Looking for primer/tutorial on the basics of using an amp

[beninma]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a beginner, been practicing on my own for 7-8 months and just started taking lessons. I only have 1 Acoustic guitar, but when I've been going to lessons my teacher has been using an electric guitar, and one of the things he's been doing is repeating sections with a looper pedal. I am fairly intrigued by this and was thinking of trying to get setup at home so I could use this kind of thing for a learning tool. I have a Tascam recorder, an iPad, etc.. but all of this stuff seems really clumsy compared to a looper pedal + amp. Lots of fiddling, lots of time with my hands off the guitar, not loud enough to hear/terrible quality, etc.. (The tascam records nicely but doesn't have much of a speaker at all, the iPad has louder speakers but records pretty poorly.)

I have an Alvarez with an LR Baggs Element VTC that came from the factory.

Last weekend I went and looked at a used Amp that I found on Craigslist nearby, very inexpensive. However I was worried it wasn't working correctly and passed on it. It wasn't working without it's overdrive switch turned on and the gain turned up which didn't seem normal from what I had seen looking at the instructions and reviews online. Lots of hissing and popping, etc.. too. (It was a fender Frontman 10g.) Some feedback as well.

I then went over to a guitar center and asked for help. They let me try a Fender Mustang I, which seems to be another cheap amp that people say can be OK for an acoustic electric with lower expectations. They didn't really have anything tailored for an acoustic that was in a reasonable price range or power range for me to use for practicing at home. (Everything in the acoustic range was $300+ and at least 60w.)

Anyway we did get my guitar working with the Fender Mustang but there was a ton of feedback. They tried to say my guitar was the problem and to make an appointment to have it serviced. I ended up not doing that because my guitar is working great acoustically and I didn't want to leave it there and not be able to play.

When I got home and did some google searches it seems the person who helped me didn't know what they were doing with Acoustic guitars.. they had me turn the gain on preamp on my guitar all the way up, and they had me sitting with the sound hole facing the amp. From what I read that alone can be enough to cause an acoustic guitar with pickups to feed back. It was also Saturday and there were about 20 people going crazy with electric guitars in the room at that point.

Is there any good documentation for beginners on how to get started? I am going to ask my teacher to look over my guitar with me next time I see him and see if I can get past the feedback issue there but I'm tempted to just order a practice amp online. I kind of get the impression if I was given time to read the instructions for the amp at GC and orient the guitar correctly, etc.. I would have gotten it working and there is nothing wrong with my guitar.

I am looking for something that is:
- Not that loud (home use)
- Can possibly be used with an electric guitar later too
- Pretty reasonably priced.
- Headphone and aux jack, I like to plug a phone/ipad in as I'm starting to try and play along with recordings, and I mostly practice at night so the headphones may be important at times.

Stuff I've been intrigued by would include things like the Fender Acoustasonic 15, Fender Mustang I V2, The Yamaha THR models (a little pricey), etc..

It is not real helpful that there doesn't seem to be any user manual at all from LR Baggs on how to use the knobs on the VTC on my guitar, the two knobs are not even labeled anywhere in the instructions. (Instructions are just for installation anyway)

[akafloyd]

There is probably nothing wrong with your guitar. Acoustic guitars and electric guitar amps don't often play well together because electric amps are oriented toward distortion and heavier midrange tone, both of which lead to feedback with an acoustic guitar.

I would search for the 15 watt Ultrasound model.

It looks like Shoreline has them for about $140!!

http://shorelinemusic.com/collection...trasound-ag-15

[Res Ipsa]

May I suggest checking out the Katana 50 amp. It has a very nice pre-amp section dedicated to acoustic-electric guitars, along with settings to plug in an electric guitar. It has Aux In for jamming to music, and a headphone jack. It can be scaled back to .5W for bedroom playing without losing sound quality, or can rattle windows at 50W. . It has a nice-sounding 12" speaker. Street price is $199.

I have the 100W version, which is $329 and adds some more features. I believe the acoustic capability of the Katana amps is quite good, and if you decide to branch out to an electric guitar, it has that covered very well.

There's a thread over on the gearpage forum that is over 190 pages and growing daily, with close to 250,000 views so far. Rather unheard of for an amp that just hit the market recently. I wouldn't buy an entry level acoustic amp without at least checking out the Katana first, especially if $199 is within your price range.

[Res Ipsa]

Here's a video on the Katana line of amps with an acoustic guitar:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3QcQxlN4Z4

[YamahaGuy]

If all you want to do is loop and play back to it, a copy of the TC Ditto is online for about $60 and a decent used acoustic amp can be had for about $60 with enough searching.

