Acoustasonic Player (MIM) Review

[gr81dorn]

I've been intrigued by the Acoustasonic series guitars since their introduction. In theory, the ability to get a great plugged-in acoustic sound with the comfortable playability and familiarity of a tele (or strat, jm, etc) is super exciting to me. I have amazing instruments and even with amazing pickup systems, the nuances and character are lost to some degree. If a guitar can reasonably present a great acoustic sound but it can be in the form factor of a tele, I'd definitely favor that.

The USA models, even with most folks selling them as "b stocks" and such for $1500ish didn't get me too excited because it still felt like way too much for what it was/is.

When the MIM versions were announced a month or two ago, it was certainly more intriguing. Then, when the first wave of video reviews came out and seemed to show that they didn't compromise almost anything from a material or construction standpoint and the only really downgrade being a paired down electronics package that offered a few less voices and didn't rely on a rechargeable battery - that seemed like a no-brainer to give a MIM Player version a try.

Well, without getting too deep into the details....I couldn't be more disappointed in the sound. The playability and feel is what I expected and is really easy and fun to play from that standpoint. Plugged in, where I was hoping this would shine bright, it is just rotten sounding at all positions in my opinion.

I have a simple PA with a mixer and speakers and I also have a nice Schertler Jam acoustic amp (can function as a solo gig PA). It sounds awful in both.

The electric positions are janky sounding with no pleasing character. When plugged into my electric rig, it gives me nothing I like at all. I had ZERO expectations of liking the electric sounds, nor did I have an intentions of using that feature set, so I don't really care, but they don't sound good to me at all.

The middle position (they call it low-fi) is kinda funky and could be a fun thing to monkey with. It kinda gets a sound that I would agree feels low-fi - almost like a danelectro plugged right into an amp or something. I don't think it sounds or feels like an overly quacky acoustic pickup sound like some reviews showed. It was neither acoustic nor electric sounding to me...sort in a weird space in between where I can't see a use for it practically, but I'm sure you can get creative with it.

The acoustic positions are just awful sounding to me. They don't sound like a real acoustic at all. When rolling one way you get a big dread sound, the other way a smaller acoustic sound. While there is an appreciable difference that I think is fair to say simulates the differences in those wood complements and body sizes, neither sound real at all to me.

Wondering if I was just being a cynic, I pulled out my best and worst acoustic guitars with pickups to do some comparison and it's not even close. A cheap laminate guitar with a Sonitone sounded way fuller and more realistic. My good guitars with K&K and Schattens sounded like a bazillion dollars compared. There's just something completely inauthentic to the Aoustasonic sound that is glaring when you compare it to real acoustics.

Whatever EQ tricks or playing techniques I tried, I just can't get a good sound out of the Acoustasonic, nothing pleasing at all.

I'm sorta shocked and disappointed. I thought this would become my main acoustic church guitar for sure. Plug it into a big system and get really good, usable acoustic sounds and then have the luxury of the playability, stability, etc. I won't even bother. The trade-off isn;t worth the bad, inauthentic feel/tone.

I realize MOST of the reviews on YouTube are from dealers who wanna sell these or people paid to give a report, but I really believed that these were gonna get me into having an Acoustasonic and loving it, but it just reinforced that you can't fake acoustic tones, you just can't.

I'm sure there are a bunch of folks who just got theirs and feel the opposite and this thing will change their life and gigs forever, but I just can't get a single pleasant tone out of it and I am sure it's just not for me.

[jimmy bookout]

Do the MIM and U.S. guitars have the same pickups/wiring,etc?

[gr81dorn]

Originally Posted by jimmy bookout

Do the MIM and U.S. guitars have the same pickups/wiring,etc?

No. That is the primary difference, though it is mainly about the qunatity of the sounds available, not the quality.

The USA one has a 5 way switch and each position is 2 voices that can be belended, so 10 options on the USA ones, 6 on the MIM one and I believe they just sorta picked the 6 favorites (or at least broadest set) for the MIM.

[SoggyBottomBoy]

I tried the MIM Acoustasonic in a GC for 30 minutes -- all the positions, all the sounds. I was ready to buy and I walked out empty handed.

My test is a few upper register double stops -- nothing brings out the shrill and the quack for me like a partial E chord in the upper register.

Yep, the Acoustasonic is a great idea that's poorly executed.

If you really wanted this kind of thing, I'd recommend the Godin A6 and you'll probably end up using the darn humbucking pickup anyway.

Back to my "old" acoustic...

