Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster - Natural Reviews

I play rhythm in a Country/Southern Rock band and Worship Team in church. I finally have THE guitar I've been looking for. It does it all. It might not be the vest Telecaster, or the best Martin D-18, or the best Taylor 714, but it is all those things and amped up as good as those guitars. And I can practice or go over vocals with my wife/lead singer and not have to plug in. Huge convenience.

The band is 60/40 acoustic/Tele with pedals for the set list we do. No problem and I run through a Blues Deluxe or Blues Jr. Church is 100% acoustic. No problem and I run through a Fender Acoustisonic 40 with no pedals. And I've got the playability of a telecaster with tall narrow frets. No more 2 hour bar chord hand cramps from 12's on a Taylor...

So rockin the band, no problem.
Worship in Church, no problem.
Practice at home, no problem.

It checks off all the boxes.

One guitar to rule them all.

I have others, but this is THE ONE.

One note: the finish is so Matte that I want to oil it, but I know that would be a bad idea... It is gorgeous though. I love the buttery smoothness of the natural top, just awesome all around and worth every penny. Just buy it if you need a hybrid, this is it.

Also, I was using a Yamaha Silent for some of the acoustic stuff to avoid feedback. That's a toy in comparison to this.

This is a very nice guitar, light, easy to tune and sounds brilliant whether plugged in or not. It has a great acoustic resonance if you want to practice quietly.

Plays really well, including sustain. Have not "ghigged" with it yet, but hopefully before too long. Considering its form-factor, it sounds surprisingly good unplugged. It sounds phenominal via amplification.

I've been playing the guitar since 1967 when I was in a band called Psychogenic Formulations. I've been through and I own many guitars. This by far is the most fun versatile guitar I've ever owned.
My wife plays the Ukulele and we perform at brew pubs, farmer markets, nursing homes, charity and private events. I received my Fender Acoustasonic Strat, Natural in early June. We haven't had a paying gig since March due to COVID19. However, we have done a ZOOM high school reunion gig and 2 front porch gigs for our neighbors and a third this Saturday. It's ironic that this guitar is made in Corona, California. We play a variety of songs; folk, country, rock, classics, blues, and oldies to contemporary. We customize our play list based on the gig/audience. I've been going through our 109 song list and figuring out the setting for each song on my Acoustasonic Strat. What a blast! I will no longer have to bring my Martin acoustic and my Les Paul Standard to every gig. The Fender Acoustasonic Strat is a quality instrument with wonderful playability, versatility, creativity and such a pleasurable instrument to play.
I want to thank Ashton Vaudt who has been my Sweetwater Sales Engineer for many years. He's professional, knowledgeable, supportive and friendly.The photo is the mini-Martin that I bought from Sweetwater.

I have held off writing this review for a couple of weeks and after a few live performances. First, Sweetwater treated me (and my wife who secretly purchased this for me) very well. Josh Sackett is the Sweetwater Sales Engineer I deal with and he is always outstanding. The guitar was perfect when I opened the case. Now for the guitar. I was never able to actually try one before purchasing so I only had video reviews to go by and the advice of Josh Sackett. I wanted a guitar that gave me primarily acoustic tones but played like an electric. This guitar design from Fender seemed to fit the desire. I am a fan of Telecasters anyway. It is striking in person and gets many compliments. Ultimately, it is about how the guitar sounds and feels. It sounds amazing plugged in. I explore the various tones relentlessly. I practice unplugged quite often and I was actually surprised that it sounds rather pleasant without being plugged into an amp. Certainly serviceable to practice or learn a new song. I play in a worship band and it can handle any type of song they ask of me. It is very light and comfortable. The neck is great - not as thick as my Kotzen model tele but very comfortable. It was very expensive (for me) being the exotic koa model. However, it provides so much in return with the variety of tones.

Fender and Fishman have hit a home run for the acoustic sounds that come from this hybrid player. I got it for better amplified Acoustic sounds (louder without feedback) and it didn't disappoint. Even my Wife made the comment that she was surprised it didn't just sound like another electric guitar when she saw I was plugging it in. I didn't care for the Fender coated strings that come on it but after changing to a set of Elixir Nanoweb strings, the Acoustasonic really came to Life and was much easier on my hands. I think the electric sounds it gets are no replacement for a solid-body guitar, but it could get you by in a pinch. But Acoustically, it's a Killer and it's also very fun to play when unplugged. Comfortable and light as a feather.

After years of strictly acoustic guitar playing and looking for an electric to add to my small collection, I finally found just the right one for me.
I've tried the standard Tele, Les Paul, Reverend brand and a few others but none of them felt good to play to me.
I thought I'd give the new Acoustasonic Tele a try and WOW I am very happy with the sound, the ease of play, the looks the feel. It is ultra light and easy to handle.
I made a very slight adjustment to the action and just that little change made a huge difference for me. The guitar is very forgiving and responsive. Now I need a better amp!
Comes with a very nice soft case. Don't let the "soft case" make you think its a lesser case, it is very good, nicely padded with lots of features.

