Last night, Tess and I did our first gig together. Just me on guitar and her on vocals, and a very warm and generous crowd at the club we played at.
What Gear Did You Take?
I took:
- my Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster,
- TC Electronic Polytune clip-on tuner
- an instrument cable
- some spare picks
- and the Acus One 8 amp
Did All The Gear Get Used?
Nope. The amp wasn’t needed at all. I was able to plug straight into the PA.
What Did It Sound Like?
Through the wedges on stage? Very bassy and boomy. I couldn’t really hear the top 3 strings at all. Not sure if that was down to the monitors, the EQ from the desk, or simply being drowned out by the vocals. On the plus side, I couldn’t hear all of my mistakes …
I’m told it sounded good – not great – out in the audience. Apparently, it wasn’t a ‘wow’ level of tone. I’m guessing it sounded pretty similar to what you’ve probably heard on various Acoustasonic demos off of YouTube.
Any Problems With The Guitar?
None at all. Nothing came loose (phew). I’ll check the guitar over again before our next gig, and pre-emptively tighten everything up to keep it that way.
What Was The Reaction To The Guitar?
The audience was largely filled with other musicians, and there was definitely some interest in learning more about the Acoustasonic Tele. No-one asked me what it was; it seemed that everyone was aware of it. Fender’s marketing team deserve a pat on the back for that, I’d say.
Any Lessons From The Gig?
There were a few 🙂
The group on stage before us were an acoustic 3-piece, and I was properly jealous of their bass and percussion. Just an acoustic bass, hand-drum and single cymbal, but my word – what a difference it made having those.
The Acoustasonic Tele’s DI sound isn’t good value for money. Take an equivalently-priced electro-acoustic, and there’s no competition. Heck, I’m not even sure that it’d beat my wife’s PRS SE acoustic, and you can buy those for half the price of the Acoustasonic Tele.
If you’re going DI, it needs some help. I’ll be using my Acus One 8 for that at the next gig.
And, of course, as a monitor so that I can hear all my mistakes 🙂
Now I’m even more interested about feedback, read your other blog first. I gig with a Godin A6 Ultra plugged into a Boss AD-10 DI Box with two signals out (one to the board/PA, the other to my monitor/Fishman-Loudbox-Performer). The A6 is great at managing feedback, I’m looking to change to the Acoustasonic Telecaster but not if there are feedback issues, dealt with that already and I don’t want to take a step back. I don’t like the complexity of the A6’s EQ (seven knobs/variables, ugh!) and I anticipate that I will prefer the simplicity of the Acoustasonic’s EQ.
The Acoustasonic’s EQ couldn’t be simpler – there is none 🙂
I’ve had my acoustasonic tele for several weeks.
I brought it to church to play in our band. At first I just brought it to rehearsal to see how it performed. Plugging it in directly to the PA did not produce the desired sound. It was thin and boxy.
At home, after trying a couple of amps, I had settled on the Roland AC 60. The guitar sound really came to life then. My two favorite settings being 4B and 3A.
So I took the AC 60 with me to church plugged into it and went direct out into the pa.
On the stage with the amp at my feet I turned the master up just enough to be equal in sound level of the existing monitor. The sound was 100% better. And quite usable.
I also discovered that setting 2 worked very well with the blend knob right in the middle. I got good unsolicited feedback from listeners afterwards.
BTW, I just found your site and I really like it’s honesty.