Amps For Acoustic Guitars [message #75109] |
Mon, 31 December 2012 20:04 |
iLoveiPod
Messages: 210 Registered: April 2012
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Master |
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There are some acoustic guitars out there that can't be amplified, but some of them are actually acoustic/electric, so you can plug an amp into them. Can you use the same amps for these guitars as with electric guitars?
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Re: Amps For Acoustic Guitars [message #75158 is a reply to message #75119] |
Sat, 05 January 2013 11:18 |
Thermionic
Messages: 208 Registered: May 2009
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Master |
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Playing an acoustic guitar through an electric guitar amp will color the sound in a negative manner, making it sound like a cross between a very bad-sounding acoustic guitar with dead strings, and an electric guitar played clean. On the flip side, an electric guitar played through an acoustic amp sounds very dry, brittle, and thin. This is because amplifiers and speakers for electric and acoustic guitar are voiced differently in every way, from the ground up. An electric guitar amp is purposely designed to implement a certain group of tonal colorations, that collectively achieve the classic, instantly recognizable 'electric guitar tone' that we're all familiar with. OTOH, an acoustic guitar amplifier is designed to achieve a natural and uncolored acoustic guitar sound, while giving you the option of adding some spatial enhancement effects such as reverb and chorus.
Fender's Acoustasonic amplifier line is easily the best selling acoustic amp in the U.S., and also one of the worst sounding. I've played and heard many of the various models, and I recommend passing them by. Carvin makes a decent sounding no-frills acoustic amp, and the higher-end Beringer Ultracoustic and Peavey Ecoustic amps are pretty good. But hands down, no contest, by far the best I've ever heard or used is Trace Elliot. I won't say they sound twice as good as everything else; three times as good is more like it! Unfortunately, the price tag is proportional to the sonic performance, at about 3x what everything else costs.
Thermionic
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