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  #1  
Old 01-20-2018, 12:25 AM
BottledAwesome BottledAwesome is offline
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Default Your experiences with multi-effects units for acoustic playing

So I've been through the gamut of devices to play through, both electric and acoustic, and find myself always liking to have some sort of multi-fx on hand for their Swiss Army Knife usefulness.

With acoustic guitars I've found them generally more challenging to use, but useful nonetheless. The tool-du-jour for me is the Boss GT-1, which I have positively loved for electric work and am starting to get a feel for with my acoustic.

I find the flexibility of throwing the type and number of EQs I want at it to be really handy, and even the Acoustic Processor (not the Ac. Sim that transforms electric to acoustic) has proven to be pretty great. It is designed for piezo input, and the effect adds a LOT in the way of mid range to get that mic'd up guitar sound, so the balance was initially tough to find.

I've been taking it really slowly, adding only one thing at a time and leaving it for a few weeks before adding anything else. So far I have a single EQ, the Ac. Processor, a short reverb and a REALLY short delay. The next step will be to add an acoustic amp sim (in this case, "Full Range"), mostly just for the sake of bringing up the level of the patch and seeing what it will bring to the table tonally. I haven't found the need for compression yet, but we'll see how things feel once I've plugged into my live system.

I bought this unit for simplicity, so all the ins/outs and multi-chain capability isn't there. But in terms of how I can manipulate the sound of the guitar and the end result, I'm pretty happy with it.

What have been your experiences? What device have you used/do you use?
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Old 01-20-2018, 09:21 AM
Irish Pennant Irish Pennant is offline
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I've been chasing an amplified acoustic guitar sound for a few years now, not "The Pure" acoustic sound but a sound that does it for me. I've used a number of DI's, pre amps, stand alone pedals, a couple of multi-effects pedals, different guitars with different pickups, different guitar strings, a couple of different acoustic amps, a few different mixers, speakers and combinations of all the above.

What I've learned so far is that what I dial in in my studio most often doesn't translate in other venues because of the shape, size, environment, volume, gain settings, stage placement and other intangibles. When it does come together, it's like magic.

For the multi-effects pedal I've settled in on the Zoom A3. I have a few patches set in it, one patch is clean, some with just a light touch, a couple with strong tone shaping and a couple that are guitar specific. I have it augmented with stand alone pedals, Reverb, Chorus, Compression and looper. What I use depends on the song that I'm playing. I like the Zoom A3 multi-effect pedal for a number of reasons, one of the features I like is that I can set it so I can cycle through specific patches with my foot, this is nice when using the looper, I can play/loop a rhythm with one patch and play a melody with another, great for tone separation.

I've found that I get my best sound when I run my pedal board through my mixer, much better than when I run it through my amps.

The Zoom can run on batteries, I've taken it to open mics along with a Ditto 2x looper, which also runs on batteries and I've had mixed results, usually not for the better.
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Old 01-20-2018, 09:54 AM
AndyC AndyC is offline
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TC Helicon Play Acoustic.

Nothing better in my humble opinion.
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Old 01-26-2018, 07:50 PM
BT55 BT55 is offline
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I play acoustic and electric. I’ve setup a pedalboard that accommodates both. The biggest advantage is individual control of each effect with no menus.
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Old 01-27-2018, 07:54 AM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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I’ve started using the Tonewood Amp for a touch of reverb and delay live when I am playing through a sound system that isn’t mine. The quality of the Tonewood Amp effects is really wonderful. I have mine set to disable the feature where it vibrates the back of your guitar like a speaker cone when you plug it into an amp or PA system.
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Old 01-27-2018, 07:58 AM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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The effects on the Elite Acoustics D6-8 are excellent. The reverb and chorus are tweakable and simultaneously available on all input channels. The delay can be inserted on channels 1-4. You really don’t need external effects with this amp.
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Old 01-27-2018, 09:19 AM
troggg troggg is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lkingston View Post
The effects on the Elite Acoustics D6-8 are excellent. The reverb and chorus are tweakable and simultaneously available on all input channels. The delay can be inserted on channels 1-4. You really don’t need external effects with this amp.
Can you cycle through the "scenes" or various setups with a footswitch?
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Old 01-27-2018, 09:39 AM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BT55 View Post
I play acoustic and electric. I’ve setup a pedalboard that accommodates both. The biggest advantage is individual control of each effect with no menus.
I do this and agree 100%. I have a Zoom G3X and have tried to make acoustic-friendly patches, but nothing beats a pedal board will all the pedals corresponding to the effects you use in a layout you can adjust on the fly.

