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Unified Acoustic/Electric amplification?
I am primarily an acoustic player and would love to consolidate my rig into fewer amps/speakers.
I was wondering if anyone was using a unified amplification system and modular signal chain across different instruments, such as acoustic (guitar, mandolin), bass, keyboard, and electric guitar? To minimize the total amount of signal chain gear that I need to keep track of, maintain, store, etc. For more info, see: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/in...ution.2085928/ Hope this isn't considered a cross post, just wanted to get a perspective from the primarily-acoustic crowd! Is this practical/impractical? Almost there? Pipe dream? |
#2
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Assuming you already have the necessary instruments, here's a simple plug-&-play two-cabinet setup based on equipment I've used at different times over the years - and if you don't need extensive outboard effects (or already own them) you can put this rig together for about $600-700:
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased) |
#3
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It worked pretty well. If I knew the club had a reliable PA and sound person I often opted to depend on the monitor mix exclusively, even for electric guitar or bass work. |
#4
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That V22 (especially the head version, which allows to split up the weight) looks really interesting! I will check out the forum posts. I really love the idea of the Vox AV30/AV60 but have concerns about reliability/manufacturing quality. I am in a position to spend a little more for quality and reliability, at least that is what the spreadsheet of my gear downsizing is telling me Quote:
I also wonder if I am going about this wrong. A one size fits all rig is turning out to be really complex, too. Maybe I shouldn't try to go about this trying to put together a one size fits all rig. Maybe that's a different form of complexity, and it might actually be simpler just to have discrete solutions for each instrument. I don't know. I appreciate all the input and leads. I might have to do some more (re)thinking on this. |
#5
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High quality Powered speaker with a mixer for the acoustic stuff (QSC, Yamaha).
Small amp or amp head with a good sounding line out or mic'ed through the board for blowing harp and electric guitar - just use an AB switch to change instruments. Steve really knows his stuff about Bugera (and stuff in general, actually - I bought the V5 largely on his recommendation and gig with it A LOT) - but his approach is different than mine regarding weight and size. I gig with a Corolla (or 2). And an amp like the V22 would pretty much fill my trunk.
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Roy Ibanez, Recording King, Gretsch, Martin G&L, Squier, Orange (x 2), Bugera, JBL, Soundcraft Our duo website - UPDATED 7/26/19 |
#6
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Thanks for this recommendation.
I've given up on a completely unified amplification strategy for now, and am just looking at strategic downsizing with some discrete solutions that can serve in flexible roles as needed (holy crap just read that back to myself and I sound like a corporate consultant talking about layoffs). I just picked up a Vox AV30 for a fantastic price, and I'm going to AB it with my 1958 Gibson GA-5 2x8 mod (internal speaker plus I built a custom 1x8 extension cab, and had an amp tech do a completely reversible pancake jack mod on a back panel), 1966 Gibson GA-20 RVT, and my main swiss army workhorse, my Rivera Chubster 40 (which is ahhhmazing, always sounds fantastic and can do so many different things well, but size and weight and biasing oh my). If I end up not missing the tube amps that much, then I might end up saying goodbye to them. The AV30 sure is a heckuva lot lighter than the GA-20 and the Rivera. We'll see. I've heard the high gain tones aren't great, but I don't really do high gain, and also heard it's mostly just an issue with people cranking the gain and keeping the volume low and expecting something magical. The amp allows you to crank the tube power section and dynamically attenuate or amplify with a built-in solid-state amp, so we'll see...! I don't ever use much anything beyond chorus, delay and reverb (and some trem), so it also hits those notes as well. As for the other stuff, I'm considering an Ashdown C112 for bass and for the left/mono keyboard channel, and as an acoustic amp backup. 180w RMS and 27lbs, and full 300watts with an extension cab. And then use my 150watt Traynor for the right channel. That would bring me down to a manageable 4-5 amps. Funnily enough, I'm actually considering the Vox Amplug2s (ac30 and blues models) as a backup, through the Traynor. I tried them through a PA and they actually sounded fantastic, to my ears! Got me thinking...how much amp do I *really* need (especially as a primarily acoustic player)? That experience is also what piqued my interest on the AV30. |
#7
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My large pedalboard starts with a Pog, then compressor, distortion, drive, 10 band eq, tube pre-amp, volume pedal, tuner, delay, noise gate, chorus, reverb, looper and serves to provide a great platform for electric and acoustic alike going straight to a pa. For acoustic, I run the pre and post gain on the heart of the system -- the tube preamp that I've put a gritty, quick to break up 12ax7 in -- at 12 o'clock, and for the electrics to get a nice warm tube tone I run those levels both at 3 o'clock. For some of my acoustic guitars, I leave the 10 band eq off. It was 5+ years in the making, but there isn't any tone I can't get. And believe it or not, running dry through it is really "quiet" and free of noise. I very rarely have to use the noise gate.
