Frustrated: Cheaper Guitar Sounds Better Live

[PiousDevil]

Here is the solution to your problem, OP.

https://reverb.com/item/12955076-gui...atural-us-made

[Big*Al]

Originally Posted by PiousDevil

Here is the solution to your problem, OP.

https://reverb.com/item/12955076-gui...atural-us-made

Thanks. I tried one of those at a store. It was okay. They had one of these too and I liked it even better:

Guild D-20 US made

. . . but I like my imported D-125 too.

I'm going to try my D-140 tomorrow. The brass bridge pins seem to have taken away some of its punchy-ness. I was playing it miked through my Loudbox Mini a little while ago and it sounded promising. I'll report back on how it did through the big PA tomorrow.

[Kelly Grayum]

Of all the guitars I have and have had....I still play my Epi AJ-500MNS 9x's out of 10 when I play live and plugged in. I payed $300 for it about 8 years ago and I'll probably never get rid of it! It sounds great unplugged, but really shines plugged in. I have a Gibson J-15 that I love to play the most lately but I can't get the same plugged in sound with it as I can the Epi. Just my 2 cents.

[lkingston]

I have two Martins that are my main playing guitars. One of them is an all wood D15M, the other is a spruce top but HPL back and sides DX1. I have the same Shertler AG-6/S-Mic pickup in both. They are both exactly the same dimensions so there is no playing adjustment between them.

Acoustically, the D15M sounds much better, but over a PA system the difference is far subtler. At low volumes, I can turn the mic up and the D15M sounds better, but at most common gig volumes, I actually prefer the DX-1. It is less resonant and thus less prone to feeding back, and I seem to be able to push the mic a bit more.

I also don’t mind when other people play it strumming really hard with a pick, or sweaty, or with big belt buckles. I also like carrying that guitar in a gig bag vs the D15M hard shell case. It makes less of an ordeal out of things like walking from the car to a gig in the rain, or setting the packed guitar down in the gravel while I’m unlocking the car. It also makes things like stopping somewhere on the way to a gig less scary (Florida heat is intense!).

When I use the DX1 (Schertler pickup) at open mics, it is consistently the best sounding guitar over the PA in spite of some people bringing in much better (acoustically) guitars. And I don’t mind lending it out to people. Amplified, there is so little difference, it just makes sense to grab this guitar.

I really do love playing the D15M at home though. I also vastly prefer it for recording. With the Schertler pickup, I turn the mic all the way up and you can clearly hear the better tone of the all wood guitar.

[Big*Al]

Well, I played my mahogany/spruce D-140 through the big church PA today using my Meridian mic setup. It sounded much better than when I played it there back in June. I did go up .001" on the unwound strings since June, which toned town the brightness on the trebles a bit. Switching it over to brass bridge pins seemed to be the bigger change though. It gave the guitar a little more sustain and smoothed out its punchy attack somewhat. It's not necessarily an improvement in the unamplified sound, but brass pins seem to have altered the tone and dynamic response enough to tame the guitar for microphone amplification. I'm good with that.