[MUSIC PLAYING]
BILLY MARTINEZ: When we started this project three-and-a-half
years ago, the idea was, how can we change the landscape of what
an acoustic electric can be?
We had high expectations and hopes.
What we found was it took off rather quickly
to the point to where we've actually
had to expand our final assembly room three times
the amount of what we started with.
When you launch a new product like this that's so innovative
and that is so outside the norm, you always
hope that it'll catch on, and part
of the design elements that went into this guitar
was exactly that.
It was, how do we make this so unique,
have so many variations that you can utilize it with that we can
spread across multiple genres?
That's what's resonated so well with not just consumers,
but with artists out there that are
standing in line waiting to get their hands on one of these.
It allows some major flexibility within your live performance,
within studio.
People are finding unique ways to use this.
How can you utilize this to fit with what your art is?
Today we're going to walk you through one of first of three
limited edition Acoustasonics.
The first one that we're going to be launching
is the guitar you see here, which is the cocobolo version.
First and foremost, cocobolo is part of the exotic wood family
that we're going to be using.
So you see here the top super figured, a nice beautiful sap
line that runs through.
The cocobolo would typically be on the back and sides.
The beautiful part about Acoustasonic
is the way that the guitar works,
we actually have the ability to have it forward-facing
so you get more of the aesthetic vibe from it,
and you actually still get the tonal characteristics
of what cocobolo gives you.
The other part that we chose to marry it up with
would be a white limba body, and we also
chose to actually use the same wood combination for the neck.
So when you're marrying up the body and the neck,
you have a cohesive wood meet-up that
actually helps resonate with the overall guitar.
And it looks very, very beautiful.
You get some green lines that you
have-- see running through there,
especially when you get into where the back of the neck is.
One of the other cool features that we chose to use
is the limited edition exotics will
come with a channel-bound neck.
So you see here where typically the fretboard would sit flat
on the neck, we actually channel out the center of the neck
and inset the ebony fretboard into the neck.
Another key feature is the upgraded tuning keys.
You've got black tuning keys, black tusk, nut and saddle.
You've also got the ebony knobs.
The guitar is working truly like an acoustic guitar.
You'll see the sound port-- it's actually working
to help project the sound.
So the specific waterfall design is an actually engineered
feature set that helps what's resonating
within the guitar, helps it actually boost the sound out.
We did not change the electronics on this.
We really wanted to encompass what the electronics do
as you introduce new tonewood.
So acoustic guitars, as you change the tonewoods,
they have different tonal characteristics,
that feeds through when you actually plug it in and play it
through an amp.
Same thing goes for Acoustasonics.
If you were to play the standard model
side by side with an exotic model,
you're actually going to be able to hear
different tonal qualities in each of the settings
that you've got, which is a great key feature.
So it's not just an aesthetic vibe, it actually--
it has tonal characteristics as well.
Really, what cocobolo is going to do
is give it a little bit more of hi-fi sound.
Because it's a harder, more dense wood,
you're going to hear a lot more of the mids
and the highs come through.
The married combination of the cocobolo with the white limba
is definitely going to have a brighter, crisp sound than you
would from the standard offering that we've got,
which is mahogany back inside and spruce.
So it's just going to be a brighter, different sound
than what the standard model actually offers you.
A key feature for us and a major component
was actually hand-selecting the woods that we're using.
We chose to make it limited edition.
It gives us the opportunity to go in and do
the types of things that designers
get to do where you actually get to pull out sets of wood
and visually look at them and look for the characteristics
within the wood grains.
Within the cocobolo, you're going
to see variations of some that will
have the sap line through it, you'll
see some that don't have it but that have
a lot of figuring through it.
But every single one of the limited 250 globally
that we built of these were hand-selected-- not
just the top woods, but the backs and the neck
woods as well.
As we start to build out what we've talked about
as Acoustasonic being a new acoustic electric platform,
really, what we wanted to do is have the opportunity
to elevate what we already came in with as its core offering.
This is one of three exotics that we're
going to launch throughout the rest of this year, which just
give the player, the collector, the consumer just
another variation to say, this is my unique version
of a brand new guitar that is changing the landscape of what
genre-blending looks like.
I'm lucky enough to be a part of this,
and also lucky enough to be able to now go out and search
for that next thing, that next exotic wood,
that next combination which will only
drive Fender's category into new areas which we've never
been before.
[MUSIC PLAYING]