A pa system with a sub handles this very well.
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As my username suggests, huge fan of Yamaha products. Own many acoustic-electric models from 2009-present and a couple electric. Lots of PA too. |
#8
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Wow, That approximates what I was originally thinking...!
how much experimentation did you have to do with pedal order to get to that setup? Do you always plug into the very front, and just turn on/bypass pedals as needed? Do you have a loop kit to take certain pedals out of the signal chain completely? |
#9
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Quote:
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As my username suggests, huge fan of Yamaha products. Own many acoustic-electric models from 2009-present and a couple electric. Lots of PA too. |
#10
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Helix into a good FRFR, maybe with judicious application of some good sounding IR's.
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#11
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http://www.bensonamps.com/tech-articles
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#12
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I use no cab sim. The EQ and tube pre really get my tone dialed in.
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As my username suggests, huge fan of Yamaha products. Own many acoustic-electric models from 2009-present and a couple electric. Lots of PA too. |
#13
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Ok cool, I thought that might be the case. I have heard and understand that the most important part of a cab/speaker sim is a careful EQ that basically serves as a LP/HP filter
What tube pre and EQ do you use out of curiosity? Actually would love to know more about your entire signal chain, as that is pretty much exactly what I am trying to do! I am putting together a small FX pedal rig that is a step in this direction. Last edited by ethanay; 11-17-2019 at 10:00 PM. |
#14
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Here is my current (draft) signal chain, which allows for Wet/Dry, stereo or clean/dirty (or some combination thereof) signal routing. Lots for me to play/experiment with. The idea is to have a modular setup for my acoustic, electric and bass instruments.
Board 1 Preamp: Fire Eye Red Eye > Korg Pitch Black Tuner > Keeley GC-2 Compressor > EQ1 (Empress ParaEQ) > EHX POG > EQD Night Wire Board 2 Distortion: Brimstone XD-2 > RevivalDrive Compact > EQ2 (Tech21 Q/Strip) > CabDryVR Board 3 FX: Nautila Mod > Obscura Delay > Polara Reverb > JamMan Express (yeah, this one is all Digitech, I just really liked how they designed all these pedals!) When I am playing acoustic or clean bass I will use board 1 (+3 optional). For more aggressive bass and (non-clean electric) guitar, I add in board #2 inbetween. I haven't built the rig yet, still am sourcing all the parts. So, yeah that is the context I am working in/toward. In all honesty, I hate fiddling around with gear, and I want to get this over with so I can get back to focus on the music ASAP! But I had to try the pedal-based format at least to rule it out. Last edited by ethanay; 11-25-2019 at 01:44 AM. Reason: added pedal |
#15
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My pedal board pedals (in order)
Pog Nano MXR compressor MXR distortion MXR drive MXR 10 band eq Ernie Ball VP jr Dedicated tuner out to Boss TU-3 ART MP tube pre with Sovtek 12ax7 MXR Carbon Copy delay MXR smart gate TC Eletronics Corona Chorus MXR digital reverb Electro-Harmonix 360 looper
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As my username suggests, huge fan of Yamaha products. Own many acoustic-electric models from 2009-present and a couple electric. Lots of PA too. Last edited by YamahaGuy; 11-18-2019 at 08:41 PM. |
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Tags |
acoustic, bass, electric, guitar, keyboard |
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