Acoustic amps

[Rog]

I've never tried a decicated 'acoustic' amp, such as Fender Acoustronic (sp?) and the like. What's the deal with them? The ones I've seen on TM appear to be almost a mini solo performer guitar + mike thingo. Can they be used as a straight guitar amp?

NB: no, I'm not looking at buying one, just increasing the knowledge bank...

[Rog]

Source: http://www.museweb.com/ag/amp/ag_amp.html

An electric guitar amp is not suitable for amplifying an acoustic guitar. These amps are essentially "lo-fi" amps. Many use circuitry that is designed to distort in a manner that is pleasing in an electric setting, but not so in an acoustic setting. All have large speakers that are essentially just "woofers," incapable of reproducing the high harmonics that give the acoustic guitar its characteristic sheen and brilliance. Also, guitar speaker cones are constructed differently from hi fidelity speaker cones; the cone material and speaker surrounds (the material connecting the cone to the frame) are designed to encourage "break-up modes" in the motion of the cone that create a characteristic speaker distortion that is pleasing to electric guitarists.

In performance, it is likely that the audience will hear the guitar through a high-fidelity PA system provided by the venue, so the player need not be concerned about power amplification. However, one may wish to carry a power amp for monitoring, or for performing in a small venue. The cheapest option is to use a keyboard amp in conjunction with whatever preamps and effects you may be using.

A more self-contained approach is to use an amplifier designed especially for amplifying an acoustic guitar. Several of these are now available. They combine some or all of the features of a good preamp with a power amp and wide-range speakers. They often also include extra equalization for controlling feedback, and reverb or other effects. Some include an additional mic input so that vocals can be combined with the guitar sound.

[Rog]

[sgt mukuzi]

i dont believe one would need one, one may want one

[r4nd0m]

I use an Ibanez TA225 acoustic guitar amp (occasionally), but really - the reason all these acoustic amps comes with a microphone input says it all doesn't it? Busking! You wouldn't put your mic through these amps at a proper gig. yes they do have more EQ controls than your average keyboard amp, but most people would have a mixer before the keyboard amp. Most of our acoustic/electros have built in EQ's anyway. In church I mostly just use the Electro/Acoustic -> Mixer -> Keyboard Amp option.

I have tried electric -> effects -> Acoustic Guitar Amp, that is just like going through a PA instead of the acoustic guitar amp, but not quite. I'd prefer PA. It could be the placement of the amp, size and wattage of the speakers or that the Ibanez is not really as good as the Fender or Marshall or AER (It was better than the Ashton )

Electro/Acoustic through Electric Guitar amp me likee alot! Its not quite amplified acoustic guitar is it

IMHO, what Sgt Mukuzi said, but YMMV.

[rickenbackerkid]

I've had a few and really found them a bit unsatisfactory to be honest. I'm looking into getting a Mackie powered speaker instead.

[sambrowne]

The AER amps are good, and I've seen them used as monitors by a string quartet (with Sigur Ros), but they are not necessary. A decent acoustic guitar with a good pickup (like a fishman or something) plugged directly into a PA works just as well. They are fun for at home and possibly good for (small - say under 50 people) gigs as you can run a mic into them, but a JBL would be MUCH better, with a much fuller sound, tons more volume (450w compared with 60) and more inputs (3 instead of two). I gigged with an AER just once and found it lacking enormously compared with running a JBL in the same way. No low end, no projection etc. Just severely underpowered for gigging. The JBL on the other hand would not need to be above halfway for the same gig (say an average sized pub).

Same goes for DI for acoustic guitar - in my experience it does not make a lick of difference to the tone to running it directly.

[nzsimon1]

The Markbass ones are superb everyone is gobsmaked by them but they are expensive although I believe they are cheaper than the AER

[B45-12]

I've got one of those Fender Acoustasonic 30 models and I quite like it - gives you quite a good sound and control over that sound. I bought it for recording as the mic did noty seem to do too great a job. If you're down my way, Rog, you can pop in and try it out sometime.

[Rog]

Cheers, mate. Will do.

[Kristie]

I've been thinking about getting an Ibanez TA225 or TA35, they pretty nice and not too expensive either. It's on my list of things that I'd like to have but can't quite justify spending the money on till I finish paying for my Piano

[B45-12]

I've been thinking about getting an Ibanez TA225 or TA35, they pretty nice and not too expensive either. It's on my list of things that I'd like to have but can't quite justify spending the money on till I finish paying for my Piano

I think they're all pretty brill for recording, as the thing with mikes is unless you are in a studio, you can bet the cat, child or neighbours stereo will join in on the one 'perfect' take of the day, whereas with these amps you have at least the line output on one chanell of the recorder so you can often easily 'punch out' the problem. Great also for the smaller gigs (you can usually notch out problem frequencies) and I was so impressed I was after one of the Fender SFX big ones recently (80 watts), but got beaten on trademe 2 x

[Ironbird13]

whats with all this acoustic amplification stuff, i thought the whole idea of Acoustic, was that it wasnt plugged in, if your plugged in its electric not acoustic
its as bad as all those albums that came out mid nineties unplugged this and unplugged that...

[Jenesis]

Yeah, the whole unplugged "phenomenon" was weinery. But I actually really like the Mariah Carey MTV Unplugged album. Want to make something of it?

Billy Idol VH1 Storytellers is also another good one.

[sambrowne]

Yeah, the whole unplugged "phenomenon" was weinery. But I actually really like the Mariah Carey MTV Unplugged album. Want to make something of it?

Billy Idol VH1 Storytellers is also another good one.

I can believe that (the Billy Idol, not the Mariah you weirdo). Billy Idol is awesome. I got the greatest hits the other day and there's such a lot of great stuff on there. I bet "Sweet Sixteen" would be awesome acoustic.