DI box to restore acoustic quality to amplified sound

[cutty]

hi guys - i am playing a taylor 4-something in a band w mando, electric bass and electric guitar. we are amplified through a mixer into a pair of bose towers. my taylor has a built-in fishman pick-up w 9-volt battery. the sound of my guitar amplified in this manner is so pitifully "pick-up-ish" that it hardly sounds like the beautiful instrument it can be. I am looking for a solution to restore the acoustic-ness to the amplified sound - passive DI box? TC Helicon Acoustic play? LR Baggs para DI - ?

I'd sure appreciate any suggestions or education in terms of what I'm experiencing. thx

[sdelsolray]

Perhaps a different pickup.

[Fire&Rain]

The search for "just like my acoustic sound, only amplified" is a siren call to some, but a Medusan curse to many others! The most courageous among us have discovered it leads one to explore the ancient caves of K&K, wander thru the mysterious forest of Baggs, dwell in the hidden kingdom of B-Band, or set sail across the mystical sea of Fishman. But be fair warned, beyond these borders there be dragons! For those cursed with an ear for the perfect acoustic sound, the Odyssean voyage continues...

[akafloyd]

In that mix of instruments a real natural sound might not be heard very well. A passive DI shouldn't do anything to help unless the mixer input you're using is seriously mismatched to your pickup (possible). The Baggs ParaDI may be helpful just because it has lots of eq and you may be able to dial down the most offending sound. It may be worth a try using a ParaDI, Venue, a Red-Eye, or one of the Fishman preamps but don't expect any miracles.

[kcnbys]

With that pickup, I'd recommend the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI (or Aura 16 if you're on a tighter budget). It can do wonders for the "less than acoustic" sound of certain undersaddle pickup systems.

[jomaynor]

Originally Posted by cutty

hi guys - i am playing a taylor 4-something in a band w mando, electric bass and electric guitar. we are amplified through a mixer into a pair of bose towers. my taylor has a built-in fishman pick-up w 9-volt battery. the sound of my guitar amplified in this manner is so pitifully "pick-up-ish" that it hardly sounds like the beautiful instrument it can be. I am looking for a solution to restore the acoustic-ness to the amplified sound - passive DI box? TC Helicon Acoustic play? LR Baggs para DI - ?

I'd sure appreciate any suggestions or education in terms of what I'm experiencing. thx

First off, what type of mixer are you using?
Have you tried making various EQ adjustments on the mixer, yet?
Do you have an an acoustic amp at home? If so, how does your Taylor sound through it?

Not to say that using a good DI wouldn't help, especially one that has tone shaping and boost features. But not having a DI in this instance may not be the primary cause of your dissatisfaction with your sound.


Also - this is something to consider before replacing your pickup with a more natural sounding system like a Baggs Lyric or Anthem. Keep in mind that, with a band, a pure natural acoustic guitar sound, with its midrange and lower midrange emphasis, will tend to get masked by the more cutting sounds of the electric guitar and the mandolin, and the more prominent lows and lower mids of the electric bass.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by cutty

hi guys - i am playing a taylor 4-something in a band w mando, electric bass and electric guitar. we are amplified through a mixer into a pair of bose towers. my taylor has a built-in fishman pick-up w 9-volt battery. the sound of my guitar amplified in this manner is so pitifully "pick-up-ish" that it hardly sounds like the beautiful instrument it can be. I am looking for a solution to restore the acoustic-ness to the amplified sound - passive DI box? TC Helicon Acoustic play? LR Baggs para DI - ?

I'd sure appreciate any suggestions or education in terms of what I'm experiencing. thx

Fishman aura pedal.

If you're not using the Bose T1 mixer, that might be a problem too.

[John Bartus]

I'll also chime in on the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI. It is a great little box, but it takes some work finding the right image that works with your particular guitar, as well as setting it up for live work with the 3-band notch filter, blend, and EQ. But when you do... it sounds like an acoustic guitar coming out of the speakers, not a UST pickup. In addition to the Aura images, it's a decent DI as well.

[McShepherd]

If you're not looking to change pickups, the either an Aura (as has been mentioned) or D-TAR Mama Bear may be what you're looking for - both designed to take the (considered by many of us forumites inferior) sound produced by a typical bridge pickup and reshape it digitally to sound more like the natural acoustic sound of the instrument.

[cutty]

Fire and Rain - clever and you likely speak the truuuth, bruddah.

we are using an allen/heath 16ch mix board and i confess to not exhausting the eq capabilities there. the mixer and bose tower belong to another fellow and he has been twisting the knobs. you're right; that should be my first stop. i like the concept of the fishman aura spectrum, and from reviews at least it sounds like they have done a pretty good job. my taylor (circa 1999 bought used) has a fishman prefix on board pickup which i imagine should be a good match w the aura

i had looked online at the tc helicon play acoustic and had hopes that it would treat my guitar kindly and give me some reverb for vocal at same time in one box. the mixer doesn't have reverb capability - only if sent into the mac and back, as far as i know

i have a collings D2 which i love but kinda think i'll leave it as is without a pick up and keep it home or in house jams, rather than bouncing around. we don't play out that much anyway. i'd like to find a nice solution for the taylor so i can baby the collings

thx for the input so far and would welcome more

[foxyloxy]

No amplification system is the same as the acoustic sound, because every pickup, microphone and speaker has its own characteristic.
Try every poss. permutation with the gear you already use, you may find that adjusting tone controls/EQ will give you near enough what you want.
If not, then try out as many pickups and guitar mics as poss before you buy.
I have a Fishman soundhole pickup and it sounds great. A drum mic. clipped to the edge of the soundhole sounded great too, just had to bend the support wire so the mic didn't foul the strings.

[Br1ck]

Originally Posted by Fire&Rain

The search for "just like my acoustic sound, only amplified" is a siren call to some, but a Medusan curse to many others! The most courageous among us have discovered it leads one to explore the ancient caves of K&K, wander thru the mysterious forest of Baggs, dwell in the hidden kingdom of B-Band, or set sail across the mystical sea of Fishman. But be fair warned, beyond these borders there be dragons! For those cursed with an ear for the perfect acoustic sound, the Odyssean voyage continues...

Now this is the best answer I've seen in a while and so true.

My answer, is if you have an under saddle pickup, you are doomed. Probably the best aproach for you in a band setting is a dual source that incorporated a mic.

I really like the Red Eye for what it does to piezos like the K& K mini.

[cutty]

funny to read my OP after 5 years.

soon after this post, i "broke down" and put a k&k in my collings d2h2.

then i got an orchid DI w a mute footswitch.

it gets its eq from the mixer which we control.

i love it. the only thing i'd change is to get an orchid DI w eq if i needed the eq control myself.

hope this helps somebody in the same boat i was in

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by cutty

funny to read my OP after 5 years.

soon after this post, i "broke down" and put a k&k in my collings d2h2.

then i got an orchid DI w a mute footswitch.

it gets its eq from the mixer which we control.

i love it. the only thing i'd change is to get an orchid DI w eq if i needed the eq control myself.

hope this helps somebody in the same boat i was in

Lol, what's funny is that it's been only 2.5-ish years since your OP (5 years since you joined) and even more that in that time you only have 6 posts... and THREE of them are on this thread! Where have you been?!?

[martingitdave]

Oops. Got caught with the Zombie thread.