[DownUpDave]

I don’t mean to come off as a “smart alec” but it appears that the difference in pick up systems could be the reason you don’t like the sound. Have you played the more expensive Made in America model? Sometimes a little bit different can move something from yuck to yes

[RonD]

Sorry to hear that the MIM Acoustasonic didn't meet your expectations. I've had the American Strat version for the better part of a year and it's become my main gigging guitar. It has taken me some tweaking to get it to a tone I'm digging, but I've also found that running it straight into my PA (or an acoustic amp) with some minor EQ adjustments works pretty well. I play in a duo, and cover all of our lead parts, etc. so while not truly sounding "acoustic-like", it does play/sit well against another "real" acoustic and gives me a good amount of variety of tones. If/when I play solo then I usually play my Martin 000-18, which I feel adds more depth to my sound. I also feel like I can dig-in a little more with my strumming/picking attack on my real acoustic.

The promo video for the MIM mention that they do not have the body sensor pick-up. Additionally, the acoustic sounds/models in the MIM are no longer trying to be exactly "true" to certain "holy grail" acoustic guitars, but are more tuned to what Fender felt would be a "great acoustic" sound for this guitar. With that in mind, it would seem that their idea of what a good acoustic sound isn't going to work for you. Go to the 4:45 mark in this video where they state this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmiYSS6rGk8

[Chriscom]

I've probably said this before, but another guitar with something like the capability you're looking for is the PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo. Also busting your budget at $1599, but it may be an option for others.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...o-peacock-blue

It's a defeatured version of their Hollowbody II, but I've heard it live. Its acoustic tone is plausible, and the greaty varieties of electric tones (Igather that's not your interest) are incredible. The main feature I'd miss is a switch that selects between Piezo and electric, but the full version runs over $6,000.

[M19]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

I've probably said this before, but another guitar with something like the capability you're looking for is the PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo. Also busting your budget at $1599, but it may be an option for others.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...o-peacock-blue

It's a defeatured version of their Hollowbody II, but I've heard it live. Its acoustic tone is plausible, and the greaty varieties of electric tones (Igather that's not your interest) are incredible. The main feature I'd miss is a switch that selects between Piezo and electric, but the full version runs over $6,000.

You need two outputs regardless. I have mine like: Piezo out direct to the PA; and Humbuckers thought an effects box (in my case a Zoom G3) then to the PA. You get one or the other, or a blend, using the volume knobs on the guitar. IMO, this guitar is for someone who wants some occasional "acoustic" tones from their electric, not the other way around.

That Sweetwater price is good too, I only got 10% off list on mine last year.

[jricc]

Originally Posted by gr81dorn

I've been intrigued by the Acoustasonic series guitars since their introduction. In theory, the ability to get a great plugged-in acoustic sound with the comfortable playability and familiarity of a tele (or strat, jm, etc) is super exciting to me. I have amazing instruments and even with amazing pickup systems, the nuances and character are lost to some degree. If a guitar can reasonably present a great acoustic sound but it can be in the form factor of a tele, I'd definitely favor that.

The USA models, even with most folks selling them as "b stocks" and such for $1500ish didn't get me too excited because it still felt like way too much for what it was/is.

When the MIM versions were announced a month or two ago, it was certainly more intriguing. Then, when the first wave of video reviews came out and seemed to show that they didn't compromise almost anything from a material or construction standpoint and the only really downgrade being a paired down electronics package that offered a few less voices and didn't rely on a rechargeable battery - that seemed like a no-brainer to give a MIM Player version a try.

Well, without getting too deep into the details....I couldn't be more disappointed in the sound. The playability and feel is what I expected and is really easy and fun to play from that standpoint. Plugged in, where I was hoping this would shine bright, it is just rotten sounding at all positions in my opinion.

I have a simple PA with a mixer and speakers and I also have a nice Schertler Jam acoustic amp (can function as a solo gig PA). It sounds awful in both.

The electric positions are janky sounding with no pleasing character. When plugged into my electric rig, it gives me nothing I like at all. I had ZERO expectations of liking the electric sounds, nor did I have an intentions of using that feature set, so I don't really care, but they don't sound good to me at all.

The middle position (they call it low-fi) is kinda funky and could be a fun thing to monkey with. It kinda gets a sound that I would agree feels low-fi - almost like a danelectro plugged right into an amp or something. I don't think it sounds or feels like an overly quacky acoustic pickup sound like some reviews showed. It was neither acoustic nor electric sounding to me...sort in a weird space in between where I can't see a use for it practically, but I'm sure you can get creative with it.

The acoustic positions are just awful sounding to me. They don't sound like a real acoustic at all. When rolling one way you get a big dread sound, the other way a smaller acoustic sound. While there is an appreciable difference that I think is fair to say simulates the differences in those wood complements and body sizes, neither sound real at all to me.

Wondering if I was just being a cynic, I pulled out my best and worst acoustic guitars with pickups to do some comparison and it's not even close. A cheap laminate guitar with a Sonitone sounded way fuller and more realistic. My good guitars with K&K and Schattens sounded like a bazillion dollars compared. There's just something completely inauthentic to the Aoustasonic sound that is glaring when you compare it to real acoustics.

