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Acoustic Guitar & Live Sound....

Turtle71

Turtle71

Aug 11, 2009
1,339
1,897
Madison, WI
#1
OK, so hears the issue....In my band, my rhythm guitar player plays an acoustic guitar on a couple songs, and up until this point, all has been well, he's been playing through my old Trace Elliot acoustic amp...well, BOOM the amp gave up last Thursday (been having alot of gear related FAILS lately).

Long story short, it can be repaired, but not for a few weeks...(something about needing to order parts etc..)

We have a show next Saturday...

So, can he somehow plug right into the board? or would a basic DI box be needed? Any other equipment? Maybe an EQ pedal?

The guitar is an Ovation w/onboard preamp & 3 band EQ.

I'm hoping someone here has had to deal with a similar situation, and could give me thoughts/advice.

Thanks!
 
#4
My singer in my first band plays an acoustic and sings, plugs straight into the mixer via a mic cable (her acoustic has 1/4 and mic plug options, the mic seems to sound better.....). She uses the onboard EQ on her acoustic to set her tone, no reason you couldn't use the mixer eq for that. The guitarist runs through a full electric pedalboard which then runs through into the mixer. No problems there either-just be forewarned you'll probably need to dial down the highs, acoustics can get twangy quickly IME.
 
#5
If it's a single gig, one time deal you can definitely get away with going through any DI you can find. However, if you're going to make a habit of playing ampless, I would strongly suggest a DI/preamp. It's ridiculous how greatly those can affect the tone of an acoustic instrument. Actually if your band could invest a little you could use a preamp along with the actual amp.

The best DI/preamp I've ever ever ever ever ever experienced..
http://www.lrbaggs.com/venue/

It'll kill your wallet though.
 
#6
With a built-in preamp in the guitar, you should be ok running direct into a mixer that's fairly close by - no more than about 20' of guitar cord. This is assuming, of course, that you have a HiZ input available on the board. Make sure the guitar has a fresh battery in it

A much better solution is an active DI feeding the board with a LoZ signal

FWIW I haven't had very good results with passive DIs - very difficult to get a decent acoustic tone through 'em. OTOH an Ovation isn't going to sound much like a really good acoustic guitar anyway, so a passive DI may well work out for you just fine. Just my 2¢ worth.....

christianharger said:
The best DI/preamp I've ever ever ever ever ever experienced..
http://www.lrbaggs.com/venue/

It'll kill your wallet though
Click to expand...

Very nice bit of gear, but pricey. I use a Baggs PADI (~ $160 street price, new - I've seen 'em used for as little as $80 on CL), which is hella cheaper and pretty much the standard "quality but affordable" active DI for this application. Good EQ section, including sweepable mids and a very useful sweepable notch filter

Makes a HUGE difference when the guitar has only a piezo UST. Still very useful with guitars that have integral preamps - the notch filter alone is worth it's weight in gold IMHO
 

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