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Old 04-12-2021, 04:25 PM
Warren01 Warren01 is offline
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Default Do I need an Acoustic Guitar Amp for home?

As the title says, do I need one for home playing. I have a Yamaha THR10 that has an acoustic setting and was playing around with it last night and it was fun! Made me wonder if I should pick up (see what I did there) an inexpensive acoustic amp. What say you all?
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Old 04-12-2021, 04:28 PM
YamahaGuy YamahaGuy is offline
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From one gear collector to a potential other, gear comes and goes. What would it hurt? But then you're gonna need a mic, a mic cable, and a mic stand too.
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Old 04-12-2021, 07:53 PM
Mandobart Mandobart is offline
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What you really need is a good acoustic guitar that doesn't need an amp. But.....you can get a decent acoustic amp for a few hundred bucks, and a *good* acoustic guitar will likely cost more.

I have a very nice gigworthy amp, a Carvin AG300. I also have a couple nice acoustic guitars, some really good mandolins, some great custom instruments and a real good Martin HD-28. I have installed pickups in almost all my instruments. I never plug them in at home.
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Old 04-12-2021, 08:41 PM
phcorrigan phcorrigan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren01 View Post
As the title says, do I need one for home playing. I have a Yamaha THR10 that has an acoustic setting and was playing around with it last night and it was fun! Made me wonder if I should pick up (see what I did there) an inexpensive acoustic amp. What say you all?
I use a mixer (Behringer X1204USB) for Zoom open mics, with a vocal mic and my guitar plugged in through my ToneDexter. The mixer also allows me to apply reverb and compression. Lately I have been plugging in headphones and practicing through it. What I like is that I get a better sense of what both my voice and guitar sound like when I'm playing. I also have a powered monitor wedge that I occasionally plug in as well, but I think the headphones give me a better sense of how I sound.

In other words, if you're trying to just listen to yourself there are other options besides an acoustic guitar amp.
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Old 04-12-2021, 09:57 PM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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I have some very nice acoustic guitar amps, and just as many very nice acoustic guitars, with some very nice pickups in them. In all the years that I've been playing, I've never plugged an acoustic guitar into one of my amps just to have fun around the house. The only time I plug-in, in my house, is when I have to try out a piece of equipment out before a gig, or to program some FX.

But I can see people that don't do it for a living maybe wanting to use a nice small acoustic amp to perform for their family, or to practice for the occasional small coffee shop style gig. Or maybe for a small church performance. And for someone that isn't out there playing all the time, practicing with a little amp at home will make it easier to do those things. And it might make it fun to hear their guitar in a different light. And singing on a mic is fun too!
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Old 04-13-2021, 12:36 AM
douglasfan1 douglasfan1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren01 View Post
As the title says, do I need one for home playing. I have a Yamaha THR10 that has an acoustic setting and was playing around with it last night and it was fun! Made me wonder if I should pick up (see what I did there) an inexpensive acoustic amp. What say you all?
It really depends. Nowadays, many effector like Zoom, Helix etc provide headphone output. You can still enjoy the colored tone without an amp.

I think amp is more important for having gig. Since many product already covered your personal needs. Also, we need to consider neighbor if we live in a flat. However, if you have gig at coffee shop or so, an amp can be used as your monitor as well as PA speaker.
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Old 04-13-2021, 01:28 AM
Jinder Jinder is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rockabilly69 View Post
I have some very nice acoustic guitar amps, and just as many very nice acoustic guitars, with some very nice pickups in them. In all the years that I've been playing, I've never plugged an acoustic guitar into one of my amps just to have fun around the house. The only time I plug-in, in my house, is when I have to try out a piece of equipment out before a gig, or to program some FX.

But I can see people that don't do it for a living maybe wanting to use a nice small acoustic amp to perform for their family, or to practice for the occasional small coffee shop style gig. Or maybe for a small church performance. And for someone that isn't out there playing all the time, practicing with a little amp at home will make it easier to do those things. And it might make it fun to hear their guitar in a different light. And singing on a mic is fun too!
Exactly this. I’ve never plugged in at home for pleasure, only to dial in new additions to my board or prep kit for a gig or session. I’ve experimented with using my amp (Hughes & Kettner Era 2) for house concerts etc but generally I prefer performing unplugged for the sake of intimacy of performance.

One thing I would recommend an acoustic amp or “PA-in-a-box” style setup for is practicing singing on mic at home if you’re not used to live performance. Mic technique is hugely important and something that takes practice to become habitually decent at. Getting used to your guitar’s plugged in tone and response is useful too. As good as many pickups are, a big part of playing live is “playing” the pickup, specifically adapting your right hand technique to the response and dynamic range of the pickup which is inevitably different to that of your acoustic guitar played unplugged in a room.