A whole pedal board setup certainly costs more than a swiss army alternative, but for me, being able to dial in the tone I want relatively quickly is worth it. Also, a 5 minute looper my Ditto gives me is way better than 40 seconds from the Zoom. The control I have from the Ernie Ball VP Jr. is much more precise than the G3X's expression pedal, the LR.Baggs Para DI I have doesn't hurt my electrics' tone and I can get my acoustics to sound perfect, my tube pre- gives my electrics tube sound whether use a tube amp, or go direct to a PA, and if I don't want tube sound for my acoustic, I can lower the gain and put a pad on it, and the benefits go on and on.
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Old 01-27-2018, 11:06 AM
Photojeep Photojeep is offline
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Much like Irish Pennant, I use a Zoom A3, also with stand alone Chorus and Reverb. I spent some quality time (read: "many hours") using the various modeling settings and effects to dial in what I consider to be pleasing sounds for my various guitars. From the monitors at church and comments from parishioners, they also like what they hear.

I just read the A3 is now discontinued which makes me a little sad but I guess the only constant is change.

Being the music-gearhead I am, I'm also looking at getting a Boss AD-10 because of its "resonance" settings and 2 guitar inputs. I expect to have it within a couple weeks and will report on its sound and ease of use.

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PJ
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Old 01-27-2018, 12:04 PM
Gary1953 Gary1953 is offline
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My search for a multi effects unit for acoustic guitar ended with the Yamaha AG Stomp. It truly is a master of all. All the effects I could ever need, tuner and various microphone types ans placements. The anti feedback filter is genius. Factory presets are very good and there are user presets you can save.

Sadly discontinued. If you find one for sale, buy it. You will not be disappointed. According to this video, with a TRS cable you can power your active guitar and forget about batteries.



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Old 01-27-2018, 02:42 PM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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I went through a lot of different effects pedals and setups and in the end I eliminated just about everything. I found that for me and my style of playing that less is more. My guitar with a K&K pickup into my Carvin AG200 amp is all I really need. EQ is done onboard and then add either some reverb or delay (also onboard the amp) - as of late I've been favoring delay. If I need/want volume control/EQ onboard the guitar then I'll wear the little battery powered K&K belt clip pre-amp.
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Old 01-27-2018, 05:03 PM
bil bil is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyC View Post
TC Helicon Play Acoustic.

Nothing better in my humble opinion.


I second this one.
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Old 01-27-2018, 06:31 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by troggg View Post
Can you cycle through the "scenes" or various setups with a footswitch?
No. You have 10 mixer scenes which can include fx settings, but you have to load the scene rather than just switch to it.
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Old 01-28-2018, 11:44 AM
Guitaurman Guitaurman is offline
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I'm sure we all have different needs and expectations. I just bought a Play Acoustic and gigged with it yesterday. As a solo singer songwriter, I don't use a lot of effects. I do like a bit of reverb and the ability to add chorus on a few songs. I found the Body Rez to really give my Gibson Hummingbird Pro with a Baggs Element pickup more of a real acoustic guitar sound. I just tweeked a few of the presets to achieve the guitar and vocal sounds to optimize my sound. This thing has features I'll never use. I think effects are a lot like playing guitar, sometimes what you DON'T play makes you sound better. People want to hear the songs, not a demo of what weird sounds the latest toys can make. I doubt I'll ever even use the harmonies. What I get from it is, vocals that sound better than I can dial in with a mixer. They are clear and cut through the crowd noise with out being obnoxious. The guitar has a much more natural sound. There may be better units out there, but for my needs this thing enhances what I do very nicely.
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Old 01-28-2018, 11:59 AM
sdelsolray sdelsolray is offline
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I've been using a TC Electronics M3000 effects unit for many years. It has two effects engines, many routing choices and a number of effects choices/settings can be saved for easy recall. I normally use it for various reverb settings and have some settings for reverb/chorus, reverb/delay, among a few others. It is patched through the stereo effects loop of my Pendulum SPS-1 and not the channel inserts. I use the analog eq in the SPS-1.
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