Looking for advice on acoustic gig rigs! I need help!

[Yuengling]

Just got into an acoustic trio. Let me start by saying my prior experience playing gigs all involved loud amps and electric guitars - my only acoustic exp. playing out was around campfires. Anyways, I am older now and enjoy this new trio, however, I am very much a novice at acoustic gigs.

I have an acoustic electric with a fishman pickup/preamp. I also have a traditional acoustic with no electronics that I dearly love. For amplification, I have a solid state 2x12 Fender Chorus amp that sounds wonderful with the a/e guitar. Anyways, the group practiced with a P.A. last Sat. and I realized how much I did not know when the sound guy ask my if I had a DI box. I had no idea what he was talking about and I ended up just playing through my amp and everything worked fine.

I'm not really in the position to buy an acoustic amp at the moment and will either use mine or play through the PA. So I am looking for advice on what you use for acoustic gigs and what works. Pickups, mikes, effects, etc.

Thanks for taking your time and helping out an acoustic novice.

[rainsong]

Welcome to "the other side" as the Godsmacked unplugged CD says. You will get a lot of good useful info here and other forums. If you are serious about doing tha acoustic thing my first purchase, were i you, would be the book "An acoustic musician's guide to live recording and sound reinforcement" by Mike Sokol. Even though it is rather expensive, if I had this when I was just starting I would have saved hundreds of dollars in equipment that was not adequate or not necessary that I letter sold for a lot less than I paid.

http://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-Music.../dp/0134335090

[Cowboy1]

I play in a country band and spend a lot of time jumping back and forth between electric and acoustic guitar for differant songs. I basically have two complete differant set ups. One for electric and one for acoustic. Simple enough running electric. You got your guitar, pedals, amp and mic the amp to the board. For acoustic you have lot of options for your set up. I run to a small pedal board (Boss tuning pedal, BBE maximizer, Boss Noise Reducer) then to a two channel amp. Most acoustic amps have built in DI (Direct In) and I can run a XLR balanced signal straight from my amp to the board (mixer). Some acoustic amps have a 1/4 jack on your amp to run out to an mixer or other source. You can run a short 1/4 cord to a DI box (Direct In Box) then run a balanced signal to the board from the DI. So you got amp to DI, DI to mixing board. Or one could simply mic the amp just like an electric amp. The singer in the band runs right to the mixer and does not use an amp. She runs to a DI box, or actually a LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI. This type of DI also doubles as a pre-amp and has some eq settings on it. Then the signal goes right to the house system. She don't use an amp at all. So it just depends on what kinda set up you like or wanna use. If you wanna travel light and will be using a PA anyway, you just may wanna use a DI box of some kind and just run through the PA. If so, I highly recommend something like the LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI or a BBE Acoustimax. I personally like what I am able to get out of the amp I use and I feel like it gives me some good control over my sound plus offers some good eq as well as some simple effects like chorus and reverb. I usually have the sound guy run me flat and I will adjust my eq to my liking via my amp. Gives me a lot of control over everything. Plus the amp kinda works as a personal monitor so I can hear myself in the mix (big plus for me personally). What comes out of the monitors will kinda dround you out sometimes with the entire mix being piped out if you are playing in a larger band with drums, bass, other guitar, etc., so not really sure if you need that. There are TONS of other options out there, but that is what I see the most and have had success with.

Equipment wise, if you mic anything as far as an instrument you can't beat a SURE SM-57. It is a great mic for micing amps, instruments and vocals. The only stomps I use for acoustic are a tuner, noise reducer and a BBE Sonic Maximizer. If you have any experience with the BBE pedal you know why I use one. It really improves the sound you can get running an acoustic instrument with pick-ups and an amp. BBE also has a pedal called the Acoustimax which is basically the Sonic Maximizer with a built in pre-amp, some eq, and a balanced line out. This would be great option if you plan to run right to the mixer and not use an amp. If you are using an amp it is kinda over kill to use some type of pre-amp and extra EQ. For after market pick-ups the choices are many. There are some very natural sounding pick-ups out there, however I have found that for a "band" type setting you gotta balance the desire for a natural sound with some decent gain before feedback. For loud stages I have yet to find anything after market that I like better that the D-Tar Wavelength. It is an and under the saddle pick up, and even though it is not the "Most" natural sounding I have heard, it still sounds very good and does not tend to have feedback problems in loud stage enviroments. It has TONS of headroom, and the pick-up is hotter than anything stock I have in some acoustic/electrics I own. GREAT pick-up and easy to install. It does not offer any onboard controls. All eq has to be done on an amp, or pre-amp. It also does not have any onboard volume control, so if you need that, consider picking up a volume pedal. It is a good investment anyway. Like I said there are TONS of options for pick-ups and everyone seems to like differant things for differant reasons so just explore whats out there.

If you have any questions feel free to holler. I ain't the best guitarist in the world, but I have some experience running differant set ups.