Martin Guitar's GPCE Inception Maple offers skeletonized scalloped bracing and sonic channels to enhance resonance and tone, while the combination of European spruce top, maple sides, and a maple and black walnut back are designed to produce a clear and balanced sound.
The skeletonized bracing (pictured below) and sonic channels inside the body work together to increase sustain and amplitude, optimize airflow, and reduce the guitar’s mass without losing structural support.
The GPCE Inception Maple is made from a combination of sustainable tonewoods, including an FSC-certified European spruce top, maple sides, and an eye-catching three-piece back of maple and black walnut. These woods provide a clear, projective, and balanced tone, improving upon what has, up until now, been the standard sound of maple.
The guitar also features a new satin amber fade sunburst finish, black walnut binding, maple arrow fingerboard inlays, gold open gear tuners, a cutaway to help players reach the highest frets, a 25.4” scale length, LR Baggs Anthem electronics, and a molded hardshell case.
"The new Martin GPCE Inception Maple marks a new innovative approach to building acoustic guitars utilizing sustainable domestic woods,” says Fred Greene, Vice President of Product Management at Martin. “Our new innovative design will allow guitar players to experience the Martin tone they have always loved in a guitar made from woods sourced in North America. I am super proud of our design team for taking on this challenge and providing a creative and unique solution that guitar players will find both fun and inspiring to play."
Visit the Martin Guitar booth at The 2024 NAMM Show to experience this incredible instrument firsthand and stay tuned to martinguitar.com for the latest updates.
For more information, please visit martinguitar.com.
Exceptional playability and scores of sounds make this much more than a simple electric/acoustic hybrid.
Super-sweet playability and superb setup. Wide range of available tones—including convincing acoustic tones.
Best-looking Acoustasonic yet—but may look pretty strange to some. No dedicated tone knob.
$1,999 street
Fender Acoustasonic Jazzmaster
fender.com
Back in June 2020, I reviewed the Fender Acoustasonic Stratocaster. It was my first long-term exposure to Fender's new Acoustasonic line, and like many old-school-leaning Fender-design enthusiasts, I greeted the concept with mild skepticism. But the Acoustasonic surprised and impressed on many levels—sparking fun and inspiration in ample measures and at many turns.
- Multi-Voices Clip: Acoustic track is blend of mahogany jumbo and small-body mahogany voices. Electric rhythm track is "fat semi-clean" setting with UA EMT-140 reverb emulation. Electric lead is "overdriven electric" voice with UA Space Echo emulation.
- Dreadnought Voices Clip: First segment is rosewood-backed dreadnought, second segment is a blend of rosewood- and mahogany-backed dread voices, the last segment is the mahogany voice only.
The new Corona, California-built Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is more than a Acoustasonic Telecaster or Stratocaster re-shaped for the surf set. For starters, there's a brand-new humbucking pickup designed by Fender's tireless tinkerer-in-chief, Tim Shaw. The Acoustasonic Jazzmaster also introduces a raft of new voices, adding J-200-style mahogany jumbo and 00-18 mahogany-style acoustic sounds as well as surprisingly versatile piezo settings.
The Jazzmaster's acoustic sounds—created via the onboard acoustic "engine" designed with Fishman—aren't digital models. They're generated via a combination of digital and analog processing that interacts with the guitar's actual acoustic body properties. Generally, the differences in these voices are most perceptible as shifts in EQ emphasis.
And without the Acoustasonic Stratocaster alongside for comparison, it's hard to say exactly how significantly the Jazzmaster's new "all-mahogany small body" voice, for instance, differs from the Stratocaster's "spruce-and-walnut, short-scale" voice. But other unique features like the Jazzmaster's "lo-fi piezo" voices and the humbucking electric sounds make the guitar feel geared toward contemporary, more experimental, and more hard-rockin' musical situations. That doesn't minimize the impressive utility of the very nice acoustic-style voices here. But the Jazzmaster, more so than its other Acoustasonic siblings, signals an invitation to invention and marks a real point of departure in this interesting line of the Fender family tree.
Deconstruction Derby
Stylistic appraisals of an instrument like the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster are subjective. And the look of the Acoustasonic instruments can be polarizing, in general. But Fender deserves credit for stretching the design envelope, and the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is arguably the most balanced realization of the Acoustasonic design ethos yet. The offset body's proportions are well suited to the compound, sweeping curves that make up the instrument's visage. If you look at it just right, you can even see traces of other Fender designs. (I see more than a hint of the Kurt Cobain-designed Jag-Stang in the outline of the inlaid top.) As on the other Acoustasonic instruments, softer, more gently contrasting colors, like the natural and arctic white finishes offered on the Jazzmaster, suit the complex curves best. But our satin ocean turquoise review guitar looked super sharp, and is a nice nod to Fender's first great custom-color era.
Like all Acoustasonic guitars, the Jazzmaster is built around a mahogany body that is routed for the lightly braced Sitka spruce top (the turquoise finished section, in this case). The join feels virtually seamless, and that same sense of precision and craft is evident everywhere.
The "lo-fi" piezo is gloriously trashy and garage-y in the kind of way that a young Beggars Banquet-era Keith Richards would have savored.
