Fairly basic questions
- why should I buy an acoustic amp rather than plug the guitar into a non acoustic tube or tranny amp?
- recommendations for cheap acoustic amp best suited for B-band pickups (Ibanez EW20)
Gracias
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Fairly basic questions
- why should I buy an acoustic amp rather than plug the guitar into a non acoustic tube or tranny amp?
- recommendations for cheap acoustic amp best suited for B-band pickups (Ibanez EW20)
Gracias
1. regular guitar amps tend not to have full range speakers which is what you want when plugging in an acoustic to give the best sound representation ,Acoustic amps will have hi and lo gain inputs (for if you have an onboard pre-amp or not) and the gain structures of regular amps may also not be ideal to prevent feedback from your hollow box of air , with a lot of electric guitar amps being quite mid heavy .Quote:
Originally Posted by U696783
2. There are loads of acoustic amps out now and you can get a lot of featues for not a lot of money - best thing is to try a few out with your guitar to see what you think sounds best .
Also...generally speaking, acoustic instrument pickups require a high input impedance...actually that may have been what sticker meant when he said 'hi/lo gain inputs' but it's not the same thing.
If you're in a PA situation, you could go straight in via something like the LR Baggs Para DI.
yup 'tis what i meant .Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalkettle
There is no substitute for direct experience. Try it. It will feedback like a bitch and sound awful you will then have learned first hand.Quote:
Originally Posted by U696783
is it always necessary to have a DI box between the guitar and PA or can the jack be plugged directly in
U696783,
If you can, try the reverse! Plug a Strat into (someone elses!) hi fi. It will sound ***t. Use any kind of distortion pedal and THEN into hi fi, ***t to the power N!
Electric guitar amps have a response curve built in. Different makers have different ideas as to the details but the basic shape has a "hump" around 1.5-2kHz and tone controls tweak this a bit. Then guitar speakers have a limited HF response, starting to roll off at about 3-5kHz and smoothing out the harsh shrieking tones of a distorted amp.
But you want none of this for an acoustic. Here you need Hi Fi, a flat response, low distotion both in amplifier and speaker. Now, whilst it is "fairly easy" to generate 100dBA of distorted, band limited mayhem it is MUCH harder to produce high clean wide range sounds levels and hard means expensive and generally heavy.
A further complication of amplifying acoustics ( guitars, pianos, almost anything with a resonant cavity) is feedback and a sharp notch graphic EQ is almost mandatory on such amps. And guess what? Good EQ's cost!
Peacock 1978;
You only really need a DI box if you are plugging into the mic inputs on the PA. Yes you could go straight into a line input but it is not a good idea...
1) The line is of moderate impedance, not balanced and will hum.
2) The input impedance of a line in is only about 10k and will alter the tone of the guitar, almost certainly for the worse chopping treble.
If you wish you can go thru' a pedal ( I am staring at a Boss GE-7 EQ that would do nicely) this will give you a low output Z and should drive most decent line ins fine. Not balanced tho' so go no further than 5mtrs to avoid hum again and lights etc. on a gig rig might make even that too far.
Dave.
I've bought a little acoustic practice amp to check it out
Well U,
Don't try to get a high sound level out of it and if it has the option of feeding an extension speaker it would be worth trying it into a hi fi speaker. If it has a line out, go into an active monitor.
The reason I say this is that (solid state) amps are cheap as chips (boom! boom!) but anything 1/2 decent speakerwise tends to cost.
Dave.
You don't need a DI box at all to plug an electro-acoustic guitar into a PA. It's a myth that it's necessary. It's only needed really because the output of the guitar is likely to be 1/4" jack, and the input of the multicore or whatever is onstage is XLR. But an adapter would be fine. If the PA/mixer is close to the stage, or even onstage as it often is for pub gigs, etc, you can plug straight in. The output level of a preamp-equppied guitar is fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalkettle
The hum reffered to in the post above is not true with 99% of off-the-peg electro-acoustics - they have onboard preamps so the impedance issue is solved without need of an EQ pedal or a DI.
If you are unsure, here's a simple rule: if your guitar requires a battery in order to work, you can plug it straight into the PA.
Personally I find acoustic combo amps to be boxy and unpleasant sounding, and I have tried a lot of different types. And the expensive ones are as expensive as a very small PA. I'd rather buy a small PA!!