I highly recommend the Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster and Sweetwater. Sweetwater got this to me quick, no problems.
Special thanks to Matt Fawcett at Sweetwater!

I have had mine about a month and haven't put it down much. I love the woody feel of the neck with the open pore finish. The 5 way selector and mod knob are quite intuitive. I thought it would be more complicated. Finding a great sound for whatever mood you are in is really easy.
Interesting that originally they did not come with a string tree. Now they do, although not all of them. So look for that if it makes a difference to you.
I was unimpressed that it came in a gig bag. But, this bag is top notch. A really high quality bag and I can put all the stuff i need in it easily. I've changed my mind about the bag.

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

I own a few higher end acoustic guitars and a few higher end electrics. To be able to get realistic acoustic or electric tones in one guitar would be phenomenal. I purchased a Taylor T5 years ago and I really enjoy playing it, but I have yet to coax convincing acoustic guitar tones out of it. I use it more as an electric guitar and for its own unique tones. The Fender Acoustasonic Tele is a different guitar altogether. The acoustic settings on this guitar are fantastic. It sounds and plays great! When plugged into a PA and properly EQ'd its a beautiful sounding acoustic. I am using an A/B/Y switch to run direct into a PA and direct into a Princeton Reverb. I switch between the two depending on whether I need an electric or acoustic sound. The single coil pickup is labeled as a noiseless singlecoil, however I am picking up some buzzing. It will need to be serviced. Yeah, not an ideal situation, but it has not diminished my fondness for the guitar. Aside from the buzzing, the electric tones are excellent on a clean setting and good when running through an overdrive pedal. I'm using a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive Mod and I'm thinking of switching out to a Tumnus pedal to see how that does. I would like a little more punch when using OD. All in all this is a fantastic guitar that I feel is well worth the price. I highly recommend it!

I've only had the guitar a few weeks, but I've enjoyed playing the music that I normally played on my Taylor 413CE.
The Acoustasonic Tele is easier to play because of the neck. I've using the guitar in church and I hope to use it soon at a jam session with some aging rockers. I am looking at acoustic amps to make the sound even better. I'm glad my wife bought the guitar for me:)

I had my first gig with the Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster last night and it was great! It does many great acoustic guitar sounds and it does sound like a telecaster even through a PA. I mainly use position 5 & 4 with the A/B knob blended about in the middle, and position 1 mostly on A but sometimes blended with B for more of a fat tone. The guitar plays great. The neck is not thin or fat which is great for me because sometimes I find Fender necks too thin. I had several people ask me about the guitar after the show and compliment its range of sounds.

The main thing I was worried about with this guitar was its ability to sound like a tele when playing through a PA. I'm lazy & for our acoustic duo gigs we like to run as little gear as possible so I didn't want to have to bring a amp and a/b switch to use with position 1 to get the telecaster sound. I'm here to tell you that you can get a great tele sound from this guitar by just going through a PA!

I took 1/2 a star off because even though the charging system on this guitar is interesting, I wish it just took a 9V battery to make things simpler. Also, the price is pretty high and I wish Fender would come out with one with a 3 way switch with positions 5,4 & 1 only. If that guitar could sell for $1,299 I think they'd have a 5 star guitar.

Unamplified it is acoustically good with a smaller voice but still better than the Taylor T5 or thin body acoustic electric guitars unamplified. Comes alive when amplified and the different voices are heard clearly. Got it for recording purposes and it provides a more versatile tool for that purpose than does the T5. Did recordings at each voice for comparison purposes and IMHO have the following observations: Position 2A and 4B sound the same; volumes in 1, 2 and 3 are significantly higher in voice B that in voice A; not a fan of the electric position voice for recording - especially in voice B. Love the weight, playability, recording versatility and the intonation is good. As always the Sweetwater service and customer support is great and why I keep coming back to them - and my thanks again to Tim Holsinger.

Lot's to say but I'll keep it short. This thing plays great and actually sounds nice unplugged. It's practical for so many things. First of all this will never sound like a real electric guitar. Without correct saddles and strings, how could it? Still fun times to be had with it though. The acoustic tones plugged up are warm full bodied with excellent presence. I don't enjoy playing acoustic but for half our set I have to. This made it fun again and beats the crap out of My D-18 and 714's acoustic preamp and M1 Pickup. I'm a stickler in the studio about tone and don't care for sims or going direct with an acoustic but I've grabbed it so many times for an acoustic lead or picked piece. I trade constantly but this guy isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Battery life could be better....

The sounds you can get out of this are amazing! It is extremely versatile and you can switch easily between the different models on the fly mid song with relative ease. Where it lacks is intonation up the neck is not the best and the poor design of the battery. I understand they are trying to be a little more green by having a rechargeable battery pack instead of swap-able batteries, but this is a big inconvenience. That said, I can not wait for other variations of this guitar and look forward to what Fender has up their sleeve next.

The sounds are really good, however the high E string will slip out of the nut and stick on the side of the neck.
Fender needs to overcome this issue. Therefor I returned it. too much money for that kind of a problem.