Like any Jazzmaster, the Acoustasonic version's lower horn lacks the length of a Stratocaster of Telecaster, and it can slip off of your lap when playing seated—which, of course, is how many folks chose to have an acoustic guitar experience. But that is perhaps the only ergonomic complaint you can level against this otherwise supremely comfortable instrument.
Built to Rip
Fender's attention to detail on the Acoustasonic shines brightest when you put fingers to fretboard. Like the Acoustasonic Stratocaster's neck, the Jazzmaster's feels fantastic. The fretboard is shaped with a 12" radius to better suit the guitar's mission as an acoustic, but the "modern deep C" profile and rounded fretboard edges make the neck feel like a classic Fender with a more curvaceous radius. Chording is a breeze over the whole expanse of the neck, the action feels low and fast, and I couldn't find a trace of string buzz anywhere. The .011–.052 phosphor bronze strings that the guitar ships with make deep bends a more difficult proposition than on a lightly strung electric. But the narrow-tall frets that have become a standard feature on many Fenders beckon you to try, and facilitate nuanced finger vibrato techniques.
Sounds That Span Ages
Unplugged, the Jazzmaster is surprisingly resonant and blooms with sustain. And in some amplified "acoustic" modes and isolated direct-to-DAW settings, that resonance can translate to a slight imbalance between deep low-end sustain and boxier high mids—particularly in the dreadnought voices. Such properties mean you may not want to make the Acoustasonic your first choice for recording a solo fingerstyle piece. But as part of a more complex arrangement, these voices can shine. The ability to blend voices means you can craft the Jazzmaster's acoustic sounds for a mix without having to tinker endlessly on the mixing side. And if you record the guitar direct to a DAW, a little vintage-style compression, console-style preamp thickening, and high-mid EQ tweaking can go a long way toward softening any less-than-natural artifacts.
The new humbucker has a very different tone profile than the single-coil in the Acoustasonic Stratocaster. Where the Strat's single-coil is unmistakably Fender-y, spanky, and clear, the humbucker is, predictably, more muscular. At its cleanest settings, it evokes hotter single-coil pickups like the Rickenbacker Hi-Gain and the P-90. Blend in the more aggressive "overdriven electric" voice and the P-90 presence gets stronger.
There isn't as much round, wooly PAF-style humbucker tone on tap as you might expect. But the volume pot has a nice taper and is an effective means of shaping cleaner tones and more specific gain profiles. The "lo-fi" piezo also merits mention, because it's essentially a third electric guitar voice. Its trebly but overtone-rich voice won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is gloriously trashy and garage-y in the kind of way that a young Beggars Banquet-era Keith Richards would have savored.
The Verdict
The Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is a thoroughly modern instrument. It suits the needs of musicians that work across genres and in smaller studios and dwellings, where keeping a five-guitar quiver at hand isn't possible. But apart from its considerable practical upside, it's a true joy to play. And between its natural, comfortable feel and the ease with which you can access such a wealth of diverse sounds, the Acoustasonic Jazzmaster is full of musical potential.
BLACKSTAR
Sonnet 60
Powerful and light at about 16 pounds, this Bluetooth-enabled 60-watt combo boasts such features as dual inputs, a pair of reverbs, USB and XLR DI outputs, and a tilt-back stand.
$399 street
FENDER
Acoustic 100
Dressed in a sharp wooden shell and perfectly apt for coffee-house gigs, this 2-channel 100-watt amp houses an 8" full-range whizzer cone speaker and an impressive menu of onboard effects.
$399 street
ORANGE
Acoustic Crush 30
Lightweight, portable, and battery powered when needed, this simple yet versatile amp with a feedback-fighting notch filter and angled cabinet was designed to handle busking, gigs, and practice with ease.
$399 street
FISHMAN
Loudbox Mini
Packing in 60 watts of clean, acoustic power and featuring the company's preamp and tone-control designs, this 2-channel combo is outfitted with digital reverb and chorus, and a balanced XLR DI out.
$349 street
YAMAHA
THR5A Mini
Complete with onboard effects as well as dynamic and classic tube-condenser mic models, this 2x3 combo can run for up to six hours on battery power.
$199 street
BOSS
Acoustic Singer Live
With 3-band EQs and independent reverb for both channels, this amp also boasts features such as a built-in looper, a harmony function for vocals, and dual XLR DI jacks.
$515 street
ROLAND
AC-33
Battery powered to provide the opportunity to play just about anywhere, this amp features both guitar and mic channels, custom effects including chorus and ambience, and a phrase looper.
$463 street
TC HELICON
Harmony V60
Outfitted with a single 8" Tannoy speaker and top-firing tweeter, this 2-channel combo brings a built-in looper, 60 watts of crystal-clear sound, and a host of tone-shaping tools.
$449 street
LANEY
A-Solo
Dedicated to delivering a clean, clear tone wherever you need it, this compact combo has independent chorus and reverb for each channel, as well as phantom power for condenser mics.
$369 street
RECORDING KING
Songwriter 60
Two 6 1/2" woofers and a soft-dome tweeter push this amp's sound—reported to offer studio-monitor clarity and detail, but in an easy-to-use, compact, and portable package.
$399 street