If you don’t intend to perform live, I wouldn’t say you NEED an acoustic amp for home. Whether you WANT one is an entirely different thing though of course! If you’re curious, why not pick up a secondhand AER Compact 60 and see how you like it, and whether it’s useful to you. They’re terrific amps and always in demand-if you buy secondhand, you’ll have no trouble recovering your outlay on it if you decide it’s not for you and want to move it along.
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Old 04-13-2021, 06:16 AM
rmp rmp is offline
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There is NEED (nope. not needed)

then there is WANT.. (YES! Whos to say right?)

As Jinder says, two entirely different discussions..

I think they are fun to use at home when noodling.

I have a Fishman LBA, and set the volume to just about where the acoustic un-amped volume of the guitar I'm playing has. Adding in some reverb and setting up the eq gives you a little bit of ambience and fullness.

To me, just adds to the enjoyment of playing a fine acoustic.

I also have a Tonewood amp and those are fun too. They can be a bit finicky to get set for the pickup system in each guitar you'll use it in, and you have to install the x brace which is easy and harmless. Really handy for long weekends away and vacations, (I always bring something to pluck around on.)

If the Yamaha sounds good tho, and I have heard from a lot of ppl who use it just as you did, maybe 'd just go with that.
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Old 04-13-2021, 06:27 AM
Goat Mick Goat Mick is offline
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If I didn't gig I wouldn't own an acoustic amp. For me the joy of an acoustic guitar is the simplicity of just picking it up and playing it. The organic beauty of the natural sound of the guitar. Plugging in just complicates matters when you're trying to relax with a guitar at home. But my perspective may be different from most since I have a very busy gigging schedule, I like the simplicity of it being just me and my guitar at home.
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Old 04-13-2021, 06:40 AM
DownUpDave DownUpDave is offline
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Come on guys you need to “represent”. This is the Acoustic Amplification sub forum............of course he needs an amp.

Geez what happened to all the enablers that use to hang out here

Last edited by DownUpDave; 04-13-2021 at 05:07 PM.
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Old 04-13-2021, 07:01 AM
captain_jack captain_jack is offline
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I think it depends on what you want to get from the amp. Are you looking to play around with effects like chorus or reverb?
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Old 04-13-2021, 07:38 AM
Rudy4 Rudy4 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DownUpDave View Post
Come on guys you need to “represent”. This is the Acoustic Amplification sub forum............of course he needs an amp.

Geez what happened to all the enablers that us to hang out here
Well, I'm an enabler!

There doesn't have to be a "need", a "want" is justification enough. It's really no different than wanting a guitar that's beyond your basic playable garden variety of instrument.

As Marie Kando would say, "If it brings you joy...".

I have a variety of instruments hanging around that I can grab and play out on the back porch or the living room easy chair, but I also love to do recording, and that necessitates SOMETHING to play back your recordings. Especially during Covid shut-in I've really enjoyed having my looper and a bass to have "instant" back up band / playing partners. (You've all seen my photo postings...) That would be difficult without an amp...

My Cube EX set up that has very nice true stereo chorus and reverb that is great fun to use all by itself. It provides a different flavor than simply playing without it and gives me further inspiration and encouragement to play more, and that's always a good thing!
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Old 04-13-2021, 07:40 AM
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ljguitar ljguitar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren01 View Post
As the title says, do I need one for home playing. I have a Yamaha THR10 that has an acoustic setting and was playing around with it last night and it was fun! Made me wonder if I should pick up (see what I did there) an inexpensive acoustic amp. What say you all?
Hi Warren…

If you are setting/using effects, then probably (at least from time to time).

I set up an acoustic amp when I'm pulling new 'voices' for my ToneDexter so I can preview how they sound through an amp for stage use, and to see how the different versions and mics respond live in the room.

My third use is Looping. Hard to practice looping without a monitor system of some sort.

But for day-to-day play I do not pull out my amp.






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Old 04-13-2021, 07:56 AM
rmp rmp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DownUpDave View Post
Come on guys you need to “represent”. This is the Acoustic Amplification sub forum............of course he needs an amp.

Geez what happened to all the enablers that us to hang out here
I know, right????
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Old 04-13-2021, 07:59 AM
TRW1 TRW1 is offline
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I'll second what Larry says about using an amp with loop pedals. It's a ton of fun to create simple, basic loops through an amp and then play your own 'leads' over top of them. I find it's a great way to make practice fun, especially when you don't have others to play along with. It's also a useful tool if you ever do decide to start playing for parties or even small gigs at some point. There are many decent sounding small acoustic amps available nowadays that won't break the bank, I wouldn't hesitate to add one.
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