Whatever EQ tricks or playing techniques I tried, I just can't get a good sound out of the Acoustasonic, nothing pleasing at all.

I'm sorta shocked and disappointed. I thought this would become my main acoustic church guitar for sure. Plug it into a big system and get really good, usable acoustic sounds and then have the luxury of the playability, stability, etc. I won't even bother. The trade-off isn;t worth the bad, inauthentic feel/tone.

I realize MOST of the reviews on YouTube are from dealers who wanna sell these or people paid to give a report, but I really believed that these were gonna get me into having an Acoustasonic and loving it, but it just reinforced that you can't fake acoustic tones, you just can't.

I'm sure there are a bunch of folks who just got theirs and feel the opposite and this thing will change their life and gigs forever, but I just can't get a single pleasant tone out of it and I am sure it's just not for me.

Thanks for your honest and informative review gr81dorn. I was thinking about one of these down the line...
I have a Yamaha AEX500 hybrid, f holes etc with a piezo bridge and mini humbucker at the neck. It has a blend pot and 3 band eq and the piezo is hot and stringy, but with the blend, you can get some nice tones. Guess i won't be replacing that...

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by jimmy bookout

Do the MIM and U.S. guitars have the same pickups/wiring,etc?

The cheaper guitar has the Fishman Sonitone undersaddle pickup, as opposed to the Matrix UST in the USA guitar. The USA guitar also has a soundboard pickup in addition to the UST and the mag. Reviewers have often noted that their favorite Acoustasonic sound is a blend of the processed UST signal and the SBT signal.

It's interesting to note that the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster model also has a switch setting for dry UST signal and overdriven UST signal. Since the USA made Jazzmaster presumably has the Matrix UST in it, it would be very interesting to experiment using it's dry Matrix signal and the many different sound images in the Aura Spectrum pedal.

[arwhite]

Mine is out for delivery on the Fedex truck so I'll know soon if I feel the same as the OP. Will report back in a day or two.

[Cuki79]

Can you guys who own one remove the back plate and take a picture of the electronic board?

If we find a DSP it means it is still Uses Aura technology.

[arwhite]

Originally Posted by arwhite

Mine is out for delivery on the Fedex truck so I'll know soon if I feel the same as the OP. Will report back in a day or two.

It got delivered late yesterday so I didn't have much time with it last night and I've only plugged it into my Fender Acoustic Jr amp this morning, but here are my first impressions:

- Build quality is excellent. Not a flaw on it that I've found though I don't generally go over them with a fine toothed comb.

- Playability out of the box is good. I don't see the need to make any adjustments at this time.

- Like I said, I've only plugged it into my Acoustic Jr amp, but I like the tones I'm getting out of it. I'm finding usable tones in every switch and blend position.

- The unplugged acoustic tone is better than I expected. Obviously, not going to get a lot of volume out of such a thin body, but it's not what I would call thin sounding. I've probably played it more acoustically so far than plugged in and I don't hate it.

I'll try it with my Fender Super Champ and pedals and my Mustang Micro headphone amp over the next couple days and will report back on that later.

Keep in mind I have no particular goal with this guitar. I play for fun and generally enjoy seeing what different guitars can do to put a smile on my face. I see some potential with this one.

12/9/21 UDPDATE: I had an opportunity to try it out with my Super Champ and my Mustang Micro. I much prefer it through the Acoustic Jr vs either of the electric amps. I was able to find some decent tones with the Mustang. I doubt I ever plug it into the Super Champ again. It didn't sound terrible through the SC just unremarkable.

I'm digging the guitar, but I'm fairly easy to please when it comes to this stuff.

12/15/21 FINAL UPDATE: I like it. I'm keeping it. Cool and fun guitar.

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by arwhite

It got delivered late yesterday so I didn't have much time with it last night and I've only plugged it into my Fender Acoustic Jr amp this morning, but here are my first impressions:

- Build quality is excellent. Not a flaw on it that I've found though I don't generally go over them with a fine toothed comb.

- Playability out of the box is good. I don't see the need to make any adjustments at this time.

- Like I said, I've only plugged it into my Acoustic Jr amp, but I like the tones I'm getting out of it. I'm finding usable tones in every switch and blend position.

- The unplugged acoustic tone is better than I expected. Obviously, not going to get a lot of volume out of such a thin body, but it's not what I would call thin sounding. I've probably played it more acoustically so far than plugged in and I don't hate it.

I'll try it with my Fender Super Champ and pedals and my Mustang Micro headphone amp over the next couple days and will report back on that later.

