Acoustic A1000 - No FX sounds like it has an effect

[Matateo916]

Hello,

I'm new here and did some searching here and on the internet but didn't find anything conclusive so going to ask in a new thread. Both my buddy and got the Acoustic A1000 amp. We play live acoustic shows often and liked the idea of being able to mic up and play out of the same amps if a PA wasn't available. When I tried it out at the store I didn't hear it - but once we hooked up our new amps and started playing we both noticed that there was what sounded like an effect applied even when we had it set to No FX. The sound was a subtle almost reverb or 'shimmer' sound to the output. Especially on the high end. We tried different settings but it seems pervasive. We had thought that when it was set up with No FX it should sound basically the same as playing through a PA. As we were both playing different guitars through 2 separate but same amps we figure this must just be the 'default' sound for this amp. The sound isn't a total deal breaker (I actually kind of like it) but it took a bit of getting used to.

I am wondering if anyone else has experience with this playing through an Acoustic A1000 or relative of this amp?

Thanks!
-Matt

[Chriscom]

That's a nice-looking, full-featured amp, but I haven't seen it discussed much here, so you may not get much of a response. I don't have any hands-on experience with it. But I sure would expect No FX to produce no FX. All amps that I've played with don't add anything like a shimmer or what you describe, when set w/o effects. If it's not a major trip, you might try going back to the store, if not with the amps then at least with one of your guitars to compare with the floor model.

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by Matateo916

Hello,

I'm new here and did some searching here and on the internet but didn't find anything conclusive so going to ask in a new thread. Both my buddy and got the Acoustic A1000 amp. We play live acoustic shows often and liked the idea of being able to mic up and play out of the same amps if a PA wasn't available. When I tried it out at the store I didn't hear it - but once we hooked up our new amps and started playing we both noticed that there was what sounded like an effect applied even when we had it set to No FX. The sound was a subtle almost reverb or 'shimmer' sound to the output. Especially on the high end. We tried different settings but it seems pervasive. We had thought that when it was set up with No FX it should sound basically the same as playing through a PA. As we were both playing different guitars through 2 separate but same amps we figure this must just be the 'default' sound for this amp. The sound isn't a total deal breaker (I actually kind of like it) but it took a bit of getting used to.

I am wondering if anyone else has experience with this playing through an Acoustic A1000 or relative of this amp?

Thanks!
-Matt

Is this something that happens with both amps separately, or is it something that happens when they are both on at the same time? If it's the latter, is the "effect" affected by any phase switches that you have on either the amps or on the guitars' pickup systems? Also, does this happen no matter what room you are in or only in a particular room and no matter what positions the amps are in in the space?

If you haven't yet, do some experimentation. I suspect it's not be the amps themselves, but they way they are interacting with each other and/or with the room.

Louis

[MarkF_48]

Do you have an electric guitar you could try and see if you get a similar result that sounds like effects coming from the amp.

I'm making a really off the wall guess your amp may do some digital to analog conversion(DAC) on the signal even if the effects are turned off which may result in some small amount of latency/delay in the signal as it passes through the amp. What you may hear is a mix of the real acoustic guitar sound mixed with the possibly delayed sound from the amp which is perceived as a chorusy/phasy sound when it gets to your ears which also may be more evident in the high end. Also don't discount the body of the guitar also picking up some of the amps sound which might not be enough to cause feedback, but could be fed back to the amp through the pickups. A small room may make this seem worse particularly if the walls are reflective.

Trying an electric guitar that has little to no sound of its own or a body which could perhaps act as a big microphone might lend an idea if the amp is actually adding an effect or not.

[Matateo916]

Originally Posted by lschwart

Is this something that happens with both amps separately, or is it something that happens when they are both on at the same time? If it's the latter, is the "effect" affected by any phase switches that you have on either the amps or on the guitars' pickup systems? Also, does this happen no matter what room you are in or only in a particular room and no matter what positions the amps are in in the space?

If you haven't yet, do some experimentation. I suspect it's not be the amps themselves, but they way they are interacting with each other and/or with the room.

Louis

Both amps were doing this separately. We did mess around with positioning the amps (and of course turning different effects on and off) but posistioning was more to see if we could hear each other better(and we had bass player in the room as well).

[Matateo916]

Originally Posted by MarkF_48

Do you have an electric guitar you could try and see if you get a similar result that sounds like effects coming from the amp.

I'm making a really off the wall guess your amp may do some digital to analog conversion(DAC) on the signal even if the effects are turned off which may result in some small amount of latency/delay in the signal as it passes through the amp. What you may hear is a mix of the real acoustic guitar sound mixed with the possibly delayed sound from the amp which is perceived as a chorusy/phasy sound when it gets to your ears which also may be more evident in the high end. Also don't discount the body of the guitar also picking up some of the amps sound which might not be enough to cause feedback, but could be fed back to the amp through the pickups. A small room may make this seem worse particularly if the walls are reflective.

Trying an electric guitar that has little to no sound of its own or a body which could perhaps act as a big microphone might lend an idea if the amp is actually adding an effect or not.

Oh this sounds like it could definitely be something to look into. The room was pretty small and we were both sitting right next to our amps with our guitars. I could easily see feedback from the amp through the pickup in the guitar doing just this. I'll plug in an electric and see if that changes things. Thanks!

[lpa53]

I felt this was the case when I tried a Fishman Loudbox Artist a few weeks ago and so took off my list. It may just be the way the amp colors the sound. Can you hear it on vocals?

[Matateo916]

You guys were right on it being feedback into the system from the guitar and mic. It is heightened when using a mic into the amp (of course) but is audible with just acoustic guitar if the pickup on the acoustic is cranked and the amp volume turned low. So beyond better positioning, isolating the acoustic by turning volume on guitar down and up on the amp helped. With the mic it came down to positioning but again we were in small room and was hard to completely alleviate the issue with the mic as the mic seemed to pick up some feedback regardless where we put the amp. Still now that we understand the 'why' it gives us some ability to figure out best practice and also makes us feel better about a recent purchase

Really appreciate this forum!! Thanks to all of you!!

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by Matateo916

You guys were right on it being feedback into the system from the guitar and mic. It is heightened when using a mic into the amp (of course) but is audible with just acoustic guitar if the pickup on the acoustic is cranked and the amp volume turned low. So beyond better positioning, isolating the acoustic by turning volume on guitar down and up on the amp helped. With the mic it came down to positioning but again we were in small room and was hard to completely alleviate the issue with the mic as the mic seemed to pick up some feedback regardless where we put the amp. Still now that we understand the 'why' it gives us some ability to figure out best practice and also makes us feel better about a recent purchase

Really appreciate this forum!! Thanks to all of you!!

Super, I learned a few things from this discussion!