Poll: Acoustic with or without electronics

[troystory92]

If I can't plug in, who's gonna hear me?

[guitar george]

Mine are mostly acoustic, but, it's nice to have at least one with a pickup to use sometimes. The sound is totally different and can be adjusted. If you perform using a mic, you need two mics, one for guitar and one for singing. Two mics are not always available unless you bring your own.

[Mbroady]

I recently almost went down the UST road for a relatively new guitar, but I opted for a SBD/mic. I also have a similar set up in 3 other guitars. Another has a Lyric installed

So yep, pick-ups for all. But they are all after market installationd except for a Rainsong which came with a Barn-door Fishman.

It’s nice to have options when gigging, jamming or the occasional open mic.

[mercy]

There are things that are happening in the box that electronics cant pick up. Its that intimate participation with the magic of the guitar thats what its all about. I do understand that if you are playing for an audience you have to make it louder but that magic cant be amplified. Yes the audience doesnt get the magic but that magic is the reason to play for me.

[TBman]

I don't play out and I record with just mics. As a result I not a fan of electronics, but if I like a guitar it's coming home regardless.

[raysachs]

I play purely acoustically about 99% of the time. I haven't performed in public in many years and don't anticipate doing it again (and if I did it would almost surely be with an electric and some other people). But I do like having one acoustic guitar I can plug in just for sometimes playing acoustic tracks into a looper and occasionally when I'm recording I like to record one line from from a mic and one direct and sometimes I can blend those sounds to get it sounding a little better than either on it's own. That said, I don't do either of these things more than once in a blue moon, so if I suddenly only had acoustic instruments, I'd be fine. But one with the ability to plug in isn't a bad thing...

-Ray.

[keith.rogers]

A significant percentage of the total time I spend playing and probably 90% of time playing out is going to go through some amplification. I'm going to plug in.

But, I play unplugged at home and usually with friends, so I need a guitar that sounds good acoustically, too.

Fortunately, the two requirements are pretty easy to reconcile these days, and I'm not going to deal with multiple instruments and pickup/preamp rigs so I look almost entirely at acoustic-electric guitars if I'm nosing around. I.e., I have to know it works and sounds good in either use case.

[Caddy]

Own 14 acoustics, only three have electronics (then only because that was the only way they came). Never have used them much plugged, just once in a while through my Yamaha THR5-A just to try it out.

Even when I gigged as a singer-songwriter I always just miced the guitar.

With the bluegrass band in which I played mandolin and sang back in the 80's it was always just mics for everything.

I just have never for the sound, or esthetics, of a plugged in acoustic.

[brijas99]

I dont play out so for me it's just straight acoustic and no electronics. But if I did play out, I would just mic it

[alnico5]

I gig a lot. The K&K meets all my needs.

[Pickcity]

With electronics. I need mine to have the ability to plug in, because my instruments are tools that I use outside of the home. I do prefer no extra holes cut out of the body, with a simple end pin jack.

[Silly Moustache]

I perform.
I don't plug in.
I use a large condenser mic.
Pure sound - job done.

[Charmed Life Picks]

I've almost never heard a factory-installed p/u that sounded worth a darn. I must prefer to install my own.

thanks,
scott memmer

[Bob Womack]

Some do, some don't.

Bob

[CoffeeFan]

I have a simple Fishman Matrix UTS. The only way you can tell there's a pickup in it is if you look in the soundhole for the battery or at the end pin for the 1/4" jack.