Acoustic guitar tone wood and amplifier

[Wayne27]

When playing an acoustic guitar through an acoustic amp, does the tone of the wood of the acoustic guitar become less important?

Does it also matter less weather the guitar wood is laminated or not if played through an acoustic amp?

 

[AlexR]

Depends on the amp, pickup and where you are.....oh, and your skill comes into it greatly too.

The typical dodgy busker with a tone that sounds like the strings are 10 years old and its being played underwater.....it doesn't matter what you start with.

 

[ehdwuld]

my acoustics have a pickup blend between piezo and Microphone
the microphone low end offsets the brittle Piezo

the wood top plays some amount in the tone of the microphone

 

[beaubrummels]

IME it depends mostly on the pickup in the guitar. Sound hole magnetic pickups don’t really pickup the wood. Under saddle transducers are influenced by the wood, and microphone based pickups absolutely depend on the wood.

Laminate will keep it from feeding back better but typically is flatter thin dead sounding, relatively (the rest of the body and neck can make up for it). Non laminate has a warmer and/or more complex sound, in general.

 

[GuitarStv]

Magnetic pickups don't really sound at all like the guitar they're put in to my ear. I find that piezos are a bit better but they still have a very strong flavour that kinda overrides the natural sound of the acoustic. The Taylor I've got with ES2 is about as good sounding as any amplified piezo I've played, but it's still sounds very different to putting a mic on the guitar.

 

[Mincer]

The quality of the pickup system has a lot to do with it. I've played wonderful, expensive acoustics made with beautiful wood that sounded amazing to the player, and in the room- but sounded terrible through a PA system. For live playing, the live, amplified sound is more imortant than what it sounds like in the room by itself (the audience, and me, the player, doesn't hear that).

 

[Bogner]

Agree with all said. It is very difficult to get the true sound of an acoustic to translate through the various electronic paths needed for an audience/room to hear it. In most instances, that acoustic will sound its best naturally on the porch with a player playing their favorite song.

 

[Wayne27]

IME it depends mostly on the pickup in the guitar. Sound hole magnetic pickups don’t really pickup the wood. Under saddle transducers are influenced by the wood, and microphone based pickups absolutely depend on the wood.

Laminate will keep it from feeding back better but typically is flatter thin dead sounding, relatively (the rest of the body and neck can make up for it). Non laminate has a warmer and/or more complex sound, in general.

Would a acoustic amp help compensate or improve the sound of a laminated back and side of acoustic guitar?

 

[Mincer]

Would a acoustic amp help compensate or improve the sound of a laminated back and side of acoustic guitar?

What helped me was a Fishman Aura pedal.