Advice on pedal

[JackDaniel]

Hi all.
I've read a bunch of threads but can't seem to distill an answer for my situation.

I play on occasion at a worship band. I'm playing with a emerald virtuo (an electric and acoustic, something like a Taylor t5). It uses a ghost hexaphonic piezo pickup. I'm just looking for an easy to use, minimal time involved pedal to make my sound better. If it can make my guitar's acoustic tone sound like a d28 that would be great but if it could at least just give me some better control over the sound, that would be fine too. The sound guys are volunteers who have no clue how to even begin mixing. They could have turn me up or down when asked but beyond that, they're deaf.

I was looking at the lr baggs voiceprint or maybe just the para di. Thoughts??

Thanks in advance!

[YamahaGuy]

Without being really familiar with your guitar this could be tough. My question is what is your current tone lacking?

The Baggs PADI is effective at EQing 3 bands and cutting out offensive frequencies that cause feedback as well as doubling as a DI box.

The Voice Print -- I can't say whether the $400 investment would be worth it or not.

I checked out the guitar. Very nice. I'd try a 10 band EQ. Will give you all the tone shaping you need. MXR makes a good one that lights up like an airport landing strip.

[lkingston]

I would try one of the electric guitar pedals like the Line 6 Helix. The Helix Stomp lets you process hybrid guitars with dual electric and acoustic guitar outputs separately and at the same time. You can use downloaded impulses to do the same kind of microphone modeling as those other devices you named, and you will be able to get a really good electric guitar sound at the same time.

Check out this video (not me, but I have this guitar):

https://youtu.be/-LGkwsxOURg

[buzzardwhiskey]

Combining an IR pedal like the TC Electronics IR Loader and a really good EQ pedal like the Tech 21 Q-Strip could get you pretty darn close to a usable D28 sound live.

[edward993]

1. A Good DI that can shape your tone: Baggs Venue, Radial Tonebone, Fishman Platinum Pro. I personally like the Baggs since it has two sweep EQ bands while the other two have one sweep band, but all three of these have good preamps and tone stacks. A graphic EQ pedal can help a lot, but I personally prefer parametric EQ for acoustics as sweep bands allow you to really zone in on the freq you need to address. That said, curb your expectations as your guit isn't a full acoustic with a dedicated acoustic pickup, but you can still get decent results.

2. I'd personally avoid cheaper units that oversimply the EQ with a few knobs; these are very limited in scope. I'd also avoid units that do a whole lot of other stuff since your focus is one thing: shape your pickup's tone.

3. You need to eq yourself through the PA. You need to know how to EQ frequencies. Your sound guys are volunteers and know only basics so the responsibility is on you. If you understand what freq sound like what, then plug into the church's system and start tweaking until you get what you want for the room. If, however, you are not savvy with the nuances of EQ, you've got some learning to do. Youtube is your friend, as well as read up. But you'll still need a good DI unit in which to practice and train your ear with. Where are you on this aspect?

Edward

[rokdog49]

I think it could be an exercise in futility. This is coming from personal experience.
What are the other instruments in the band? Where does your guitar fit in? Even if you tweak the EQ, will the congregation hear you? Even if they do, would they hear the nuance you are trying for? Will you? I have my doubts.

Whatever the sound guys do with your sound has to be the same settings every week so you can have a “base” to work from, i.e. set it and leave it.
After that, you need someone to play your guitar so you can listen through the mains and see what you think needs to be done. That person has to know how to use the pedal. There are a lot of moving parts.
Best of luck to you.

[JackDaniel]

Thanks for the responses. Checked the out the MXR 10 band eq. Like the price point on that. Very affordable.

As for the line 6 helix, might be too rich for my blood.

Edward993, good advice. I definitely am doing lots of reading and learning about how to eq myself. That's part of the reason I want a unit I can adjust on the fly.

Lastly, Rokdog, appreciate the thoughts. Good point that nobody else may appreciate what I'm trying to do, but what I find is that when things sound right, people cant tell what it is but just know its a better day than when things just sound wrong. The untrained ear may never figure it out but something will just be off.

I'm trying to decide between a para (since dont need all the bells and whistles of the venue), the mxr 10 band eq, or maybe a fishman aura.

[Nymuso]

Look into the Zoom A1 Four. I've been using the model that incorporates a pedal, which I use for volume control.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...fect-processor

[edward993]

Originally Posted by JackDaniel

...I'm trying to decide between a para (since dont need all the bells and whistles of the venue), the mxr 10 band eq, or maybe a fishman aura.

No, that's just it: the Venue doesn't have bells and whistles. Zero fx or cutsie items! It has a tone stack that is imminently usable for the sheer purpose of shaping your tone. The PADI is good; the Venue (and others like the Radial and Fishman mentioned) with at least one sweep band) offers even more discrete tone shaping. This is what you want.

BTW, the GEQ is also a good tool in the kit, but I personally would get one of the aforementioned units because a good preamp (along with tone shaping) is always your friend because you can never predict what kind of system/venue you will be playing in next. A good preamp is a sort of buffer against this unknown

Edward