best way to amp an acoustic

[WhoFan]

i could have a new gig on the way..... i may audition as soon as next week... but part of the gig involves a lot of Acoustic work and i have not owned a useable acoustic in ages and none that have a pickup that i could fix up...

so i need an acoustic with a pick up for the gig.... i need to buy one anyways.... i can afford a middle of the road one... i hope no probs... any suggestions in the under $800 range... maybe a bit more to spend we'll see

but the main part is what should i be looking at for amp'ing it.... i'm not rich... so if i get the gig i'll be doing live gigs... if i don't have to carry another amp that would be a blessing... so what types of Acoustic Direct Preamps will help me sound great?

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

I like Guilds, a lot. but I found a real monster, this one (mine) is beyond normal expectations.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--GLD3810405

Look at Takamine, I noticed a ****load of pros play those for their acoustic stuff.
1,000,000 flies can't be wrong.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Takamine-EG530SSC-Acoustic-Electric-Cutaway-Guitar?sku=516442
I've played Taylors that I really liked too, very tempting, even to a Guild owner.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Taylor-210E-Dreadnought-AcousticElectric-Guitar?sku=514896

the guitars I listed are just ones I could find in the price range, not ones I know anything about. Except the Guild, I know it's gotta be sweet

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

The best acoustic amplification I have heard was Fender, actually. If you don't want an amp (combo), I'd say just run your guitar's active preamp (pretty much every electricoustic has a 9V active preamp) to a DI.

I've heard really...clean results that way.

Don't expect to define your own sound that way; just expect a clean-as-a-preachers-peter sound.

 

[Virtual Kevorkian]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

Best I've heard is an integrated pickup in the acoustic itself (I believe it was a fishman) , direct to board.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

I'm a big fan of Taylors but they can be pricier.

Seagulls can be very nice too...

Almost all companies will have nice guitars in that price range. It'll be just a matter of finding one you like in what you find available in your town or close-by ('cause you're gonna have to try a lot first).

One thing I'll recommend for the "not too expensive yet surprisingly good sounding acoustics", though it may go against what a lot of people believe, is Yamaha... they build nice acoustics with built-in pre-amps that sound great for live use. Even my cheap APX-4A sounds very good once plugged in.

As far as amplification goes, I never amp my Taylor for gigs (I play solo acoustic gigs a lot)... I just use a mag-mic straight into the PA... sounds great. I don,t know if that's an option you'll be able to use for your audition though. I used a very ordinairy Peavey 60watts KB/A with succes in the past... very transparent, nice effective eq... yet I prefer not to use anything.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

3rd post, apologies.

I ran a Lace Sensor single coil magnetic soundhole pickup in my Guild for many gigs with great results.

It sounds like an acoustic for sure, and it has a less sterile and alien tone than piezoelectric pickups. My tastes still lean here, but everyone's different.

I believe Seymour Duncan has a humbucker for this same application.

I'd recommend single coil for reasons you can imagine using your brain (clear and bell-like SC vs. mid-heavy and muddy HB) but manufacturers pay a lot of attention to EQ with acoustic pickups. YMMV. I tried them all and got the pricy Lace Sensor. Fishman, SD, DiMarzio may be the perfect fit for you.

P.S. Acoustic magnetic pickup thru a Fender amp sounds just as clean as you'd want. (read: no new equipment if you've got a clean amp.)

-Hunter

 

[WhoFan]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

thanks for some of the tips so far guys.... i'll look into some of those...

Surgeon... oddly in the glassed in acoustic room of my local shop last year i picked up an acoutic off the wall not really looking at the name on the headstock and loved it!!!! it was just a Yamaha... an $1800 Yamaha.. out of my price range but it was sweet!!!!! the low strings were really responsive and the whole thing sounded and felt liked it belonged in my hands.... oddly the salesman grabbed it out of my hands and gave me a $3200 Martian to play instead and it sounded like dung... when i turned around the salesman had disappeared with the Yamaha... guess he was hiding it for himself...

 

[WhoFan]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

what i've been using for acoustic like sounds for ages has been my Godin Electric.. just putting the piezo's thru my clean tube amps.... it's not quite acoustic enough but it has got me by.... thru a fender Acoustisonic amp it sounds much better...

 

[Bludave]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=91

This is the Fishman Aura system. If you buy a decent guitar that has onboard elecronics it will probably have some version of a Fishman system. The Aura utilizes a under saddle piezo and a microphone inside the body of the guitar. These 2 devices can be blended and the player has the ability to adjust how much mike or piezo you are using. It also has the ability to handle phantom power for recording. It is one of the best acoustic systems out. Another well respected acoustic pickup Company is LR Baggs.

http://www.lrbaggs.com/


I have little experience with this but have heard many performers play with them. They also sound great. Seymour Duncan makes the Dtar system also. Haven't been able to get my hands on it to play with though.
http://www.d-tar.com/
The other option is to use an SM57 in front of the sound hole. It will probably sound better than any pickup anyway. If you can deal with sitting down in front of a mike thats the way I would go. Miking an acoustic is usually the best way to get the guitar to sound like the guitar. The positive to this is you can get more guitar if you don't need electronics. Go for a solid wood acoustic versus a laminated guitar. The solid woods will age and begin to sound better as time goes on.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

I think our praise band at church own a total of four Seagulls - three 6-strings and a 12-string. One guy actually owns two. They sound pretty good, have built-in pickups and preamps, and I'm led to believe offer pretty good bang-for-the-buck.

