Telecoustic Review

21 Frets, Special Tele Body Style, Laminated Top, Maple Neck, Rosewood Fretboard, Acoustic Electric Series, Acoustic Telecaster Body Style.

Features:	8
Sound:	8
Action:	8
Reliability:	7.3
Impression:	7.3
Overall rating:	7.7
Users rating:	8.1
Comments:	11

overall: 9.6

Featured review by: mookieman, on april 23, 2004

Price paid: $ 439.2

Purchased from: Make Music

Features: 21 Frets. Rosewood fingerbord. Inca silver coloured body with lightweight material underneath (possibly fibreglass?). Dotted frets. On board controls for when plugged in. Came with basics; bag spare pegs and such. Cool Fender Telecaster-shaped body.

Excellent features for an electro acoustic, and everything I wanted. // 10

Sound: Unplugged, it's got a nice tone, plugged in it is only improved. I don't plug it in much, it's mainly for unplugged acoustic stuff, and despite it's modern look, it sounds like a wonderful, original acoustic. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: It was set up nicely, though the strings only lasted a couple of weeks. No flaws whatsoever, even included 9V battery for onboard tone controls. The action when I got it was a little tight, but that's been adjusted now, and it's nicer to play. Excellently set up. // 10

Reliability & Durability: You can't play this standing up, that's the only disadvantage. It's got the nose heavy problem that the Gibson Explorer has, but worse. The body is literally as light as a sheet of paper, and the neck is normal weight, so this thing is extremely nose heavy and dips so much that it's vertical. Not a big problem for me, I don't intend to play this acoustic live or standing up. I say, sitting down it could withstand live play, I've looked after this guitar carefully, so no damage done to it yet; not a scratch. Treat her well and she'll reward you with a lovely sound. // 8

Impression: This guitar is everything I could want. It's not the most popular I understand, and each person likes a different sound. For me, it's excellent though. If you're looking to buy an electro acoustic, when you're trying some out in the store, give this a whirl, you may be surprised. My other guitar is a cheesy Fender Squire strat, so this is my second guitar (I've been playing 1 and a half years), I wanted an acoustic to mess around on, so I went with the Telecoustic, an electro-acoustic guitar good plugged and unplugged, with a nice telecaster body and delicious tone. It's also not a very deep guitar, so if like me you're a teen who can't get his hands around an acoustic without the edge of it digging into your arm because it's so deep, you may want to look here. If it were stolen, I would buy this guitar again immediately, or I would buy a Stratacoustic, which is very similar, only real difference is the body shape. For what I payed, it's a bargain. Be sure to give it a try. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on august 22, 2005

Features: // 6

Sound: I'm a blues player, converted from '80s-style hair metal. I play direct through a Vintage Fender Twin and a 3-year old Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. Plugged in, it has a very nice acoustic-electric piezo sound, a bit thin compared to a deeper-bodied guitar, but the tone can easily be customized with the on-board controls. The best sound-shaping control on the guitar is the contour control. It's basically just a tone control, but once you set the three EQ sliders, the contour gives you a pretty nice range from biting to smoothed-out jazz. The pickup is very quiet, I've never had a feedback problem with it, but then again that's what piezo's are for. Generally it has a typically trebly, bright Fender sound to it.

Unplugged is mostly where my complaints are with this model. In a room with a dreadnought or other traditionally deep-bodied acoustic guitar, the Telecoustic's thinline body just cannot produce enough volume to compete. It is easily drowned out by any other acoustic guitar, which is a shame because it does have a thin but very nice-sounding tone to it, acoustically, which was a bit surprising. Others have mentioned this, but both the Telecoustic and Stratacoustic are not well balanced at all. The neck and head are substantially heavier than the body, which makes it a little awkward to play standing up. // 6

Action, Fit & Finish: Straight from the factory the action is a bit higher than a standard electric Telecaster, maybe 1/10" or so, but it still plays pretty fast for an acoustic, which is why I was interested in it in the first place. The finish in unremarkable, mine is Fender Inca Silver, which looks nice, but nothing spectacular about it. Overall quality is generally good. // 8

