Reducing Acoustic Feedback

[JLS]

Originally Posted by tdubbed

Hey, everyone. I recently purchased a sound-hole cover for my guitar, but I'm skeptical of its effectiveness because I have a sound-hole pickup installed in the guitar. I'm not sure if I'll be able to adequately cut the thing around this pickup.

Can the same effect be made by filling the guitar body with something like polyester fiber filling (think stuffed animals)? Or perhaps something else? I do have quite a bit of acoustic foam panels that I can cut into chunks and place inside...

Also, am I worrying over nothing? Is the potential feedback from an acoustic guitar a real threat to my performance?

Thank you!

Greg Greenway stuffs the lower bout with foam; when I heard him, I was wowedby the enormous sound of his guitar, asked him about it during his merch break.

[Al Acuff]

I used to put foam in my guitar when I had to rock rowdy bars using an acoustic guitar and Sunrise pickup. Works great! You can get foam scraps at fabric stores. Get some extra so you can experiment with different amounts of damping. Rock on

[andrus108]

Originally Posted by tdubbed

Hey, everyone. I recently purchased a sound-hole cover for my guitar, but I'm skeptical of its effectiveness because I have a sound-hole pickup installed in the guitar. I'm not sure if I'll be able to adequately cut the thing around this pickup.

Can the same effect be made by filling the guitar body with something like polyester fiber filling (think stuffed animals)? Or perhaps something else? I do have quite a bit of acoustic foam panels that I can cut into chunks and place inside...

Also, am I worrying over nothing? Is the potential feedback from an acoustic guitar a real threat to my performance?

Thank you!

I recently tried playing acoustic very loud, just for trying it out. I placed my Loudbox as recommended, to the left behind me away from the guitar's body, and use a Fishman Neo Humbucker. I got it so loud the lower strings would start feeding back even with the guitar on the stand. However it was at a volume that an electric guitar would also behave this way.

Just keep your hand on the fretboard and it will be fine. You can always get a floor tuner like Boss TU-3 and use it for muting.

[leew3]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

Rather than stuff the guitar full of sound-absorbing material, buy an electric guitar!

I can always count on the AGF for advice to buy more gear. Well played Mike! I would only add, buy two: a solid buy and a semi hollow body just to be sure.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Magnetic soundhole pickups are naturally feedback resistant. You are looking for a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist.

I gig with an M80. It has some sort of transduction thing going on to pick up the top as well as the strings, so the problem absolutely can exist. It's always in the bass, though. I play onstage through a DI (to the house) and into a small solid state bass amp (the secret sauce for mag pickups), and I start with the bass control on the amp turned pretty far down and sneak it up to a good spot. I try to advise the house sound person, if there is one, to do the same. I haven't felt the need so far to do any stuffing.