FENDER HIGHWAY SERIES ACOUSTICS

[BROCKSTAR]

I'm surprised no one had made a post about them here?



I Got one coming! Excited. I'm not much of an acoustic player due to my short dinosaur t-rex arms and fat fingers and not able to hold most of them due to the fat bodies etc.. etc.. However I love the sounds of finger picking acoustics and jazz on acoustic etc.. So I hope this is loud enough unplugged when I wanna just play and watch netflix without plugging in and hopefully sounds great plugged in too! I love the looks of them and the light weight is a plus as well! The one I have coming from sweetwater, just shipped. Maybe get it tomorrow / saturday! Picture is the one I have coming.

 

[Eagle]

It looks interesting but I have never thought a fender headstock goes on an acoustic. The Tele version looks way better.

 

[FuzzyAce]

The Dreadnought version looks interesting. I'd be curious how these sounded with acoustic IRs -- the clips above sound flat and kinda lifeless to be honest.

 

[Foxmeister]

I don't have much love for acoustics - the only one I have is an American Acoustasonic Tele, which I love, but definitely needs to be plugged in.

I ordered a Highway Dreadnought to fill that gap in my arsenal, and it turned up yesterday.

The unplugged acoustic sound is surprisingly loud and quite full considering the thickness of the guitar, and the guitar very much feels like an electric, which was what I was hoping for because I've never been a fan of "regular" acoustics.

The form factor is great compared to a regular dreadnought, which I've always felt were just too big and bulky for my tastes - this is more akin to to an extremely light ES-335.

Compared to my American Acoustasonic Tele, the build quality is really good - i actually preferred the look of the spruce topped model, but I was able to get this for £100 less, which definitely made a difference in my purchasing decision.

I only got a chance to plug it in today, using my Tone Master Pro and FR-12, and I think it sounds really good - much better than any of the piezo equipped acoustics I've owned in the past, but not quite as good as my Acoustasonic Tele with all its DSP-based wizardry.

It may well benefit from using a decent acoustic IR, but definitely doesn't need one in the same way that I think piezo acoustics do.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

It looks great

Mine is out for delivery right now! Hope I'm not disappointed!

 

[BROCKSTAR]

Mine just showed up! But I'm gonna give it a hour or so before opening since it's been on truck for 2 days and it was chilly.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

It's here! Looks great in person and light weight like around 5 pounds or so, action little higher than I like so may need to tweak or may be the nature of "acoustic" but we'll see. Surprisingly it's got volume for the parlor model unplugged but not anywhere near a full size acoustic fullness etc.. More like one of those yamaha silent guitar or something. Definitely louder than an electric unplugged. Haven't plugged it in yet but right now a little underwhelmed to be honest and feel like it has no life or something, like stale, but that is just unplugged.... but we'll see how it goes in the coming days and how I grow with it and once I put different strings on it and adjust action.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

Probably gonna return it to sweetwater asap or maybe trade it for something locally. Love the looks and feel of it and such, but just not doing it for me unplugged or plugged in.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

So it's packaged back up and got the return label already from sweetwater. So it'll be on it's way tomorrow back to sweetwater. They will put my money toward in house credit to see if i want to exchange it for anything else, but if not they'll paypal it back to me when asked.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Too bad it didn't work out for you @BROCKSTAR . This was my impression just from Fender's own clips above. Sounds off, and anemic. Doesn't mean if can't be made to sound good after some proper setup and possibly some decent IRs, although unplugged it should at least feel and sound right to start.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

Too bad it didn't work out for you @BROCKSTAR . This was my impression just from Fender's own clips above. Sounds off, and anemic. Doesn't mean if can't be made to sound good after some proper setup and possibly some decent IRs, although unplugged it should at least feel and sound right to start.

Yeah I wanted to try. I take online videos and user reviews lightly, because 90% of the time they don't know what the heck they're talking about and videos are so compressed etc.. etc.. So always good to try if you want it, but just not working out for me. Not that it's bad, because I'm gonna kind of miss it because I loved the looks of it and feel but yeah the sound just not there for me and to be honest maybe I get too fixated on something and I should have waited longer before deciding and I'm by no means an acoustic guitar player so what the heck was I thinking lol... but just wanted to try.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Yeah I wanted to try. I take online videos and user reviews lightly, because 90% of the time they don't know what the heck they're talking about and videos are so compressed etc.. etc.. So always good to try if you want it, but just not working out for me. Not that it's bad, because I'm gonna kind of miss it because I loved the looks of it and feel but yeah the sound just not there for me and to be honest maybe I get too fixated on something and I should have waited longer before deciding and I'm by no means an acoustic guitar player so what the heck was I thinking lol... but just wanted to try.

Well maybe you can still find something that works for you? I enjoy acoustic but go through phases with it -- sometimes I'll play it consistently for a month and then skip a month. I've been using my same old Takamine G332S dreadnought for over 20 yrs now and it actually sounds very good, especially for the price it cost back then. It doesn't have a built-in pickup but it sounds great mic'd. Anyways, I tell myself I need another acoustic for whatever reason lol. Although I do have nylon string Cordoba too but need to reattach the bridge from a mishap. I love nylon acoustic sounds.

 

[Frodebro]

It’s hard to find an acoustic with a compact body that doesn’t sound equally small. I do remember Yamaha had some models many years ago, I had two in stock at the store I ran and they sounded remarkably good for their small size. I have no idea what else is out there these days.

 

[mavrick102000]

I'm not huge into acoustic guitar, I appreciate those who play them well. But just not my thing.

I've played some high end Martin, late 60's early 70's Gibsons, and Taylors that sounded and felt great (for an acoustic guitar.)

However, I've never picked up any Fender acoustic and cared for it, as opposed to a well made Strat or Tele. They just felt stale and lifeless for lack of a better description.

 

[BROCKSTAR]

However, I've never picked up any Fender acoustic and cared for it, as opposed to a well made Strat or Tele. They just felt stale and lifeless for lack of a better description.

That is something my brother says too and I've seen others say as well.

 

[Frodebro]

That is something my brother says too and I've seen others say as well.

Gibson has a long history of building acoustic instruments, and this was applied to their solid body electrics.

Fender has a long history of building bolt neck solid body electrics, and this was applied to their acoustic line.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Yep, Fender is not known for their excellent acoustic models haha. But it's still cool to see some new designs come out.

 

[Frodebro]

Yep, Fender is not known for their excellent acoustic models haha. But it's still cool to see some new designs come out.

Just slap a Strat headstock on there, it’ll sell.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Just slap a Strat headstock on there, it’ll sell.

That's the worst part of the design imo. Looks strange on acoustic. As mentioned, a tele design would have been cooler or something new.

 

[Frodebro]

That's the worst part of the design imo. Looks strange on acoustic. As mentioned, a tele design would have been cooler or something new.

That’s marketing, though. People recognize that shape, and I suspect that the target demographic for their acoustics is beginners who know enough to recognize Strat headstocks, but not enough to know that Fender acoustics are not exactly high end instruments.