Amplifying a guitarrón

[Jack Clark]

I'd like to hear from anybody with experience in amplifying a guitarrón--pickups, mic, pre-amp, amp, whatever. Thanks much.

Jack
(nimbleswitch)
clarkj02@yahoo.com


guitarron acoustic amplification amplify amplifying

[Jack Clark]

. . . hoping that an ABG player may still pick up on this question. Thanks.

[Derek Kiernan]

Is it acoustic? You'd probably need to look into piezo pickups/contact mics to pick up vibrations either through the bridge or body. For a traditional magnetic pickup like electric bass uses, you would need to make sure the strings have a steel core, something for the magnetic field to see. If it's solid body, you can easily use longer blade or bar style pickups, given you have ability to install it in the top. What will work depends on how far the strings spread.

What type of preamps and such are needed will depend on whether you use piezo or magnetic, and at that point, the basic setup should be pretty easy to figure out. Let us know if you have more details or questions!

[Jack Clark]

Hi, Derek-

My guitarrón is totally acoustic. Currently, I'm using GHS BG short-scale flat-wounds (5 stainless steel Precision Flats [A1 through F3 strings]; 1 Ni/Fe Brite Flat [E1 string]) because I get more toward a DB sound with them than with round-wounds, which give it more of a guitar sound. (I play it upright in DB style, so that's more like what I'm going for here.)

I contacted Dieter from K&K Sound, who is understandably recommending his own products for pickups and preamp: their Pure Bass triple pickups for 5-string ABG and their XLR preamp. He also suggested the Fender Hot Rod Deville 410 tube-type amp/speaker combo, which he uses and which he said would amplify acoustic bass well.

Any thoughts regarding this combo? Or any suggestions for something different?

[M0ses]

Build your own piezo and preamp. It's pretty easy.