FENDER AMERICAN ACOUSTASONIC STRATOCASTER

review
FENDER AMERICAN ACOUSTASONIC STRATOCASTER
96
GUITARIST MAY 2020
5. The acoustic-style
bridge uses Graph Tech
Tusq bridge pins and a
saddle compensated
for the wound third of
the acoustic strings
6. This dished Tele-style
output jack plate
also houses the
power-in socket for
the rechargeable
Lithium-ion battery (a
full charge should give
you around 20 hours
of playing). The small
LED will flash red when
you’re down to about
two hours of charge
electric sounds are tighter and maybe don’t
work quite as well in this environment, but
the acoustic/electric mix in position 2 is a
very usable acoustic/electric hybrid.
By design, the Acoustasonic platform is
about much more than simply giving you
some pretty impressive acoustic sounds.
Swap over to your electric rig and the three
shades of that clean magnetic pickup are
equally impressive. There’s a bit more body
and output to the sound compared with
our reference Strat, albeit with a shorter
note decay, and there’s a lot of fun to be had
kicking in various boosts and overdrives.
You could pretty much find a place for
this in anything from old blues to modern
country, or more classic Americana or alt-
rock. We were surprised just how good a
rhythm guitar this is with more crunch and
gain than we’d considered, and that’s before
we add some dirty fuzz or ambient delays
and reverbs. This thing loves effects! It also
sounds great as a really swampy slide guitar.
THE RIVALS
This Strat’s obvious competitor is the
Acoustasonic Telecaster, which is priced
the same. Shape aside, it has less crunch
for the electric voice and the acoustic
sounds are slightly different from those on
the Stratocaster. Conventional acoustic/
electrics typically stay in the analogue
world, mixing an under-saddle piezo or
body/neck sensors with one or more
magnetic electric pickups. Taylor’s T5z
Classic (which has a dealer price of around
£1,900 with gigbag) is a recommended
example. In many cases, via dual outputs,
you can use two amps – one for the
acoustic side, the other for the magnetic.
PRS’s Hollowbody II Piezo allows you to do
exactly that with its PRS/LR Baggs piezo
pickup system, but it’s a more serious
investment with full retail from £4,749.
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
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GIT458.rev_strat.indd 96 19/03/2020 17:12