Recommendations for Acoustic/Electric Amp

[rscott4079]

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a good, gig worthy amp that I can run either an electric or acoustic guitar through with equally good results. It'll need to be able to complete with a full band.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[brian a.]

Wow, that's a tough question.

Good electric amps color the sound. Tube amps rule the day. And speaker choices abound with the Alnico for pre 1965 tone or Ceramic for late '60's tone. Others for metal, thrasher etc. And then there is overdrive and crunch.

While, good acoustic amps are transparent allowing the guitar to shine. These come in a variety of size and power to work for solo or band settings.

I was at the Park City Jazz Festival this past weekend and saw a number of guitarist using a variety of amps and setups. Electric amps for electric guitars and acoustic amps or straight into the PA for acoustic guitars. One of the more interesting setups was a Godin Multitec nylon run through a pedal board and into a Fender Twin. This guy got great acoustic and electric tones out of the pedal/effect units on his board.

Maybe you could run your acoustic through a DI into your band's PA and your electric through any amp of our choice - Fender Tweed or Black-face, Marshall or Vox style.

[wierdOne]

For years I used my Ultrasound Pro 100.... it handled (in no particular order):

acoustic:
(Me) Rainsong WS-1000
Collings Mandolin
Violin
(Me) Moll Gypsy jazz guitar
Dell'Arte Gypsy jazz guitar


Electrics:
(Me) Rainsong JZ-1000 (dual humbucker equipped jazz box)
(Me) Three Telecasters (all with noise canceling pickups)
(Me) An Eastman archtop (floating humbucker)
Gibson Tal Farlow (Humbucker equipped jazz box)
Zon 4 string fretless bass
2 ibanez archtops (both humbuckers)
Ibanez artstar (humbucker 335 like guitar)

I used this amp in trio/duo settings. In duo's the other player would plug into channel 2, i'd take channel 1...

I had one jazz gig where the upright bass player plugged into my amp... I played the archtop.... stuck the amp behind the drummer, and bam.. a jazz trio with one amp...

I can't speak for other acoustic amplifiers... but I sure did use the crap out of my ultrasound... It never met a situation, nor a guitar it didn't like...

Keep in mind that I'm not playing Metallica/Cannibal Corpse/Ministry covers... although, that would be rather interesting...

now i'm on a bose l1 system.... LOVE IT...

anyways.. good luck.

[dragonfly66]

I have a Peavey Austin 400 which is meant to do both electric and acoustic as it has separate channels for the both. It uses 2 12" Scorpion speakers. The Austin 400 isn't made anymore, but you might be able to find one used.

With any acoustic amp you can run your electric through an amp modeler to get the sound you want. Since the acoustic amp is supposed to be transparent all of your electric sound will come from the modeler and effects pedals. To use my electrics through my acoustic amps (Fishman Loudbox 100 and Ultrasound DS4) I run the guitar through my Line 6 Pod X3.

[VintageToneGuy]

I like the little \ medium size modeling amps like Roland Cube or Vox. For acoustic, set on clean and add whatever effect you like and it sounds great! For electric, choose any other setting if you want a little drive and enjoy!

[msr13]

The Phil Jones Super Cub is built to work with both acoustics and electrics. 250 watts and sounds wonderful.

[jeepnstein]

Originally Posted by VintageToneGuy

I like the little \ medium size modeling amps like Roland Cube or Vox. For acoustic, set on clean and add whatever effect you like and it sounds great! For electric, choose any other setting if you want a little drive and enjoy!

I've done that with a Roland and it works well enough. I can't say it's perfect because it's not. The little Rolands won't cut through a full band.

I'd say run your acoustic directly through the PA.

[surgeon00]

I have a Roland 90 acoustic amp that gives my 414ce a nice, clear sound. But playing it through a Fender-Deluxe sounds terrible. So I use the Roland and simply add a Boss pedal when playing my strat to make it sound like a Fender Reverb Amp. So you can make an acoustic amp work for electric guitars... but not the other way around.

[bobc]

I use a Fishman SoloAmp and a Digitech RP1000 pedal with my Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Here is a test clip...

Click Here To Listen

Hope this helps.