Mic volume on Fender Acoustic Junior Go

[ueirun]

Hi. New to this forum. Not sure if this is the place to post so please bear with me.

I own a Fender Acoustic Junior Go amp, and plugging in an acoustic guitar seems fine. However the volume from dynamic mic seems to be really lacking. Is this the case of the amp not having a gain knob? I don't really want to use another mic preamp or mixer as it will mean additional gear to bring around or buy. I'm using SM58 and Mackie EM89D.

I tried an Audio Technica condenser mic at home, and it was feeding back at 50% volume, so i guess it may not be a problem with the amp itself? Will a hotter dynamic mic actually solve the problem? I may also want to bring my amp back to the shop to test it out, just to ensure it isn't a problem with the amp itself.

Appriciate if anyone knows what can be done.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by ueirun

Hi. New to this forum. Not sure if this is the place to post so please bear with me.

I own a Fender Acoustic Junior Go amp, and plugging in an acoustic guitar seems fine. However the volume from dynamic mic seems to be really lacking. Is this the case of the amp not having a gain knob? I don't really want to use another mic preamp or mixer as it will mean additional gear to bring around or buy. I'm using SM58 and Mackie EM89D.

I tried an Audio Technica condenser mic at home, and it was feeding back at 50% volume, so i guess it may not be a problem with the amp itself? Will a hotter dynamic mic actually solve the problem? I may also want to bring my amp back to the shop to test it out, just to ensure it isn't a problem with the amp itself.

Appriciate if anyone knows what can be done.

Both channels have a volume control, so turn the guitar down all the way and work with whichever channel you're using for the microphone. What you can get out of it is going to be determined by the volume adjustment, EQ you have applied, actual speaker characteristics (including the tweeter) and mic position relative to how the amp is positioned and faced. There's only so much volume you can expect from an 8" speaker. Do try both channels with the mic to make sure there's no built in gain difference between the channels.

If you can obtain sufficient volume from your microphone then you can bring the guitar channel up to match what you want.

How did you use a condenser mic with the Go? It doesn't seem to have phantom power unless it's supplied all the time. Some amps are set up like that, so that must be how the Go is set up.

If your amp does supply phantom power you might try the new Behringer in line mic booster that mimics a cloudlifter and a low $25 price point.

[ueirun]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Both channels have a volume control, so turn the guitar down all the way and work with whichever channel you're using for the microphone. What you can get out of it is going to be determined by the volume adjustment, EQ you have applied, actual speaker characteristics (including the tweeter) and mic position relative to how the amp is positioned and faced. There's only so much volume you can expect from an 8" speaker. Do try both channels with the mic to make sure there's no built in gain difference between the channels.

If you can obtain sufficient volume from your microphone then you can bring the guitar channel up to match what you want.

How did you use a condenser mic with the Go? It doesn't seem to have phantom power unless it's supplied all the time. Some amps are set up like that, so that must be how the Go is set up.

If your amp does supply phantom power you might try the new Behringer in line mic booster that mimics a cloudlifter and a low $25 price point.

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

I tried this, plugging just my dynamic mic and pushing to max volume, EQ flat, but the volume just isn't loud enough outdoors. In fact, it only starts to have anything barely audible from 50% volume onwards. I'm not sure if this is normal as I do not have another similar amp to test on. From the reviews online, I thought it was plenty loud? No difference for me on both channels by the way.

For the condenser mic, from what I read in the manual, it says 16V phantom power, so I tried it. But I didn't go busking with it. Perhaps I should try, as it seems to have more headroom.

Will go check out the behringer soon.

[Random1643]

I played dozens of 3-4 hr outdoor gigs last year with the Acoustic Junior GO. While it has plenty of challenges holding a charge between gigs - I'm on my 3rd replacement amp thank you Fender Corp - I had zero issues running the vocal via an SM58 thru Ch 1 and a variety of acoustic-electric instruments thru Ch 2. For most gigs, I kept the volume on both channels somewhere between 11:30am and 1pm - and pretty much both channels equal to each other, so not jacking the mic channel. Based on my limited experience, I'd say you want to take it back to wherever you bought it, maybe try a different unit if you otherwise like the amp.

