#1
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Make Acoustic sound more "electric"?
This may be an odd question for this group: I have an upcoming holiday party gig with a violinist. Space is at a premium, so I can only bring one guitar. But several of the songs we are playing would benefit from a semi-hollow electric/rockabilly type sound.
I'll be playing a Taylor with an Expression 1.2 pickup. I don't own any pure electric effects pedals, but I may be able to borrow a couple. Would some reverb/slap echo help me coax a more electric tone out of my guitar? Most of what we're playing is best suited to a straight-up acoustic, and I don't own a good electric guitar right now anyway. Thanks. |
#2
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I've really been tempted to get one of these Fender Smolder pedals specifically for that purpose. Then run about 150. Lots of yakking but some cool demo parts too here:
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#3
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My old-school answer to this question has been a magnetic soundhole pickup. The old ones didn't really try to sound "acoustic" and you could plug them into a guitar amp and sound surprisingly good in a number of vibey ways (I always point out Gabor Szabo and Elmore James as examples, but even the Beatles J160e Gibsons were the same idea)
But I don't think you have an electric amp or effects either. If it's rockabilly a bit of slap echo and the way you play could carry the day even with a basically acoustic guitar sound from your existing pickup.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses.... |
#4
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I don't know about achieving a semi-hollow electric/rockabilly type sound, which is a righteous sound indeed, but a couple of years ago one guy in an acoustic duo playing through a Bose L1 M2 at an outdoor gig used an Ibanez Tube Screamer to generate a surprisingly believable solid-body electric sound, I'd say more Les Paul than Strat. YMMV and I don't know how tweakable it is to the hollow-body direction. Cant recall his guitar but it was some standard-issue quality acoustic with the usual on-board pickup that he played as an acoustic 90% of the time.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...mer-mini-pedal |
#5
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Quote:
Edit: Turns out AGF'er AeroUSA (Aaron Short) reviewed this, very helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_D43UTAYME Last edited by Chriscom; 12-07-2019 at 10:33 AM. |
#6
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I had the ES1.2 and found it always sounded like a semi-hollow and not very acoustic. I feel like it already has a very magnetic tone to it so maybe even just an eq pedal to emphasize that even more?
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#7
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Borrow someone's tube screamer (clone). A small amount of overdrive will work very well with ES1.
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jf45ir Free DIY Acoustic Guitar IR Generator .wav file, 30 seconds, pickup left, mic right, open position strumming best...send to direct email below I'll send you 100/0, 75/25, 50/50 & 0/100 IR/Bypass IRs IR Demo, read the description too: https://youtu.be/SELEE4yugjE My duo's website and my email... [email protected] Jon Fields |
#8
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I can confirm the Smolder is awesome! I have it on my board and it’s given my acoustic some really cool new sounds!
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http://www.Facebook.com/NickSpencerMusic Gibson Songwriter Standard EC Lowden WL-22 Maton SRS808 Taylor AD11-SB Taylor 811 GT |
#9
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Quote:
Thanks for the advice. And, wow, that Smolder looks like fun! |
#10
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Follow Up
Just wanted to follow up on the gig. As it turns out, the venue had an unusual sound support situation: A wall jack with one XLR input and a pair of left/right RCA jacks. They also had a wireless mic system with two mics for us. The output was through ceiling speakers dispersed in the room. What I wound up doing is running my Yamaha THR10C through the headphone jacks via an RCA splitter cable.
The sound was very good. Despite me thinking I wanted more of an "electric" sound, I played it subtle, using the "acoustic" model with a little chorus and reverb/echo. It worked out better than I expected. If you get a chance, check out the THR amps. I've been extremely pleased with mine as something to noodle around on with the cheap Squier Strat I picked up. Additionally, the power situation would have made running an extension cord awkward and maybe a little unsafe. No problem; the THR runs on 8 AA batteries. |
#11
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Did you try running it through a 100W Plexi turned up to 11?
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#12
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Follow Up
Just wanted to follow up on the gig. As it turns out, the venue had an unusual sound support situation: A wall jack with one XLR input and a pair of left/right RCA jacks. They also had a wireless mic system with two mics for us. The output was through ceiling speakers dispersed in the room. What I wound up doing is running my Yamaha THR10C through the headphone jacks via an RCA splitter cable.
The sound was very good. Despite me thinking I wanted more of an "electric" sound, I played it subtle, using the "acoustic" model with a little chorus and reverb/echo. It worked out better than I expected. If you get a chance, check out the THR amps. I've been extremely pleased with mine as something to noodle around on with the cheap Squier Strat I picked up. Additionally, the power situation would have made running an extension cord awkward and maybe a little unsafe. No problem; the THR runs on 8 AA batteries. Last edited by fuman; 12-20-2019 at 09:56 AM. Reason: delete. I accidentally reposted. Sorry. |
#13
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\m/
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