Fender American Acoustasonic Stratocaster - Black Review

Absolutely Great

Admittedly expensive but a great "acoustic" guitar for electric guitarists, especially Fender people. Came perfectly set up from Fender and is the most playable acoustic I have ever used. The variety of sound options was nicely chosen by Fender, with even the most 'electric' sounds on #1 setting just barely and pleasantly crunched. It is not intended or especially useful for… read more heavier distortion. Such a pleasure to not have to mess around with proximity mics or jimmy-rigged internal mics. Light weight is a bonus but it still seems well built. The .011 strings with much lower string height than average acoustics are so much more playable than true acoustic set-ups. Thinner Fender neck is perfect for me. Bends are much easier than on acoustics. The "GigBag" is a good one, but considering the value (and since it doesn't fit in my other fender cases), it absolutely should come with some kind of more rigid and protective carry case. I appreciate SW's 55-point inspection process to weed out defective or damaged instruments, but I'm always anxious to order expensive large items online. And true to form SW's regular shipping co. beat the crap out of the box (as they often do with large items), leaving it out in the rain and snow 50' from my covered porch with an 8" hole in the thinner outer cardboard a few inches from a large "FRAGILE" warning. Thankfully, the manufacturer's Fender box was thicker, intact, well supported and robust and the Gig Bag inside was well padded, pretty water resistant and zipped closed. After waiting the prescribed 24 hours to open, I thankfully found the guitar in good shape. This item and a synth I purchased from Sweetwater were both abused badly by SW's regular shipping company. Signing for delivery is not an option for me with work and all during the day, and the shipping repository is 20 miles away in an auto parts store. SW's outer box packaging was not great considering the expense of these instruments, with thin cardboard with no additional padding and sloppy, inadequate taping on the ends. SW really needs to find higher quality outer cardboard packaging for these larger and very pricey instruments and keyboards. Oddly, smaller, inexpensive items I have purchased are typically very well packaged and are always placed on my porch or at my door. Batteries are always a pain but it is lasting a week or more though it took 6+ hours to first charge. The charging cord is about 10' long (an unusually thoughtful decision by Fender) but you'll have to buy an A/C plug adapter for $ which it should have come with. After a month of use, I absolutely love this guitar for its form factor and outstanding variety of acoustic sounds particularly if enhanced with a good reverb. It is clearly designed for an acoustic amp, but an electric amp on clean is okay, too, and you can go direct to a mixer and PA (if you have a good dedicated reverb). Playability is very close to my preferred electric Strats, allowing use of more 'electric' fingering techniques, and the black color looks great (although I was tempted by the natural). The online photos were very helpful to be able to choose the face color, wood grain, darkness of the wood stain coloration and fretboard variations, greatly appreciated. 20+ YouTube videos also helped confirm my choice.

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My favorite guitar

I own a lot of cool guitars including Gibson, Martin, Larivee, Godin, Parker, Emerald. I will hang on to them forever since each is special in its own way. But this is the one I play the most. If I could only have one, this is it, no question. Playability is great. Size and weight are so friendly. Unamped - good enough for practice and around the house. Amped - Leo Kottke tones,… read more SRV too. Leave it out all the time, pick it up and play it. As simple as that.

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My new favorite acoustic

It took me a year to pull the trigger on this one after watching and reading tons of reviews, I decided to call Sweetwater and talk to Aaron and asked him to pick one out for me and ship it. This guitar plays like a Strat, sounds like a Strat and has loads of really nice acoustic sounds. This guitar is very easy to play and sounds great straight into a PA. I have three other acoustic… read more guitars, Ovation, Taylor and PRS that I've gigged with, this one will replace them all. Totally worth the price tag.

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Perfect

After replacing the strings with some lighter gage ones, this has become my favorite guitar. Love it!

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Fender Acoustasonic Stratocaster - Home Run !

I watched all the videos and read all the reviews and decided to get one. Fender hit a home run with this guitar, it plays and sounds fantastic. Special shout out to my Sales Engineer Aaron Smith, he is the best !

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