I'm headed back into another outdoor season in a few weeks. My plan is to use the GO system unless and until it dies, at which point I'll likely replace it with an Everse 8 or 12.

[tadol]

Fender has such a good thing in the Acoustic Jr GO - but they can't seem to figure out how to make it the kind of solid, reliable product that you'd hope to see with the Fender name on it -

To any other amp maker out there, the Jr GO is an ideal starting point - Copy everything about it EXCEPT - add phantom power to one channel, add a door/drawer that you can stow the power cable, pedal and pedal cable, instrument and mic cable into, (if a mic could fit in there too, that'd be sweet!) add a battery gauge, and get the DI outs to work properly - and offer repair and parts service, so it's not a disposable product once the warranty is up -

[ueirun]

Originally Posted by Random1643

I played dozens of 3-4 hr outdoor gigs last year with the Acoustic Junior GO. While it has plenty of challenges holding a charge between gigs - I'm on my 3rd replacement amp thank you Fender Corp - I had zero issues running the vocal via an SM58 thru Ch 1 and a variety of acoustic-electric instruments thru Ch 2. For most gigs, I kept the volume on both channels somewhere between 11:30am and 1pm - and pretty much both channels equal to each other, so not jacking the mic channel. Based on my limited experience, I'd say you want to take it back to wherever you bought it, maybe try a different unit if you otherwise like the amp.

I'm headed back into another outdoor season in a few weeks. My plan is to use the GO system unless and until it dies, at which point I'll likely replace it with an Everse 8 or 12.

Wow, thanks for the reply. Guess I will bring it back to the shop and test it out. I mostly play in noisy outdoor environments so I really need the headroom. Even on less noisy outdoor environments, I had to turn the volume to 3 o'clock to get it work.

[ueirun]

Originally Posted by tadol

Fender has such a good thing in the Acoustic Jr GO - but they can't seem to figure out how to make it the kind of solid, reliable product that you'd hope to see with the Fender name on it -

To any other amp maker out there, the Jr GO is an ideal starting point - Copy everything about it EXCEPT - add phantom power to one channel, add a door/drawer that you can stow the power cable, pedal and pedal cable, instrument and mic cable into, (if a mic could fit in there too, that'd be sweet!) add a battery gauge, and get the DI outs to work properly - and offer repair and parts service, so it's not a disposable product once the warranty is up -

Hi, are there plenty of known problems with the GO?

[tadol]

I’ve only heard of a few people who have had their amp replaced under warranty - the specifics of the problems are unknown, and they were replaced under warranty, so that’s good. But mine is not under warranty, and in trying to get some problems resolved, their support people were very clear that if the unit was under warranty, they’d send a new one, but there was absolutely no repair options, no wiring diagrams, no parts, no tests, service, or help once out of warranty. They specifically said it was disposable. I was lucky - my problem was it would not operate under battery power, so I took my unit apart, removed the battery, and it worked for a while as a plug in amp, but then stopped again - so I took it apart, found a couple poor solders, replaced the battery pack (it tested good) reassembled it all and it seems to be working fine. For now. Maybe the problems are few and far between, and I still think its a good unit for what I want, but I really wish they supported it better, and at this point I hope something much better is available if this one has any more issues in the future, and I get tired of dealing with them -

[ueirun]

Just an update. I sent the amp to the shop, and they will send it to the service centre, run a check on it, and repair if there are any problems.

The did not have a GO amp at the shop for me to test. The whole process will take 2 to 4 weeks. Will update here once the service centre update me.

Guess i will go back to using my trusty 5 year old Laney 4x4 for now.

[Matias.]

Try another microphone cable. I have two these Acoustic Junior amps. One is GO and one is not. They work ok with microphones. But like every amp, bad cable destroys everything. I have a padded shoulder bag to the cables and microphones and etc. things. Never put the cables in the holes some amps have behind them. And I have allways the spare cables inside the bag......