[Bob E.]

One of the "things" that seems to be overlooked in these exchanges and also on video demos is basic but important, electronically speaking: "impedance matching"! An electric guitar amp and electric guitar pick-ups, are low impedance devices, around 600 ohms and the signal voltage is a lot lower than acoustic guitar output signals. Acoustic output circuits are on the order of 10k-ohms - quite a bit more impedance than electro-magnetic coils from an electric guitar. Also, most acoustic-electric guitars have battery powered circuitry that amplifies the output signal quite a bit more than electric. So if you plug an acoustic-electric into an electric & vice-versa, you get distortion or low volume if you plug the electric into an acoustic amp. It's akin to the older phono inputs in the rear of your stero tuner-amp. A ceramic (crystal) cartridge, puts out a stronger voltage at a higher impedance but has less frequency response, than a magnetic cartridge - which puts out less voltage but a much better frequency response, at a much lower impedance. You had to use the correct input for the type of cartridge you had. In a nutshell: you need an electric amp for an electric guitar. You need an acoustic amp for an acoustic guitar, for best results - unless someone makes a combo unit.