a $… guitar, the top shouldn't start to ripple after a year. I write this review to warn others... Think VERY CAREFULLY before dropping $... on what is clearly a flawed structural design that'll get worse before, and certainly after your warranty ends. Caveat Emptor, a Fender lemon.

I've been gigging 3-4 times a week this summer with one of these. Nice guitar in many ways. But here is a BIG warning - the jack plate is junk. I've had it in the shop three times for repairs. I'm not hard on my gear. The guitar is just not robust in this area. Drives me nuts when a good idea is comprimised by a faulty system. Also, the charging is pretty lame. I would prefer a normal battery. Probably designed by an iPhone kid.

I would wait for a second generation. Fender - please redesign the wimpy jack plate. Also - go back to a normal battery. Performers are screwed with your battery system.

I purchased this for my teen son who most often plays on his favorite Guild acoustic. The first guitar that we received we were unable to charge. Sweetwater let us exchange it for another that we are able to charge. This guitar does not include a charging cable and I purchased several in order to find one that worked. My son complains that this guitar has a buzzing noise when he plays it. He attempted to replace the strings but ultimately we had to bring it to a shop because the pegs that were on it were so loose. New strings and pegs professionally replaced and it still buzzes.

The issues with these are well documented online. I suggest everyone to do a little research before purchasing. The chargeable input does charge/hold a charge. There is no output whatsoever. I was sent to a fender-authorized repair shop for warranty repair and they said there is no point. Any replacement parts are known to go bust eventually. This shop said they don't even carry these models anymore because they are so fraught with issues.

I bought this because a friend had one he talked about how great it was and I did like the feel and weight but I didn't play it much at the time. So I found a good deal on a used one and got it Beautiful but Twangy sound. cant hardly heard it without a amp. And electric has funny sounds like not real just not my liking. So its not a Acoustic cause u cant hear.. It its not ele because it sounds funny... It a electronic Guitar has a computer when reachable battery dies u have no sound. I think Fender Flopped on this one for the Price. I would Not Recommend This Guitar.. I have a Ovation Elite I bough New in 92 it puts this guitar to shame in every dept...