As I mentioned in my PM, I'm in the middle of my own acoustic crisis this week. I expect I'll be able to provide more info by the weekend, probably a review of some sort of Duncan soundhole magnetic pickup.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

I think our praise band at church own a total of four Seagulls - three 6-strings and a 12-string. One guy actually owns two. They sound pretty good, have built-in pickups and preamps, and I'm led to believe offer pretty good bang-for-the-buck.

As I mentioned in my PM, I'm in the middle of my own acoustic crisis this week. I expect I'll be able to provide more info by the weekend, probably a review of some sort of Duncan soundhole magnetic pickup.

good luck Rich...... i will try and look this weekend for myself.... see what i can find that i like.... i'm a lot more picky with acoustics then my electrics...

 

[Hoss]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

Takamines are really hard to beat for the money and they have good unplugged and plugged in tones!

Seagull's are great to...if you can get along with the neck shapes!?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

I use Takamine acoustic/electrics...the EF341 model like Springsteen uses. I run it through an SWR California Blonde acoustic guitar amp. I just purchased a DTAR Mama Bear Preamp acoustic guitar simulator to process the Takamine's piezo pickup and I mix it about 40%Tak & 60% Mama Bear Acoustic Simulator. But I'm still experimenting with it. Lew

 

[Surgeon]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

Not to hijack anything but Lew, how does the Mama bear sound on it's own?


Whofan: they have a pricey jumbo model that still has me drooling... they really can build quality instruments, you just have to try other guitars than their entry or budget models (even though they are good in their own right).

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

Not to hijack anything but Lew, how does the Mama bear sound on it's own?


Whofan: they have a pricey jumbo model that still has me drooling... they really can build quality instruments, you just have to try other guitars than their entry or budget models (even though they are good in their own right).

It sounds really, really good...but I find that I feel like I'm more in touch with my actual guitar in the present moment if I blend in a little of the actual guitar sound with the Mama Bear. The Mama Bear makes my Tak sound like a D-28 or a National Resonator and does it beautifully. But it also feels a little like I'm listening to a guitar other than my own. It's a psychological kind of thing! (laugh!)

I love the D-28 tone and National Resonator tones on the Mama Bear...but they're all really good. Evan demoed it for me at NAMM and I was really impressed...so I bought one.

Lew

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

Some Guilds come with DTAR

 

[stonabus]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

i install a lot of pickups in (very expensive) acoustic guitars.

not many people agree, but i like the sound of a simple active element from l.r. baggs. i like it better that anything else. ie: internal mics, dual elements, soundhole pups (the worst, imo)

i would like to try the d-tar.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

It sounds really, really good...but I find that I feel like I'm more in touch with my actual guitar in the present moment if I blend in a little of the actual guitar sound with the Mama Bear. The Mama Bear makes my Tak sound like a D-28 or a National Resonator and does it beautifully. But it also feels a little like I'm listening to a guitar other than my own. It's a psychological kind of thing! (laugh!)

I love the D-28 tone and National Resonator tones on the Mama Bear...but they're all really good. Evan demoed it for me at NAMM and I was really impressed...so I bought one.

Lew

That's great! I'd like to try/own one but they're a little out of my price range for now and aren't found in my area...

I can understand what you mean by feeling more in touch with some of your guitar in the mix... some pick-up systems (especially the under-saddle type for some reason) make me feel like I'm not even playing an acoustic... to my ears (that's a huge IMHO), they take too much of the warmth out...

 

[WhoFan]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

kind of day dreaming at work today about what to get.... it will be for gigging and i came to the fact that i don't like taking expensive gear to bars..... this will have an impact on what i buy for sure.... i was hopeing to go look tonight but life got in the way...

Seagulls neck shape i think or should be simular to my Godin Electric... i think they use the same neck shape for everything at Godin/Seagull But Seagull and Yamaha are on the top of my list to investigate.... i'll ask some guys i know at the store that gig a fair bit what they use as well....

no real rush yet....

I know what you guys mean about the cheaper underbridge pickups can sound weird and not quite acoustic enough.... my Godin's Piezo Trem Bridge can do almost as good a job thru a direct box as the cheap Tak one of the singers i used to play with used... but i really hated that cheap Tak... neck was awful and i really wanted to smash it anytime i borrowed it.

i used to be in a band with a great multitasker... he played Keyboards, Acoustic, Electric guitar, and sang lead.... all his guitars and 3 different Keys went thru the keyboard amp.... a Pod for the Electrics and for adding dirt to his key's organ's sound for Deep Purple stuff.... out of the back of the keyboard amp he had it all going to the PA with one XRL cable.... genius...

along that lines i wonder if anyone had ever thought of making a Modeler guitar combo like a Line 6 or Vox that could except acoustic guitars also.... have a seperate imput maybe or just a different patch.... Modeler guitar amps mostly should have a full range speaker and amp for repoducing the Patches

 

[WhammyBar Allstar]

Re: best way to amp an acoustic

Takamines are really hard to beat for the money and they have good unplugged and plugged in tones!

Seagull's are great to...if you can get along with the neck shapes!?

Interesting... I found Seagull's to sound really good and at such a great price range for solid spruce tops, but I couldn't really get used to the neck shape. Seemed to be very wide with too much shoulder for me. But what a great bargain.