After Strat and Tele versions, Fender’s bold idea to blend acoustic and electric guitar into one versatile instrument reaches its final form with the Jazzmaster. But is it any good?
Disclaimer: This content was sponsored by Fender. They sent me this instrument to use in my studio and I got to keep it as compensation for my efforts. However the company has no say in the things I mention in the video/post nor do they get to see it before it is released..
Unboxing And First Impressions
Unboxing the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster was nerve wracking. Not because I was afraid it had been damaged, but because I really didn’t know how I would feel about it. At least we were off to a good start with a very solid gigbag the guitar comes with.
After a quick tune-up, I played my first chords on the instrument and one thing was sure: it’s not a traditional acoustic guitar. It’s way quieter than your traditional dreadnaught and has acoustic guitar strings on it, yet it also feels a bit like an electric guitar as well.
The guitar sits great in my lap and feels made as well. We’re off to a great start.
What Is Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster?
Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is an interesting blend of electric and acoustic guitars with the overall design leaning more towards an acoustic guitar. I personally consider Acoustasonic more as an acoustic guitar because it has a sound hole, it’s hollow inside, and you can have a lot of fun playing it acoustically.
It’s not as loud acoustically as your dreadnought guitar would be, but it’s a lot of fun playing unplugged.
There are three pickups on the guitar: There’s a piezo pickup, a body sensor pickup, and a Tim Shawn-designed humbucker as well. Using the voice selector and the blend knob, you can create a huge amount of different tones from acoustic guitar sounds to driven humbucker sounds.
The guitar is made in the US and feels well-made. To put it to the test and find out whether it’s good for worship, I recorded a full track using just the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster. (you can hear the track in the video above)
Recording With Acoustasonic Jazzmaster
I first tried to record the Acoustasonic as a traditional electric guitar. Running the Acoustasonic through my REVV D20 amp didn’t sound that good, even though the amp was set on a clean setting, and I was using just the bridge humbucker.
I also didn’t enjoy how it sounded with my drive pedals on my pedalboard. None of my ‘transparent overdrives’ worked with it at all, so it was time to change my approach.
Instead of trying to force the guitar to work as a traditional electric or acoustic guitar, I decided to just plug it directly into my audio interface and see what happens.
And after doing that, the idea of this instrument started to make a lot more sense.
What The Acoustasonic Series Is Actually About?
To me, Acoustasonic guitars are meant to be a collection of electric and acoustic guitar tones that are designed to sit well in the mix. Once I figured that out, the whole Acoustasonic range of guitars started to make more sense to me, and I started getting inspired by the tones I got from the instrument.
Using The Acoustasonic For Worship Song Production
With a fresh approach to this guitar, I dove right into producing the track and discovering what the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster could do. I already had a solid foundation with drums and bass guitar going on, so all I had to do was to layer the guitar tracks and see what happens.
Different acoustic guitar sounds worked like a charm, which wasn’t a huge surprise. I also ran the guitar through some delay and reverb pedals for more ‘worshippy’ lead lines with great results. There are some unique sounds to be discovered with the bridge humbucker on almost-clean sounds which again made layering the tracks easier.
Some of the higher gain sounded a bit buzzy to me. But those were easily fixed with some low pass filtering. In a blind test, you would never guess that track was recorded using an acoustic guitar with a humbucker in it.
Does the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster Make Any Sense?
In all honesty, this is one of the strangest guitars I have had in my studio. The build quality is great, it’s a super fun couch guitar to have, and I could easily replace my acoustic guitar with it for every recording session I have.
But I can’t shake off the counterargument where you could use the same money you would pay for an Acoustasonic Jazzmaster and buy a very good electric and acoustic guitar with it. I’m sure there are people who will absolutely love it, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And based on everything I know about the Acoustasonic sales, Fender has sold a load of these guitars.
So, the only thing for this grumpy reviewer is to go outside and yell at the clouds again.
If you’re interested in acquiring any of the gear mentioned here and support what I do, you can use the affiliate links here:
►►Shop Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster here: https://www.thomann.de/intl/fender_am_acoustasonic_jazzmaster_tu.htm?offid=1&affid=394
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