An alternative route you may want to consider is a Zoom G3 which has Amp models, tons of effects, and a 40 second looper built in. Not a stand alone unit, but it can be USB'd to a computer for recording, XLR'd to a PA system when you do your first open mic, or patched into an amp via the 1/4" plug. Finally, it has a headphone (1/4") Jack too.

If you really want an amp, there are many models with looping capability but for your needs, I feel the right choice would be a Peavey VYPYR with a Sanpera I pedal which will be great on a few points:
- it accommodates acoustic/electric guitars
-it can accommodate bass guitars
-it works equally well for electric guitars
-only with the Sanpera I or II pedal you can loop for 30 seconds

This particular Amp also had a USB out, and a 1/8" headphone Jack. I use the VYPR2 (40 watt, 1 12') but the amp is available is a more powerful 12" speaker model, a tube model , and a smaller model.

Happy (amp/loop pedal) hunting.

[YamahaGuy]

The 1x8" 20watt Peavey is the VYPYR VIP1 ($129) and the Sanpera I unfortunately costs as much as the amp at $119. I found my Sanpera used at GC for $50 with the cable. That cable is not cheap either.

[beninma]

Unfortunately there definitely seems to be something wrong with the LR Baggs pickup in my guitar. (Element Active VTC)

I went to my lesson yesterday, my teacher had 3 amps in the room, a THR10, a THR5, and some other larger/older electric guitar amp he uses with his Telecaster.

We could get some low output out of my guitar with the THR10 with the volume turned up loud, but with the same volume level as his telecaster we couldn't get any output out of my guitar.

I loosened up the strings last night and pulled the battery. Check out this sweet specimen! I swapped it for a fresh battery despite this one looking OK on my multi-meter. (It read 9.3v) I'm going to take the guitar in to be looked at today.

They seem overpriced but I really like the look/power level/feature set of the Yamaha THR series.

[whiteshadow]

Originally Posted by beninma

They seem overpriced but I really like the look/power level/feature set of the Yamaha THR series.

I got the THR5A and the THR10X recently. I love them, they sound great and record really well. I think the best thing is they're so easy to use because of their small size but you don't have to sacrifice sound quality due to it. I just have them sat on my desk while I record and don't have to move to change settings on them.

I use my acoustic and uke on the THR5A and my electrics and bass\keyboard on the 10X.

They're really great for playing along to songs by plugging in your phone as well. You can even use them in place of your desktop\laptop speakers if your speakers aren't that great.

You probably already know but you get Cubase AI with the THR range so you don't have to buy recording software.

You can't really go wrong with the THR series.

[beninma]

Yah, all those features are super attractive and the 10w output is about right for practice in my house, and it sounds like the THR models make better than average mini-stereos too. It'd mostly be a hard decision on which one to get.. having it work decently well for an electric guitar would be very nice too. It seems like with the THR models you're either getting 85% electric guitar features with 15% acoustic features or vise versa. I am more inclined towards a THR10 or THR10C, I'm not sure I like the feature set of the 5A as much.

I took my guitar in today, sounds like when it got setup a few months ago the saddle might not have been properly sanded to keep the pickup working. I was told a couple days, hopefully this time they get it right without compromising the action. (The action currently is really excellent.. I'd hate to suddenly have the pickups working but the action messed up.)

[jseth]

One thing to look out for... the Element DOES NOT play well with shims! Don't let any t4ech put a shim under your saddle or it will wreak havoc with the pickup's output.

I think most techs know this by now, but just in case...

When I first had the Anthem SL installed in my 6 and 12 string guitars, the 6 string sounded like crap! Weird, uneven tones from every string... found out later about the shim-issue.

I ALWAYS switch out a battery if I have trouble with an internal pickup, just as a matter of course. Seems like that's the first place to start.

Good luck with your problem. As far as an amp for looping an acoustic, I know that old Fender tube amps (prior to 1975 or so) used to sound wonderful with the old school "contact"-type pickup (Barcus Berry), but I haven't found a newer electric guitar amplifier that handles the newer pickups worth a darn. Any problem with using an acoustic guitar amp?

[beninma]

I've got no problems with using any particular kind of amp. If anything the issue seems to be my guitar not any particular amp.

I took my guitar in and let a tech work on it last week, they couldn't find anything wrong with the installation of the Element pickup in my guitar or anything wrong with the saddle. It gets even signal on all the strings but the overall volume is very very low. They hooked it up to like a 90w Fishman AMP IIRC in the store and it was working but they said the volume level on the amp was turned way up and it should have been deafeningly loud and it wasn't at all. They ended up opening a case with LR Baggs to see if there is some kind of possibility the preamp in the guitar is not working correctly and needs to be replaced.

For now I have it back and at least it's working perfectly acoustically so it's no worse than before. It'll go back in depending on what comes back from LR Baggs. Until then any plans I have of buying a practice amp are on indefinite hold.