While you’ve been testing guitars so long as I’ve, it’s exhausting to take a look at an instrument with a well-known design and never have a set of expectations earlier than you even play a be aware. And so my expectations for the brand new Fender Freeway Sequence Parlor have been filtered via the “skinny physique acoustic made by an organization identified for making electrical guitars” prism. 

Loads of these preliminary expectations weren’t that far off. Shorter scale apart, the guitar’s neck would really feel at dwelling on a Telecaster, its headstock and six-in-line tuners are signature Fender, and its glossy, comfy contours are clearly in step with what the corporate has accomplished since carving the again of its first Stratocaster 70-odd years in the past.

What I didn’t anticipate was the fullness of sound coming from this very compact and light-weight instrument—good and spherical and even a bit on the fats facet. It produces much more backside finish than its measurement would recommend, whereas additionally projecting nicely sufficient to be performed unplugged in a small room.

All that stated, the Freeway, with its specifically designed Fishman Fluence pickup, is clearly designed to be amplified. I examined the guitar via a Phil Jones Nano Bass X4 amp, direct into my Common Audio Apollo interface, and unplugged, and was uniformly impressed by its wonderful tone and suppleness. 

The Street to Tone

The Freeway Parlor is the smaller of two comparable thin-bodied acoustic-electrics from Fender, and every is available in two variations: all-mahogany or spruce-topped mahogany. (I examined the all-mahogany model.) In contrast to some earlier efforts, the Freeway doesn’t attempt to appear to be an acoustic model of a well-liked Fender electrical; it was clearly designed for gamers who desire a extra conventional acoustic form with out the majority of an acoustic physique. Accordingly, the Freeway seems streamlined and virtually aerodynamic, with glossy curves. It’s inviting, to say the least.

However plenty of what makes the guitar attention-grabbing is invisible. The physique is chambered and boasts a tapered floating X-bracing sample. This design produces a full sound with a spherical, slightly than slicing, high finish and a full, slightly than scooped, midrange. 

The remainder of the instrument attracts from a mix of acoustic and Fender electrical touchpoints. The neck makes use of a three-bolt system with a tilt adjustment for neck angle—not all that completely different from that on the 1980 Strat I purchased in highschool. However with right now’s constructing strategies and tighter tolerances, the design is method higher than it was again within the days of bell-bottoms. The neck may be very secure in its slot, and there aren’t any lifeless spots.

The motion was a bit excessive at first. Fortuitously, I used to be capable of regulate each the truss rod and the neck angle with the included Allen wrenches. Whereas the check guitar didn’t include a handbook or adjustment information, the changes have been intuitive; they took solely 5 minutes and made the guitar very playable. 

The svelte neck has Fender’s acquainted C form, and the fretboard radius is 12 inches. The nut is on the slender facet at 1.6875 inches, and the frets are tall and slender like on a classic Fender. General, the Freeway may be very enjoyable to play. Despite the fact that the neck feels fairly like an electrical, I naturally gravitated towards fingerstyle acoustic when testing the guitar, and there may be ample room to carry chord shapes and let open strings ring in arpeggiated patterns. On the flip facet, I’ve a pupil who struggles to succeed in the open G chord form on her personal acoustic guitar. She tried the Freeway, and it was positively simpler for her.

Fender promotes the skinny physique design as extra comfy. I personally don’t discover a full-sized acoustic uncomfortable, and sitting with a skinny, curvy guitar means adjusting my place. However I do know plenty of gamers—together with that pupil—who get swallowed up by a deep guitar. As a bundle, the Freeway is straightforward to dwell with, even for those who don’t thoughts an enormous guitar.

Novel Electronics

A giant a part of the Freeway’s design is the energetic Fluence pickup, which is each visually and sonically completely different from most techniques. Mounted on the high of the soundhole, the transducer has a crescent form that follows the soundhole’s curves. It seems natural, with the black of the pickup providing a pleasant offset to the mahogany’s café au lait end. The again of the guitar features a battery compartment for the Fluence’s 9-volt battery and a panel for servicing the electronics.

There are two controls under the correct facet of the bridge: quantity and contour. The latter is completely different from most tone controls in that it strikes between a spread of sonic profiles. In what would often be full-on place, the tone is fatter and jazzier; within the rolled-off place, it’s lighter and extra acoustic. There are many shades in between these two settings. 

By way of the Nano Bass—a compact amp with an enormous low finish—the Freeway sounds deep and wealthy. With evaluations, I often simply begin enjoying and let the guitar take me someplace earlier than coming again to the touch all of the bases, and this guitar led me to fingerstyle with the melody on the decrease strings. It was simple to regulate the assault and get a transparent, highly effective tone. I added a little bit of treble on the amp to get the highest strings to punch just a little extra, however amplified, the stability throughout all six strings was spectacular. So whereas the Fluence doesn’t reduce like a piezo, neither does it squawk.

Plugging immediately into the Apollo and listening with headphones, I used to be higher capable of isolate the electronics from the acoustic sound and get a way of how the contour management works. One of the simplest ways I can describe it’s that the highest finish is generally untouched, whereas the mids and low mids shift with the management. As with the amp, the full-on place makes the low finish punchy, and the rolled-off finish affords a tighter bass sound. With the ability to tailor the midrange and get simply sufficient emphasis on the decrease mids can be particularly helpful for feeding a home PA system.

Keys to the Freeway

Fender clearly sees the Freeway as a substitute for a conventional acoustic instrument that retains a few of a flattop’s form and vibe. The quick neck and skinny physique are clearly geared toward electrical gamers. In that sense, it’s a bullseye.

Will it enchantment to conventional acoustic gamers? Let’s stipulate that for those who can play lead strains on a conventional dreadnought or fingerpick on a nylon-string, the skinny neck isn’t going to alter your life. However the vary of tones, and the interplay of a resonating physique, do make the Freeway as completely different from a traditional electrical guitar as it’s from a conventional acoustic. I can see this as a robust various for looping or effects-laden acoustic music, the place you need the tone of the acoustic however the management of an electrical.

This text initially appeared within the March/April 2024 problem of Acoustic Guitar journal.