Best Acoustic Tone Plugged In?

[SpruceTop]

I still like high-end American-made Ovation and Adamas guitars with the venerable OCP1-K pickup mated with the newer VIP-5 Preamp (five onboard Aura Images) or Op Pro Studio Preamp. Then again, I also like Martin and Larrivee guitars with Trance Audio Amulet systems installed in them. The above pickups and preamp systems work well with the ToneDexter I and II.

[conecaster]

I am a little biased after 8 years of development, but I believe our Go Acoustic Audio system is in a class by its self.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lmD...w?usp=drivesdk

https://youtu.be/1wYUKkSQ3fM?si=sXkvK5rD1W1GxSV4

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by Zandit75

Cole Clark Hybrid guitars. End of discussion.
Towards the middle of last year I heard Anthony Snape playing one of these while supporting Tommy Emmanuel's Aussie tour.
Sounded fantastic.

I still would prefer my PRS Hollowbody Piezo. About 1/3 the price and plays very easily. Cole Clark necks are "different"...you have to try them and see what I mean. Also they don't hold value at all, so if you decide to sell down the road, prepare to lose half your money.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by conecaster

I am a little biased after 8 years of development, but I believe our Go Acoustic Audio system is in a class by its self.

https://youtu.be/1wYUKkSQ3fM?si=sXkvK5rD1W1GxSV4

You didn't read the original post. He's looking for an electric- acoustic hybrid guitar.

[strangebloom]

Originally Posted by hotroad

I am seeing a lot of hybrid electrics with the ability to play acoustic tones via a piezo or other systems. I want to know which guitar produces an acoustic tone that most resembles an acoustic guitar amplified. I have listened to several but they fall way short of producing good acoustic guitar tones plugged in. Help please. The closest I have heard so far is the Godin LGX-SA.

Could it also be what's amplifying them?

I am an amateur, so sorry if this is not helpful, but my American made Ovation Balladeer sounds very acoustic through my Marshall AS50 acoustic amp.

[hotroad]

OP here...thanks so much for all the feedback on my original post. I am still in the hunt and without doing a national tour to try out some guitars mentioned here I am left to trusting what this forum shares and what I see and hear on line. Of course I have learned that there are electric guitars with piezos(hybrid) and acoustic guitars with humbuckers (hybrid).

Being an acoustic player for decades I am sort of ready for more of an electric guitar with piezos but my worry is that the piezo tone will be so degraded that I will be too disappointed. I am used to very good acoustic tone at this point with my acoustic guitars and not ready to settle for a tone that is not sounding great tone-wise to me. Of course to each his own.

My goal may be impossible to meet. I will keep on looking and listening though and thanks again for all the great comments on this post.

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by JackB1

You didn't read the original post. He's looking for an electric- acoustic hybrid guitar.

Yeah, but as all these discussions go they morph off the original premise. For that reason I’ve stayed out of this. Personally I don’t like the new Fender offerings. They work fine for some people. I have friends that love them. But that’s for band work with nothing special going on guitar-wise.

I am having great success with Paul’s GO AA. Plugged it into an EV 50 PA last night and it was excellent with nothing else being added.

[conecaster]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Never heard anything better than Godin's "Duet Ambiance"-- but that's a nylon string...I haven't had a chance to try one of their steel string hybrids, but my guess would be they have a model with a pickup system equally as good...

Hi Jeff,

What do you think of this Sound in a Nylon string guitar.

[conecaster]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Yeah, but as all these discussions go they morph off the original premise. For that reason I’ve stayed out of this. Personally I don’t like the new Fender offerings. They work fine for some people. I have friends that love them. But that’s for band work with nothing special going on guitar-wise.

I am having great success with Paul’s GO AA. Plugged it into an EV 50 PA last night and it was excellent with nothing else being added.

So glad to see Marshall is getting the meaning of Go AA. I look forward to the second installation he is planning.

We track the installations our clients have and the percentage of clients who buy a second or even third system is about 75%.


So, what is an Electric Acoustic guitar?

Does not amplifying an Acoustic guitar make it an electric guitar. Pretty simple.

AHH, so the idea is to compensate for stage stress to suppress feedback. How about using technology to kill feedback and drive the amplification faithfully from the truly "acoustic" guitar source?

As an acoustic Guitar maker I reduced myself to installing the average pickups that very few seem to like. Well, I didn't like them. I was a classical guitar maker and playing an amplifier was a *******ization of the guitar to me.

I was seeing so called Acoustic electric stage guitars and just thought, WHY?

Then one summer Richard McClish came to Nashville. Most guitar players would not give an RMC pickup the time of day, that is really denying technology, not a formula for great sound. Edward Demming, the brilliant economic philosopher who was behind the manufacturing that won WW2 and was adopted by Toyota to become the most dynamic car maker, wrote. "If you ignore technology you lose." When I see concepts long dis-proven but re introduced, I think how can this be a win for musicians. Barcus Berry made top mounted transducers 60 years ago. How are current devices like this an advantage? Same concept different branding?


I spent several days with this brilliant character, McClish, expounding on the concepts required to create truly Acoustic electric stage sound. It did not matter to McClish though, He was lost in virtual sound. He even patented a virtual Swimming pool!! I know what your thinking, that is a fact.