Keep in mind I have no particular goal with this guitar. I play for fun and generally enjoy seeing what different guitars can do to put a smile on my face. I see some potential with this one.

UDPDATE: I had an opportunity to try it out with my Super Champ and my Mustang Micro. I much prefer it through the Acoustic Jr vs either of the electric amps. I was able to find some decent tones with the Mustang. I doubt I ever plug it into the Super Champ again. It didn't sound terrible through the SC just unremarkable.

I'm digging the guitar, but I'm fairly easy to please when it comes to this stuff.

Since the Acoustasonic series guitars are designed to be good modeling platforms, it might be fun to try out the dry piezo signal (switch 2, position A) with an Aura Spectrum or some other device that provides IR files which can be used to model various sized acoustic guitars.

[JimT]

Originally Posted by gr81dorn

I've been intrigued by the Acoustasonic series guitars since their introduction. In theory, the ability to get a great plugged-in acoustic sound with the comfortable playability and familiarity of a tele (or strat, jm, etc) is super exciting to me. I have amazing instruments and even with amazing pickup systems, the nuances and character are lost to some degree. If a guitar can reasonably present a great acoustic sound but it can be in the form factor of a tele, I'd definitely favor that.

The USA models, even with most folks selling them as "b stocks" and such for $1500ish didn't get me too excited because it still felt like way too much for what it was/is.

When the MIM versions were announced a month or two ago, it was certainly more intriguing. Then, when the first wave of video reviews came out and seemed to show that they didn't compromise almost anything from a material or construction standpoint and the only really downgrade being a paired down electronics package that offered a few less voices and didn't rely on a rechargeable battery - that seemed like a no-brainer to give a MIM Player version a try.

Well, without getting too deep into the details....I couldn't be more disappointed in the sound. The playability and feel is what I expected and is really easy and fun to play from that standpoint. Plugged in, where I was hoping this would shine bright, it is just rotten sounding at all positions in my opinion.

I have a simple PA with a mixer and speakers and I also have a nice Schertler Jam acoustic amp (can function as a solo gig PA). It sounds awful in both.

The electric positions are janky sounding with no pleasing character. When plugged into my electric rig, it gives me nothing I like at all. I had ZERO expectations of liking the electric sounds, nor did I have an intentions of using that feature set, so I don't really care, but they don't sound good to me at all.

The middle position (they call it low-fi) is kinda funky and could be a fun thing to monkey with. It kinda gets a sound that I would agree feels low-fi - almost like a danelectro plugged right into an amp or something. I don't think it sounds or feels like an overly quacky acoustic pickup sound like some reviews showed. It was neither acoustic nor electric sounding to me...sort in a weird space in between where I can't see a use for it practically, but I'm sure you can get creative with it.

The acoustic positions are just awful sounding to me. They don't sound like a real acoustic at all. When rolling one way you get a big dread sound, the other way a smaller acoustic sound. While there is an appreciable difference that I think is fair to say simulates the differences in those wood complements and body sizes, neither sound real at all to me.

Wondering if I was just being a cynic, I pulled out my best and worst acoustic guitars with pickups to do some comparison and it's not even close. A cheap laminate guitar with a Sonitone sounded way fuller and more realistic. My good guitars with K&K and Schattens sounded like a bazillion dollars compared. There's just something completely inauthentic to the Aoustasonic sound that is glaring when you compare it to real acoustics.

Whatever EQ tricks or playing techniques I tried, I just can't get a good sound out of the Acoustasonic, nothing pleasing at all.

I'm sorta shocked and disappointed. I thought this would become my main acoustic church guitar for sure. Plug it into a big system and get really good, usable acoustic sounds and then have the luxury of the playability, stability, etc. I won't even bother. The trade-off isn;t worth the bad, inauthentic feel/tone.

I realize MOST of the reviews on YouTube are from dealers who wanna sell these or people paid to give a report, but I really believed that these were gonna get me into having an Acoustasonic and loving it, but it just reinforced that you can't fake acoustic tones, you just can't.

I'm sure there are a bunch of folks who just got theirs and feel the opposite and this thing will change their life and gigs forever, but I just can't get a single pleasant tone out of it and I am sure it's just not for me.

I have the American made Acoustasonic Tele, and as a long time acoustic player it took a long time to get used to it. I didn’t think it sounded as good as my acoustics when I was playing it, but when I recorded it and my other acoustic/electrics plugged in (Martin, Breedlove) I found that the Fender sounded as good or better when I played the recordings back.

It was perplexing, until I realized that I was hearing the strings while playing and it was throwing off what I was hearing. I turned my amp up so I wouldn’t hear them so prominently, and like magic the Acoustasonic sounded great to me. It is now my most played guitar, and I gig with it with my Celtic band. It is great for gigging because it has a very clean sound, and no feedback ever.