It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:50 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Amp that sounds good for electric and acoustic.
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:42 pm
Offline
Amateur
Amateur
User avatar

Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:43 pm
Posts: 108
Location: Playing guitar out in the country.
I am in a band that plays about 50/50 acoustic and electric. Right now, I am playing an old Fender solid state for both, but the tone is not working for me either way. With electric, I play mainly clean, and I like a lot of effects (like delay, flanger, reverb etc) When I do need distortion, its only a mild overdrive. For acoustic, no effects really, execpt for the occasional delay. Should I go solid state or tube? I was thinking solid state, as I play mainly clean, and am big on effects. What would be a good amp that sounds good with an acoustic or electric, with hopefully some built in effects? I was thinking Line 6, but I don't know how they would sound with an acoustic. Vox would probably be a safe bet.....


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:53 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:49 am
Posts: 1153
Location: South Bay, CA
Does your band have a PA? If so, a good DI box will sound better than most guitar amps on an acoustic. That way, you can get the best guitar amp for electric and use the PA for your acoustic.

Electric guitar amps roll off frequencies much earlier than the frequency range of an acoustic guitar or a PA system, so it would sound dull.

Splurge would be a Radial JDI with its Jensen transformer - bulletproof and excellent sound.

Budget would be a Radial Pro DI - still pretty good.

I would avoid Behringer, Whirlwind IMP, or any DI that costs around $50 - it won't be helping your sound as they're made with cheap parts.

If you don't have one, the rubber feedback stoppers that close up the soundholes do very well for playing acoustic live (assuming you have piezo pickups and aren't trying to mic the guitar soundhole).

Hope that helps.

_________________
Image
'59? Bogen Challenger CHA-33, '65 Bandmaster, '65 Tremolux, 65 Showman;
'74 SF Princeton; '77 SF Princeton Reverb; Dr. Z Mini Z

Our band: http://www.facebook.com/thetoysband


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:48 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:16 am
Posts: 1171
Location: Rutland, Vermont
deleted

_________________
You're only as strong as
the drinks you pour,
the tables you dance on,
and the friends you roll with.


Last edited by VT BlackStrat on Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:48 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm
Posts: 8827
nedorama wrote:
Does your band have a PA? If so, a good DI box will sound better than most guitar amps on an acoustic. That way, you can get the best guitar amp for electric and use the PA for your acoustic.

Electric guitar amps roll off frequencies much earlier than the frequency range of an acoustic guitar or a PA system, so it would sound dull.

Splurge would be a Radial JDI with its Jensen transformer - bulletproof and excellent sound.

Budget would be a Radial Pro DI - still pretty good.

I would avoid Behringer, Whirlwind IMP, or any DI that costs around $50 - it won't be helping your sound as they're made with cheap parts.

If you don't have one, the rubber feedback stoppers that close up the soundholes do very well for playing acoustic live (assuming you have piezo pickups and aren't trying to mic the guitar soundhole).

Hope that helps.


+1


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:27 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:46 am
Posts: 1019
Location: State of Confusion
My opinions on the acoustic:
1) I think that a lot of acoustics with good on-board electronics sound very good going into a PA system, even without a DI device. The only issue becomes getting the right mix on your moniters so as to be heard and not drown out the vocals. This will depend on the sophistication of your moniter mixing system (i.e. a different mix for each moniter?)
2) Most of the Solid State amps I have plugged an acoustic into do a really poor job in reproducing good sound.
3) Tube guitar amps are sometimes decent at amplifying acoustics....better than Solid State, but not as good as going into a PA system.
4) Other than an acoustic guitar amplifier, I have found bass amps to work quite well. You must however tweak the Eq.

I haven't found an answer for a single amp providing optimum sound with both an electric and an acoustic guitar. I rarely play acoustic anymore, but if I did, I'd probably go the PA system route.

There's my 2 cents worth!

_________________
The quintessential sound of 60/70's R&R:
Fender Tube Amps
Gibson Guitars


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:25 am
Offline
Roadie
Roadie

Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:19 am
Posts: 219
Location: Ohio
This is something I have considered. Try using a keyboard amp. Most of them have more than one channel and have their own tone controls for each channel. If you use a modeler for the electric such as a Line 6 Floorpod or Digitech you can shape your sound for your electric. The acoustic will sound decent plugged straight into it.

