(guitar music)
- Hey everybody Sean Halley here,
coming to you from Fender Studios.
I'm here to introduce you to
the Acoustasonic Stratocaster.
Which brings the Strat look
and feel to the Acoustasonic line.
And it gives you a bunch of acoustic
and electric personalities in
the same guitar without any fuss,
and it does it brilliantly.
So, before we get any further,
I should tell you about what you just heard.
So basically that tune was the Acoustasonic Strat
into a Reflecting Pool pedal
and it's coming directly out of a Fighter PA speaker.
So eventually we will be listening
to the Deluxe Reverb when we get
into some electric sounds, but pretty much most
of the video is going to be that signal chain.
Guitar, Reflecting Pool Reverb, Fighter PA speaker.
So the guitar, has a ton of technological innovation,
both under the hood and in the wood, if that makes sense.
So, there are three different pickup systems,
so you have a Piezo electric element
underneath the bridge saddle,
you have a body sensing pickup, that picks up
the thump of the Ladder Braced spruce top
and the acoustic body, and then you also have
a Noiseless Pickup for the electric sounds.
So I think it's important to realize that Fender
didn't just take all of the sounds
that exist in the Acoustasonic Tele
and stick them in an Acoustic Strat.
So the entire design of the guitar
has been worked out so that everything works together.
And it's not always the obvious stuff
that is the technological innovations.
For instance, the sound hole is actually patented,
the design of it, so it shows you that
a lot of thought went into making sure that you have
the ultimate experience out of
the Acoustasonic Stratocaster.
So there are hundreds of hours that went into making sure
that this guitar has it's own distinct personality
that's separate from the Acoustasonic Tele.
So when you're controlling all of these sounds,
the traditional Stratocaster controls have been
sort of repurposed to be voicing controls.
So you have a volume knob here, for your volume,
you have a mod knob here, to switch between
the two models that you get in each position.
So in each position of the five-way switch,
you get two distinct guitar personalities
and you can cross fade between them continuously
using this knob, so when you roll it all the way back,
you have your A personality, so to speak,
and when you roll it forward, you get your B personality.
One of the great things about this system,
is that the personalities are never static,
meaning you can cross fade between them continuously.
So a little bit of A mixed in with B sounds very different
that a little bit of B mixed in with A.
And anywhere in between, you have tons and tons
of different tones available
with a very simple set of controls.
So one of the things I really like about this guitar,
is that it is really easy to play,
it plays like a Stratocaster.
So if you're a player that is more used
to playing electric instruments than acoustic instruments,
this thing is absolutely right up your alley.
So the body shape, the body contour,
the shape of the neck,
its a Modern C like a normal Stratocaster.
So if you're used to playing electric guitars
but really want to find something that plays
like and electric but sounds like an acoustic
this is absolutely the guitar for you.
So in terms of sounding like an acoustic,
it does make noise by itself.
So unlike a traditional solid body electric guitar,
where you have to plug it in to get much out of it,
you can use this for songwriting, for playing,
for noodling on the couch, and it will give you far more,
acoustically, than an electric guitar, traditionally would.
All right so let's hear some more of the guitar.
So I'm gonna go through a 5 positions,
from 5 down to 1, and let you hear all
of the personalities that are in the guitar.
So there's seven acoustic, and three electric
personalities in the guitar.
So, position 5 is at the neck,
position one is down at the bridge.
So we'll start at 5A, 5A is a Dreadnought
with mahogany back and sides and a spruce top,
and 5B is a short scale concert-sized instrument
with slotted headstock and rosewood
back and sides and spruce top.
So you'll absolutely hear the difference,
between a large guitar going to a small guitar.
And I will probably play differently
when I hear different sounds coming out.
And then I'll blend them together
to show you what they sound like.
(playing guitar)
- Okay, so let's move into position 4.
So in position 4A you get a short scale
small-body guitar with walnut back and sides.
And in 4B, where you get an Americana Dreadnought
with mahogany back and sides and a spruce top.
And position 4B.
(playing guitar)
- All right, now let's move to position 3,
which is my favorite guitar in this collection,
it's a Dreadnought with East Indian rosewood back and sides
and then B actually rolls in the body-sensing pickup.
So if you go to 3, and I tap on the top
(taps)
- Not much going on, but if I roll B on,
(resonant taps)
- You can see that it really is
a really nice ladder-braced spruce top, which's great.
So let's start in A and then move to B.
(playing guitar)
- And now we'll add in B.
(playing guitar)
- So let's move into position 2,
which is a hybrid position because guitar A
is a Dreadnought with Indian rosewood back and sides,
but guitar B is actually just the electric pickup alone.
So this is the clean setting,
there's 3 electric settings on the guitar.
Now traditionally, what I would probably do
is switch to the Deluxe to show you the electric setting,
but I'm not gonna to that at first,
so I'm gonna show you position 2 right through
the PA so you can see just how usable
the electric sound is even without a traditional guitar amp.
So, I'm just gonna roll into them as I go.
(playing guitar)
- All right so now we'll go into position 1,
which is all about the electric.
So position 1A is a semi-clean guitar,
so it's got a little bit of hair on it,
and then position 1B actually
has a fair amount of hair on it.
So I'm still gonna stay on the PA speaker,
so you can hear what it sounds like right through the PA
and then we'll switch to the Deluxe after this
to show you what the electric pickups sound like
through an electric guitar amp.
Here's 1A.
(playing guitar)
- All right, let's switch over to the Deluxe
so you can see what these three electric pickups
sound like through a guitar amp instead of the PA.
All right so now we're plugged into the Deluxe Reverb
we've moved away from the PA sounds,
let's listen to those same three electric guitar pickups,
this time through the Deluxe Reverb.
So we're gonna start with 2B, which is
the clean, classic, Fender clean, Strat sound.
(playing guitar)
- 1A which is semi-clean.
(playing guitar)
- And finally, 1B which is the dirty electric sound.
(playing guitar)
- So you can see the guitar works really well both through
a traditional electric guitar amp
and also straight through the PA.
So hopefully this gives you an idea of just how cool
the Acoustasonic Strat really is,
it has an organic personality because it is an acoustic
instrument but it plays like an electric guitar does.
So it should feel very familiar to any of you
that are used to playing a traditional Stratocaster.
If you need more information, check out fender.com
for all the information about woods
and all that kind of stuff and all the great technology
that went into making the guitar.
And then when you know everything you need to know,
go to a dealer and check one out for yourself,
I think you'd be pretty impressed.
So thanks very much for your time,
and I will see you again, cheers.
(playing guitar)