Using an acoustic guitar to get an ‘Electric’ sound

[bbrunskill]

Has anyone here ever used a soundhole magnetic pickup in your acoustic to get an electric sound?

I do one solo live where I use a Tech21 Sansamp on my acoustic to get a nasty raunchy distortion sound, and it’s a pretty good tone. However it feeds back like crazy and is pretty wild due to the high end of the LR Baggs Lyric pickup.

It got me thinking that maybe if I install a mag pickup, I might be able to get a sweeter, more controllable electric tone. Besides, I just prefer the feel of an acoustic guitar, and I like the idea of playing church stuff on the acoustic. I guess I could look into blending the acoustic and electric sounds.

Anyone doing something similar?

[rockabilly69]

I use all sorts of pickups to get electric sounds. I have a Fulldrive II pedal on my pedal board along with a SexDrive pedal and together they make for some pretty electric slide guitar tones! The trick is knowing how to EQ them so they don't have crazy feedback issues.

[jonfields45]

I put my Traveler Escape MKII through an overdriven Twin Reverb model with a Zoom MS50G for leads when jamming. It sounds pretty good, but this is low volume acoustic jams and feedback at those volume levels with a mildly overdriven tone is not a problem (I am using a JBL Flip2 as my amp). Jon

[syrynx]

It's possible to get nice distorted sounds with any type of pickup. The key is to be able (and willing) to roll off highs before the signal hits the first clipping stage, whether that stage is in a pedal or an amp.

Sound hole magnetic pickups can make the task easier; because of their placement, they inherently roll off some highs. Choice of magnetic pickup of course also has a timbral effect; my old Shadow model 43 "Buckeroo," which, as the name suggests, is a humbucker, rolls off more highs than my old Lawrence Sound Research FT-145 and A-345 pickups, which are single coils.

Arthritis has killed the joy of conventional fretting for me, so lap steel accounts for most of my playing these days. My main instruments are a Martin 0-15 and a Harmony H165, each fitted with an extension nut and a Lawrence sound hole pickup. I like a wee bit o'grit on most of the music I play this way, and I achieve it by playing through one of several small amps. As I'm not gigging, feedback is not an issue for me.

[Andy Howell]

Originally Posted by bbrunskill

Has anyone here ever used a soundhole magnetic pickup in your acoustic to get an electric sound?

I do one solo live where I use a Tech21 Sansamp on my acoustic to get a nasty raunchy distortion sound, and it’s a pretty good tone. However it feeds back like crazy and is pretty wild due to the high end of the LR Baggs Lyric pickup.

It got me thinking that maybe if I install a mag pickup, I might be able to get a sweeter, more controllable electric tone. Besides, I just prefer the feel of an acoustic guitar, and I like the idea of playing church stuff on the acoustic. I guess I could look into blending the acoustic and electric sounds.

Anyone doing something similar?

While I personally stick to pure acoustic, I have seen a number of people do very interesting things using Zoom effect boxes — these seem to have been used sparingly to produce a number of different sounds without loosing the inherent quality of an acoustic guitar.

[akagilligan]

Sex Drive-a bit of grit with some comp. Fantastic dynamics.

Rat-setting gain to low can soind real nice with filter rolled back. The Soothsayer is what I'd get today to do this.

Blue'Note/Timmy- good low gainers with some transparency

Most of the pros that do this run a tube screamer and sometimes a split signal into another amp. Many overdrivve suggestions would be a variant of a tube screamer. Route 66 gets mentioned some and has the added benefit of a compressor. V3 comes out this month which looks good. Has a clean blend and you can run the OD through the compressor to smooth it out. Had a TS808HW but my signal chain at that time didn't like it. Clean blend is a nice option.

I didn't have much luck with emulators

The first four are listed in the order that I liked, but everything is so rig specific.

Right now I'm toying with a Blackstone Appliances and ordered this one last night http://rockettpedals.com/product/all...ature-odboost/

Changed amps a while ago and am going through the process of trying to find that sound in my head. There is a bit of a learning curve on the Blackstone. The one I picked up last night will have a nice boost and something a bit smoother than the blue note. Some may play nicer with certain pickups but I used whatever I used. EQ and amp seem to be the key along with finding something you like.

We'll see.....it's all fun.

Now if there was just a clear winner on reverb...

[frank4001]

Check out Roy Rogers playing slide on his old Martin with a D'Armond sound hole humbucker.
Lo fi. He uses an interesting set up though...

[roylor4]

Originally Posted by bbrunskill

Has anyone here ever used a soundhole magnetic pickup in your acoustic to get an electric sound?

I do one solo live where I use a Tech21 Sansamp on my acoustic to get a nasty raunchy distortion sound, and it’s a pretty good tone. However it feeds back like crazy and is pretty wild due to the high end of the LR Baggs Lyric pickup.