So RMC became associated with Godin, It became a go-to nylon electric stage sound, and also a triggering device to feed a midi controller. I could go on about how it works but I think I will move on to Go AA.

I took RMC and used it to build a state of the art nylon electric stage guitar 25 years ago. I made the first ones in 1998. How do you make a unique acoustic guitar that is also a viable stage guitar, that can compete with high vol instruments like Drums, Sub woolfers, sax??





I thought, lets just build a guitar that is sub acoustic like others before me, but my instincts were still there and a unique acoustic sound was the result.

So how does a sensitive acoustic guitar survive high vol and not feedback?

McClish did it, the Godin being more of a hybrid design was not why the feedback was so controlled. There are many similar guitars that do not do what the Godins will do live to suppress feedback.

In the US, this innovation was ignored for the most part, in South America it was not. The feedback resistance needed for live sound became a must.

So in 2010 I became concerned I would not have what I needed to make the stage guitars I am known for. People can argue about the available products and, or, endorse their qualities, but for me, it was all rubbish that would never serve my Instrument's needs. Low or high vol. RMC is not available now.

I began looking into how I could move forward with the capabilities I saw as possible.

It has been a long journey that I could not have traveled with out my partner Ben Shaw. Ben was 23 when I met him. His vision for how to exploit the concepts I had learned grew into a new approach to Acoustic Amplification.

How its done is not easily conveyed, but the concepts are what are important:

Strings must have isolation, this means summed signals from the bridge are inadequate. RMC isolated strings mechanically, Go AA uses circuits to achieve isolation but offers more than the mechanical design can. Controlling Frequency ranges allows for more detailed control of how strings respond in the high stress stage situations that cause feedback. Phasing must be used to counter the cycling that exists when greater amplitude is being projected back through the guitar's sound board from high wattage speakers.

So here is a Winfield champion experiencing Go AA for the first time. The amp is a Fender Acoustic 100.

Shane is an engineer at the Redstone rocket testing range near Huntsville AL.



Go AA is not something you have experienced until you play it, it is a stand alone approach to solving acoustic amplification problems. I like to think of it as a paradigm shift in acoustic guitar amplification.

I see no need for half way electric guitars with conceptually deficient pickups installed.

We want a real acoustic guitar sound, amplified at high vol, without fear of feedback.

Is the amplification playing you? , or are you playing the amplification?

Please visit us at:

goacousticaudio.com

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by conecaster

Hi Jeff,

What do you think of this Sound in a Nylon string guitar.

Sounds outstanding.

[quackerrrrr]

The Emerald X-10 is exactly what you're describing

https://youtu.be/12Eo4HW6JsM?si=TLhgQn8nnzWtA8ux

[mixsit]

Originally Posted by hotroad

OP here...thanks so much for all the feedback on my original post. I am still in the hunt and without doing a national tour to try out some guitars mentioned here I am left to trusting what this forum shares and what I see and hear on line. Of course I have learned that there are electric guitars with piezos(hybrid) and acoustic guitars with humbuckers (hybrid).

Being an acoustic player for decades I am sort of ready for more of an electric guitar with piezos but my worry is that the piezo tone will be so degraded that I will be too disappointed. I am used to very good acoustic tone at this point with my acoustic guitars and not ready to settle for a tone that is not sounding great tone-wise to me. Of course to each his own.

My goal may be impossible to meet. I will keep on looking and listening though and thanks again for all the great comments on this post.

Just for the record I'd like to say thanks for the thread! It's made for some very interesting reading.

[conecaster]

Originally Posted by quackerrrrr

The Emerald X-10 is exactly what you're describing

https://youtu.be/12Eo4HW6JsM?si=TLhgQn8nnzWtA8ux

I am aware Alister is installing these units in his guitars.

Its still a summed pickup and I hear the UST sound.

[BillCoplin]

Nearly any guitar with a ToneDexter or LR Baggs VoicePrint DI.

I use the VoicePrint with Emerald x20, X30 and Virtuo guitars, Composite Acoustic GX and Cargo Guitars, a Yamaha NX700 Nylon and a Yairi DY85. They all sound great as does my PRS SE Semi Hollow with Piezo.

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by hotroad

OP here...thanks so much for all the feedback on my original post. I am still in the hunt and without doing a national tour to try out some guitars mentioned here I am left to trusting what this forum shares and what I see and hear on line. Of course I have learned that there are electric guitars with piezos(hybrid) and acoustic guitars with humbuckers (hybrid).

Being an acoustic player for decades I am sort of ready for more of an electric guitar with piezos but my worry is that the piezo tone will be so degraded that I will be too disappointed. I am used to very good acoustic tone at this point with my acoustic guitars and not ready to settle for a tone that is not sounding great tone-wise to me. Of course to each his own.

My goal may be impossible to meet. I will keep on looking and listening though and thanks again for all the great comments on this post.

I've played a couple Electric guitars that have piezo's and I don't thin they have a natural acoustic sound. To my ears, they only approach an 'acoustic tone'.

I have not played the Cole Clark Hybrid but in the demo's, I still feel it's sort of a jack of all trades/master of none.