NAMM 2025: A few years ago, Fender CEO Andy Mooney promised MusicRadar that more affordable, Asian-made Acoustasonic acoustic electric guitars were going to happen and he was as good as his word, with the Big F launching the Indonesian-made Standard series – the most affordable version of its groundbreaking hybrid design yet.
As with Fender’s newly launched Standard Series of electric guitars, these new Acoustasonic Standard Telecasters and Jazzmasters are priced $599, and are a considerable signal of intent from the gear giant. Not only are these the most affordable Acoustasonics on the market, it is further evidence that the acoustic-electric hybrid has officially gone mainstream. This was a day some thought might never happen.
Fender tested the water for the Acoustasonic concept in 2010 with a chambered ash-bodied Telecaster that featured both magnetic and under-saddle transducer, before revealing the redesigned Acoustasonic Telecaster in 2019, complete with “donut” soundhole or Stringed Instrument Resonance System (SIRS), launching the model as we know it today.
This radical fusion of electric guitar playability and acoustic guitar design, the super-versatile electronics, the fact that the Telecaster was now effectively refashioned as an acoustic guitar, this was not for the purist. But such was its effectiveness, the concept was soon expanded. There was a Stratocaster, a Jazzmaster too.
In 2021, the Mexican-built Player Series Acoustasonic was launched and retailed for just over a grand. There were all-mahogany versions.
In August 2024, FINNEAS and Fender teamed up for the first-ever signature Acoustasonic. And now? Well, now you can get an Acoustic for $599 it is a guitar that beginner and intermediate players might gravitate towards – and who knows how that will shape how we play the instrument in the future.
As with its more upscale siblings before it, the Standard Acoustasonic presents you with that hybrid feel and sound, with analogue electronics courtesy of Fender’s collaboration with Fishman.
You’ll find a magnetic Acoustasonic Shawbucker electric guitar pickup and an under-saddle Piezo, both hooked up to a Blend control, allowing you to mix and match acoustic Piezo tones and more traditional electric tones to taste, and there’s a master volume control too.
Bodies are fully chambered, with a fully-braced solid Sitka spruce soundboard, nyatoh body, nyatoh necks. The necks are fashioned into a Modern Deep C profile and are bolted to the body. Fender has finished this in satin urethane. And we have rosewood; 12” radius rosewood fingerboards and matching asymmetric bridges.
Both models are available in Black, Aged Natural and Honey Burst, and they look like a chip off the old block.
Priced £549/$599, they are available to pre-order now from retailers and will ship in April. For more details, head over to Fender.