As a side note, my band uses Behringer DIs and they sound good. We use them for an acoustic guitar, a keyboard, electronic drums, and most recently for a Ukulele. We started doing Hey Soul Sister and it actually works for a couple other songs as well.

It's just an idea, I'm not sure it would sound good but I might try this out myself.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:41 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:49 am
Posts: 1153
Location: South Bay, CA
Great that the Behringer DI works for you (literally, as in it still works) as their stuff is inexpensive for a reason - cheap parts, little quality control, and zero cost R&D (they steal other people's designs and then try to replicate with cheaper parts).

I think that as you upgrade your gear, you will hear a definite improvement in sound with your DI by moving to something like the Radial Pro series. Even Audiopile's EWI DI's are better quality; they also make rackmounted active and passive, which may help you.

I found that from moving from the Whirlwind IMP series to the JDI it was a significant improvement in tone, both on bass guitar and on acoustic guitar. The Jensen transformer is an expensive part, but the sound improvement you get from it is measurable. At one time I had 3 IMPs; I now have 2 JDI's and one Groove Tubes passive DI (I guess that's now a Fender DI - cool!) as I have upgraded.

As for not needing a DI, if your cable length is more than 15 feet, it's a good idea to have a DI instead of running the longer cable from an acoustic to the mixer to avoid noise in the system.

_________________
Image
'59? Bogen Challenger CHA-33, '65 Bandmaster, '65 Tremolux, 65 Showman;
'74 SF Princeton; '77 SF Princeton Reverb; Dr. Z Mini Z

Our band: http://www.facebook.com/thetoysband


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 2:13 pm
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:50 pm
Posts: 7998
Location: ʎɹʇunoɔ ǝsoɹ pןıʍ
Amp that sounds good for electric and acoustic?

Ain't no such thang.

_________________
Image
Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:59 am
Offline
Roadie
Roadie

Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:19 am
Posts: 219
Location: Ohio
I know the Behringer story and I realize there are people that really don't like their products. We have played quite a few venues where sound is provided and we have used various other DIs.

I'm not trying to start an argument but the difference in the sound of the DIs can be EQ'd to be very comparable. I know you will disagree. We have a very good PA system ourselves and we get a great sound for the band. That is always one of the first compliments we get, is how great evreything sounds, even from other musicians and sound people. We play a wide range of venues from stadium concerts to small clubs to weddings and corporate parties. We play at many different volume levels. The Behringer DIs have been working many years. We are very discriminating on how something sounds and have experienced musicians in the band.

I don't expect you to change your opinion based on my post. I'm just stating our situation. To each his own, no hard feelings.


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 8:01 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:49 am
Posts: 1153
Location: South Bay, CA
If it's working for you and you and the band like the sound, then that's fine with me, and you've indicated you know about Behringer's business issues - not everyone knows that much or that Bugera is their amp brand name, who has been shamelessly stealing other amp designs.

_________________
Image
'59? Bogen Challenger CHA-33, '65 Bandmaster, '65 Tremolux, 65 Showman;
'74 SF Princeton; '77 SF Princeton Reverb; Dr. Z Mini Z

Our band: http://www.facebook.com/thetoysband


Top
Profile
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:31 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:48 am
Posts: 375
Location: Deep East Texas
I have a Fender Jazzmaster Ultralight that I bought for my 335. Over the last couple of years, as I have pulled out other amps, looking for that elusive "tone," a friend has frequently plugged his Fishman Aura- equipped Martin through the JM.

To make it short, the Jazzmaster worked fine, for both instruments. It has the great advantages of high power, small size, useful effects, and light weight. It's not fiddly, and is unobtrusive. You'll need an A/B switch between the electric and acoustic guitars and the amp, but that's easily done.

For a jazz tone, it (as its name implies) excels, it has a good distortion sound in the drive channel, and is super-clean for the acoustic. It also comes with a footswitch for quick channel/FX changes.

If I could only have one amp I'd...well, I'd break down and cry, but the JM would be a serious contender among my Blues Jr NOS, Band-Master VM + Weber California Ceramic 15 cab, and Deluxe Reverb reissue. Face it: I'm not a one guitar or one amp kind of guy, but the Jazzmaster is the one I'd use for acoustic and electric. With anything else you give away too much on one side or the other.

_________________
"Digo: 'paciencia, y barajar.'" Don Quijote de la Mancha, Part II, Chapter 23


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 11 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: