If you like that, you're an idiot....

Lewy

It's been interesting to see some of the commentary after the launch of the Fender Acoustasonic JM....like many products, it was bound to divide opinion. But it would seem that it's destined to become part of a more exclusive list of products that don't just divide opinion, but compel critics to cast aspersions on the people who do buy them. It's not just a case of "oh, that's not for me" or even "fuck, that's hideous".

It's "you'd have to be delusional to buy that" or "to buy that, you're blind to this essential truth/common sense that I can see"

or the more subtle "That's an answer to a problem nobody has" or "I don't get what it's for" even after people who've bought the product and are using it respond to answer exactly those things. 

We all love and hate different gear, but it's rare that people express the sentiment that people who buy the gear they hate are dicks...but it seems fine with certain products. The obvious one is Relics, and I can definitely see Acoustasonics going the same way. It doesn't seem like good natured ribbing that you might see applied to things like PRSs. There's no apparent humour or banter to it.

What is it about those products that inspire that reaction? They seem to bother people at a deeper level.

TimmyO

Lewy said:

It's been interesting to see some of the commentary after the launch of the Fender Acoustasonic JM....like many products, it was bound to divide opinion. But it would seem that it's destined to become part of a more exclusive list of products that don't just divide opinion, but compel critics to cast aspersions on the people who do buy them. It's not just a case of "oh, that's not for me" or even "fuck, that's hideous".

It's "you'd have to be delusional to buy that" or "to buy that, you're blind to this essential truth/common sense that I can see"

or the more subtle "That's an answer to a problem nobody has" or "I don't get what it's for" even after people who've bought the product and are using it respond to answer exactly those things. 

We all love and hate different gear, but it's rare that people express the sentiment that people who buy the gear they hate are dicks...but it seems fine with certain products. The obvious one is Relics, and I can definitely see Acoustasonics going the same way. It doesn't seem like good natured ribbing that you might see applied to things like PRSs. There's no apparent humour or banter to it.

What is it about those products that inspire that reaction? They seem to bother people at a deeper level.

I am guilty of doing this for one product in the past: the Boss TU-1000 

ICBM

I certainly don't think anyone is an idiot for liking them, or buying one.

For me the dislike comes from frustration - I'm actually the target market for what they've done in many ways, in that I've always had a thing for acoustic/electric hybrid sounds.

But to me, that means an interesting sound that can be used for both, not the ability to switch between impersonations of one or the other. And built-in distortion? Just no. I'm fussy enough with distortion in pedals, without being saddled with something you can't change in the guitar itself.

I do also think they're quite ugly overall, although some aspects of the design are nice... so again, so-near-but-yet-so-far frustration. But I could probably live with the looks if they had the sounds I wanted.

The Jazzmaster version seems doubly pointless since it's really just the same as the Tele one but a different shape, even if the magnetic pickup isn't the same.

But I will say, they aren't as horrific as the Gibson Firebird X either in concept or execution... does that help?

AlbertC

 "an answer to a problem nobody has" was my comment. All I can say is the comment was meant to be (exactly as you put it) good natured ribbing.
I'm a little surprised if anyone misinterpreted it as anything more than that but if any Acoustasonic owners feel particularly aggrieved then you're more than welcome to insult my heavy relic CS Tele...

Fire away   

Lewy

AlbertC said:

 "an answer to a problem nobody has" was my comment. All I can say is the comment was meant to be (exactly as you put it) good natured ribbing.
I'm a little surprised if anyone misinterpreted it as anything more than that but if any Acoustasonic owners feel particularly aggrieved then you're more than welcome to insult my heavy relic CS Tele...

Fire away   

I wasn't singling out any individual comment or commenter - it's something people regularly say  

And I'm not for a second saying people shouldn't say whatever they want - I'm more interested in what it is about certain products that inspire these sorts of reactions

ICBM

TimmyO said:

I am guilty of doing this for one product in the past: the Boss TU-1000 

I had one of those briefly. It was gloriously brilliant and stupid at the same time... it was actually the best tuner I've ever used. It was remarkably fast, accurate, non-jittery, visible from a huge distance - probably from space, actually - and had a fantastically effective 'X-Wing targeting computer' zoom-and-flash thing that genuinely made being right in tune incredibly easy. (The scaled-down version of it on the TU-3 just doesn't work as well.)

But, it was silly. It was vast beyond any sense or need.

Jalapeno

It's odd - loved the Tele model, hated the Strat one, am ambivalent about the JM one. As others have said ^^^^^ it's basically a Tele model tweaked.

prowla

There can be some arrogance in people’s comments on given topics. 

The mods are here to deal with outright aggression, including swearing at people and issuing denigrating comments about someone’s viewpoint which doesn’t tally with theirs. 

I tend to just ignore people who cross the line, either by stepping away from the conversation or actively blocking them. 

RaymondLin

i like the JM best but wouldn't buy any of them as I already have a Taylor T5.

mrkb

I'm not bothered by the comments, I think the old school knitted jumper wearing acoustic lovers fear change, heres a song they can play on their old school acoustics to help overcome those feelings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjZ7f2Gib9E

munckee

mrkb said:

I'm not bothered by the comments, I think the old school knitted jumper wearing acoustic lovers fear change, heres a song they can play on their old school acoustics to help overcome those feelings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjZ7f2Gib9E

I agree that people who like it aren't idiots. You happen to be an idiot but that's not relevant to this discussion : )

mrkb

munckee said:

mrkb said:

I'm not bothered by the comments, I think the old school knitted jumper wearing acoustic lovers fear change, heres a song they can play on their old school acoustics to help overcome those feelings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjZ7f2Gib9E

I agree that people who like it aren't idiots. You happen to be an idiot but that's not relevant to this discussion : )

Hey! I resemble that comment!

Bigsby

Lewy said:

or the more subtle "That's an answer to a problem nobody has" 

That, and it's common variant "...a solution to a problem that doesn't exist" is one of the non-arguments I find particularly annoying: Most things began as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Take the World Wide Web; with it's multitude of ways to create lists and tables, it was created as a method to enable scientists to share information, something they'd been happily doing since the birth of science. I wonder how many scientists sat back from thumbing through the latest peer-reviewed copy of 'What Scientist' to say, "You're wasting your time Tim, it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist".

PonchoGreg

Did you check the recent Gibson LP thread?? The acoustasonic JM one was a Bob Ross-on-quaaludes bubble of positivity by comparison!

Lewy

Bigsby said:

Lewy said:

or the more subtle "That's an answer to a problem nobody has" 

That, and it's common variant "...a solution to a problem that doesn't exist" is one of the non-arguments I find particularly annoying: Most things began as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Take the World Wide Web; with it's multitude of ways to create lists and tables, it was created as a method to enable scientists to share information, something they'd been happily doing since the birth of science. I wonder how many scientists sat back from thumbing through the latest peer-reviewed copy of 'What Scientist' to say, "You're wasting your time Tim, it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist".

Or as Henry Ford is quoted as saying 'If I'd have asked people what they wanted, they'd have said "faster horses" '

randella

"The answer to a question no-one asked" is a phrase I've seen applied to various products down the years - the one that springs to mind most vividly is the iPad. Even the Telecaster (or Broadcaster if we're being finicky) was really an answer to a question that only a few people had asked - it took years of having scorn poured on it before gaining acceptance.

I can't see the Acousticasters going the same way as the iPad and Tele, but who knows. Fender's accounting department are probably better at second-guessing these things than I am

EricTheWeary

Opinions expressed on here are mostly by people on the toilet or bored at work or suffering through television their significant other wants on. You probably need to limit how seriously you take them or how well thought through you expect them to be. 

impmann

For me, the issue is that we want to see innovation - and there are *some* innovative elements of it but when those innovations come they don't really change anything.

The WWW analogy was cool, but it did bring about great change - in many ways. These guitars (and other products supposedly billed as "game-changers" or the worst of them all "paradigm shifting"...ffs) are just disappointing. In the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster case, the big deal for most players with a JM is the neck pickup and that trem - without those two things, its just an outline. I'm *NOT* impressed by the acoustic sound, I don't understand why they have a built in distortion box and its just a bit... disappointing. I'm pretty confident these guitars won't usher in a new genre of music... and so it falls short of the hyperbole...

If you own one, great... I hope you enjoy it and you connect with it, and you prove me wrong.

randella

EricTheWeary said:

Opinions expressed on here are mostly by people on the toilet or bored at work or suffering through television their significant other wants on. You probably need to limit how seriously you take them or how well thought through you expect them to be. 

True enough.

"Being bored at work" + internet = encouraging people to have opinions on guitars they otherwise wouldn't care about 

Get me Fender's PR on the phone, I think I've cracked it

Lewy

EricTheWeary said:

Opinions expressed on here are mostly by people on the toilet or bored at work or suffering through television their significant other wants on. You probably need to limit how seriously you take them or how well thought through you expect them to be. 

Roland

Commercially safe and groundbreaking are mutually exclusive. It’s rare that the inventor of something groundbreaking makes any money from an invention. Often it’s those who follow on who profit. Fender are exploiting a safe niche. 

EricTheWeary said:

Opinions expressed on here are mostly by people on the toilet or bored at work or suffering through television their significant other wants on. You probably need to limit how seriously you take them or how well thought through you expect them to be. 

Yep, The more vocal members of the forum aren’t the target market.