Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster
Now, where were we? Ah, yes, recording. Thanks to our production deadlines, I was halfway through working on a demo track and our art editor – he who must be obeyed – recalled this Acoustasonic Jazzmaster back to our photo studio. Pronto. Then there were video demos to be done. While that’s the same in every issue, it left me with a half-finished acoustic bed and some rather rattled band members.
As many of us have found over these past months, recording ain’t what it used to be. Back in the day, the suggestion of “Let’s try some acoustics…” would have had me and our band leader/guitarist blowing the dust off whatever acoustic-shaped things there were in the studio. “Anyone got a capo? What’s that chord in the middle section?” Then, with some diligent work from our engineer/producer, we cobbled together a pair of acoustics that sounded way better in the track than they did while we were strumming away in person. Then we went down the pub, convinced we had a hit on our hands.
Working as an engineer back in the days of reel-to-reel tape machines, when a DAW
“I’m hearing the sort of acoustic sounds our engineer would have heard after careful mic’ing and EQ”
was something you opened and shut, my job was to try to make a motley collection of musicians with their motley collection of instruments sound half decent. As ever, if you managed to produce a half-decent recording at the end of an arduous eight-hour session, the band thought they were great. If the results were less than spectacular, the studio was rubbish and the engineer was deaf.
With the Acoustasonic returned, it’s just another example of how things have changed. Simply running the Acoustasonic, via Helix, straight into GarageBand on my laptop, I’m hearing the sort of acoustic sounds our engineer/producer would have heard after his careful mic’ing and EQ had made our crusty instruments sound presentable. I’m not saying that the Acoustasonic would replace a good-sounding, nicely played and nicely mic’d acoustic guitar, but for this simple plug-inand-play route, it sounds way more realistic than any other piezo-equipped instruments I have access to. It’s also so fast to work with.
With the acoustic bed finally finished, the Acoustasonic isn’t. A quick thought that a slide part would help the chorus is realised by a simple flick to the bridge magnetic pickup and a change of patch on my Helix. I haven’t got off my chair, let alone changed guitars, amps or pedals. Job done.
Except now the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster takes me on a journey back to one of my favourite bottleneck pioneers, Elmore James. Classic reference tracks such as Dust My
Broom inspired many Brits in the early days of the blues explosion. Those simple licks combined with a raw yet urgent performance were, I believe, recorded on an acoustic guitar with a magnetic pickup stuck on. Somewhere, I have a cheapo acoustic that I modified like that, which – as I remember – was awful to play and next to impossible to control at any volume. It takes me a while to locate this forgotten piece of my playing history (pictured above), but when I do, it’s pretty laughable. Did I really play it in front of a paying audience?
Now, the Acoustasonic doesn’t look like a rootsy blues slide guitar that the likes of Seasick Steve would attack, and I don’t recall any Fender videos referencing slide guitar players with their Acoustasonics, but they might have missed a trick: it’s a seriously good acoustic-based slide guitar and so much easier to use than the real thing. Man, if only Elmore had used one of these!
It simply illustrates the scope of this guitar, open tuned, with or without that slide. And, frankly, with no outboard help I can go from pretty acoustics to dirty blues wails – and the ability to bring in a little more or less crunch just adds to the fun. Then I make the mistake of tuning from open E to open G and slip into my Keef comfort zone. Street Fighting Man never sounded so like the original’s distorted acoustics! See, guys such as Elmore and Keef have been blurring the lines between the acoustic and the electric guitar for years. The Acoustasonic does it for you – effortlessly.