Reliability & Durability: // 6

Impression: I'm a blues player, and for a piezo-sounding solo or the occasional slide work, this is an average value. I started out playing electric Washburns and BC Rich's (I started learning during the late '80s), but as I slowly transitioned to the blues, I began aquiring more traditional equipment. So out went the Warlocks and Randalls, in came the Fenders. I am almost and exclusive Fender player, but I also own an Epiphone Les Paul and several acoustics, including an Ibanez Artwood 100 and an ancient Harmony. The Telecoustic is definately style over substance, though. It looks cool, and it doesn't play or sound bad, it just doesn't play or sound exceptionally good, either. The thin acoustic sound is too low-volume to play acoustically with anything other than another Telecoustic or Stratacoustic. I bought it because I wanted a low-cost acoustic-electric and I liked the look of the Telecaster, so I got really excited when they introduced these models and ordered one right away. I was not necessarily disappointed with it when I got it, but I was not enthralled either. This was actually the guitar that convinced me to go to an actual store and play instruments before buying them, but I guess I was just young and foolish at the time. I would probably pass on this guitar if I were interested in another acoustic-electric, but if you just love the look of your electric Fender and want it in an acoustic, this is the one for you, but just be aware that there are much better values in the acoustic-electric pantheon for only a $100 or so more. // 6

Reviewed by: unregistered, on november 24, 2004

Price paid: $ 366

Purchased from: Sound Control

Features: 21 frets with a thin neck, obviously is based on the Fender Telecaster elctric guitar so that should give some impression of what it's like. Body, neck, tuners and everything else style is modelled on the Telecaster. Fishman Classic 4 electronics with Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble and Brilliance controls. Came with a Fender gig-bag, that's it really. // 8

Sound: I play electric mainly but on my acoustic I mainly play stuff with a lot of picking but also most other styles as well. Also, although it's an acoustic, the Telecoustic can handle some rocky stuff as well, shove it into drop-d and crank up the bass control and you'll be impressed! I'm using it with a HH Electronics 100w twin-speakered amp, I don't know the proper name. I've occasionally used an old Yamaha chorus pedal and very seldom a Marshall Jackhammer distortion pedal. Both actually sounded pretty darn good. At my first gig (beofre I got an electric) I played this Telecoustic through a Trace Elliot amp with built in distortion and it sounded awesome. Unplugged: the sound isn't quite as good as most acoustics, simply because the body is SO thin but plugged in it is awesome. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The action when I bought it was very tight and so I stopped using it until I got it loosened a bit. Another problem I had was that the top strap button (up by the base of the neck) fell off so had to be superglued back on as there is nothing inside the guitar to screw into, the screw is simply straight into a thin piece of fiberglass. Also, the body - because it's made of fiberglass - is almost weightless so the guitar always flops forward as the neck is so much heavier. This is quite awkward for playing with. Aside from this, everything's sweet! // 6

Reliability & Durability: This guitar can withstand live playing as I've already stated although I don't know how long it will last as it does feel a little on the badly-put-together side of things. The strap buttons, as already mentioned, were dodgy at first but a little bit of superglue did the job. I would use it on a gig without a backup cos I only ever do about 2 acoustic tracks per gig so I don't really need to worry. // 8

Impression: I play most styles of music, and this fits most of them (but don't even try shredding). I've been playing for about a year and a quarter now, I own a Boss ME-50 pedal, my HH 100w amp, an EKO acoustic and a Washburn electric. Along with a couple of single effects pedals. If this guitar were stolen/lost I would not buy another one, I would save up for a little whole and get a Takamine. I love the fact that it is so light but I hate the fact that it flops over due to that neck being heavier than the body. I didn't compare this to other products to be honest, I was a new player when I bought it and I was going for looks rather than quality. // 6

Comments

[DazF]

this is a great guitar with style and a good sound!

[Justice_Fish]

I tried it at the music store...

A beauty!

[hemi-san]

nose heavey huh? darn. i would play it live alot so cant have that. i really like the idea of acoustic sound with tele look. shame

[Zeppelin_31]

this guitar looks so odd...

[gallagher2006]

What a horrible looking guitar lol

[woodlandsclose]

vis guitar has a gr8 feel and a lovely finish

DazF wrote:

this is a great guitar with style and a good sound!

[Angelgiest]

i've got one and LOVE it

[ChallyGon]

I'm old school. Thirty years ago, I used a Les Paul, 1000 watts and a 6X12 cabinet. Now, I use a 15 watt VOX Pathfinder and a Fender Telecoustic. Whatever venue I play, the PA carries the room. The guitar's 4 band EQ creates whatever mood I'm after, and the whole package weighs less than 20 pounds. Who could ask for more?

[ChallyGon]

Did I mention how fast the neck is?

[Coldmystery]

The place i work has the jag version of this, and the tele version. The tele version have is just horrid for whatever reason. The action is terrible. The jag version is great, go figure.

[mashedpotatoes]

Zeppelin_31 wrote:

this guitar looks so odd...

I think so too... it just looks weird.