It got me thinking that maybe if I install a mag pickup, I might be able to get a sweeter, more controllable electric tone. Besides, I just prefer the feel of an acoustic guitar, and I like the idea of playing church stuff on the acoustic. I guess I could look into blending the acoustic and electric sounds.

Anyone doing something similar?

I have done this. Yup, a magnetic will give you more ability to overdrive and distort without feedback. You may also get better feedback resistance using a simple soundhole cover.

[Random1643]

This is an interesting thread. So much to learn. I really like experimenting with this side of electric-acoustic.

Here's a Simon & Patrick cherry/spruce parlor with a Fishman Rare Earth Humbucking magnetic soundhole pickup. Run through some pedals - detailed on the song site - into a hand built 14-watt tube amp. Woody Guthrie's Vigilante Man. https://soundcloud.com/vern-equinox/vigilante-man-take1 This pickup/amp combination also can produce a clear, balanced clean-but-not-acoustic sound; here's an example with no pedals but same guitar, pickup & amp: https://soundcloud.com/vern-equinox/...ould-cry-take1 No feedback issues so far - altho am playing in my basement. I hope others post experiments.

[MichaelBT]

Originally Posted by bbrunskill

Has anyone here ever used a soundhole magnetic pickup in your acoustic to get an electric sound?

I do one solo live where I use a Tech21 Sansamp on my acoustic to get a nasty raunchy distortion sound, and it’s a pretty good tone. However it feeds back like crazy and is pretty wild due to the high end of the LR Baggs Lyric pickup.

It got me thinking that maybe if I install a mag pickup, I might be able to get a sweeter, more controllable electric tone. Besides, I just prefer the feel of an acoustic guitar, and I like the idea of playing church stuff on the acoustic. I guess I could look into blending the acoustic and electric sounds.

Anyone doing something similar?

Take a look at what Jon Gomm does. There is a youtube video which is basically a promo for BOSS where he goes through his pedal board which I found quite intersting. He has seperate parametric EQ for each of his 3 pick-ups, runs his magnetic through an octave pedal and a Boss fender bassman distortion pedal, then blends it with the SBT & Mic signals to go to delay. This makes sense because you don't want octaves or distortion on body percussion... most of the time

Look it up on google/youtube

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by frank4001

Check out Roy Rogers playing slide on his old Martin with a D'Armond sound hole humbucker.
Lo fi. He uses an interesting set up though...

I've played with him twice and he uses a chorus on his tone. The times I played with him he backlined a Fender twin and his tone was pretty full sounding.

[Rubsoul]

I had a Gibson J 160 that sounded like an electric guitar. (Think early Beatles)
That P90 was an amazing PUP in an acoustic.

[bbrunskill]

Belated update - I’ve got a Bill Lawrence A-300 on the way. Will post more once I’ve tried it.

[syrynx]

Originally Posted by bbrunskill

Belated update - I’ve got a Bill Lawrence A-300 on the way.

On the way from where? New or used?

What I really want to know is whether the A-300 you're acquiring is from Lawrence Sound Research or from “*Bill Lawrence USA“. Read the claims and disclaimers on the front page of that site (you'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see all of them). Then see the late Bill Lawrence's side of the story at this page on billlawrence.com.

Bill Lawrence's first sound hole pickups for acoustic guitars, made by Lawrence Sound Research, came to market in 1977, and continued to be made and sold by LSR until 1984. From that time until his death, Bill Lawrence had no connection with any sound hole pickups, AFAIK. The sound hole pickups sold since then by “*Bill Lawrence USA“ have the same model numbers as LSR pickups, and are cosmetically similar (though in most instances not identical). However, I know nothing about where they're made, nor whether they are accurate implementations of Bill Lawrence's designs and quality standards.

I got my first FT-145 in 1978, and it has been in the sound hole of my 1935 Martin 0-15 ever since then. I subsequently acquired three more FT-145s, an A-345, and an AT-170. I also owned an A-300, for about four hours. But the A-300, which was designed to fit in smaller sound holes, wouldn't stay in place in the large sound hole of my wife's Ovation, so I exchanged it (plus some money) for the A-345. (The shop didn't have an FT-145.) I later found a couple more FT-145s for my wife's six and twelve string Ovations, and the A-345 found a home in my '59 Martin 0-15, where it has remained since 1982.

It would be fair to say I'm addicted to the LSR sound hole pickups, and I'm keenly interested to learn all I can about your A-300-- particularly, how it sounds and whether it's a product of “*Bill Lawrence USA“ or Lawrence Sound Research. I do hope you'll update this thread after you receive the pickup and have the opportunity to put it through its paces.

[Random1643]

Thanks, John, for that instructive bit of history re "Lawrence" pickups. On my long journey to find a pickup I can stand for cherry/spruce parlor I went through them all, including Bill Lawrence. The Bill Lawrence pickups I tried were terrible - unbalanced, tinny, harsh. But maybe I was messing around with the knock-offs.