Acoustics

Last month, Fender launched its third Acoustasonic hybrid acoustic, and we got to play with the Jazzmaster and interview the company's R&D chief. Now Master Builder Ron Thorn has given the Custom Shop treatment to the guitar, and it's a beaut.

10 guitars in one; that's the promise with Fender's groundbreaking digitally-enhanced Acoustasonic range, and the new Jazzmaster flavor pushes things further and harder than ever before. We've spent two weeks with Fender's brave leap into the future.

French sound design firm HyVibe hit Indiegogo in late 2017 with an acoustic guitar infused with digital smarts. Now the company has announced a kit that can turn pretty much any acoustic into a hybrid smart guitar.

Fungus already shows promise as a "green" form of leather and protective packaging. Thanks to new research, it has now also found use in an environmentally-friendly sound-absorbing material.

Every so often we stumble across something truly awesome on platforms like YouTube. In this case it was a beautiful rendition of the George Harrison composition, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, on a custom acoustic with a novel slide guitar attachment.

MIT scientists have developed an acoustic system that acts like an underwater GPS, yet doesn't need batteries to operate. The system is instead powered by modulated audio signals reflected from the environment to provide net-zero energy positioning info.

Last year, Yamaha's range of excellent desktop modeling amps went wireless thanks to a built-in Line 6 receiver. Now the company has launched a new model called the THR-30IIA Wireless that's dedicated to acoustic players.

Taylor has introduced a new acoustic body shape with the launch of the Grand Theater model, with the body dimensions and scale length coming somewhere between the compact GS Mini and the full-size Grand Concert.

Last year, Fender broke into new territory with the launch of the American Acoustasonic Telecaster, which came with the tagline – "acoustic, electric and everything inbetween." The iconic brand has now added a Stratocaster to the lineup.

There can be a huge difference in the tone of an acoustic guitar when played through an amp via a pickup. LR Baggs is looking to narrow the gap with the help of a floor stomp and a smartphone app.

The world's oceans are under threat not only from plastic trash, but also from "microplastics" – many of which take the form of fibers shed by synthetic fabrics as they're being washed. A new system uses sound to capture those fibers at their source.

A new MIT system is designed for charging batteries to power a network of sensors that would transmit data from the sea floor.