Archive for the ‘acoustic guitar gear’ Category
Crafting Your Signature Acoustic Guitar Sound
This article will discuss why you want to craft your own signature acoustic guitar sound, and how to begin planning and designing your own acoustic guitar rig. Let’s start by taking a look at a couple of common scenarios.
Scenario One: You’ve rehearsed for your upcoming performance dozens of times at home, in your living room or basement. Your acoustic guitar sounds amazing, whether you’re strumming with a pick or playing fingerstyle. You arrive at the venue, plug your acoustic guitar into the house p.a., or electric guitar amplifier, and hit the first chord of your opening number. You’re shocked to hear the sound blasting back at you through the monitor, sounding absolutely nothing like the beautiful, natural acoustic tone you’ve been hearing at home. What happened?
Scenario Two: You strum through that folk song or acoustic rock standard, and the guitar sounds great through the house amplification. The crowd loves it and you’re feeding off that energy. Then you kick into your favorite fingerstyle piece, and you can barely distinguish between the mish-mash of frequencies coming out of the monitor. The sound is so muddy that you have trouble hearing your guitar parts. You get distracted and lose the confidence you had just a few minutes ago. How do you solve this problem?
First, let’s identify the cause of the problem. Each acoustic guitar is unique, as is the playing style of each individual guitarist. And each guitarist may use several playing styles, each requiring different gear settings to produce the ideal tone. If you leave it up to the house sound engineer, you are taking your chances. And chances are he won’t get it right. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Acoustic Guitar Gear
Acoustic guitars come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. In broad terms, acoustic guitars can be classified into two main groups: nylon-stringed and steel-stringed. Within these two broad categories, acoustic guitars are further distinguished by their features, such as number of strings (6-string versus 12-string), body shape (dreadnought, jumbo, etc.), and body size (parlor, grand concert, jumbo, etc.).
Your acoustic guitar can generally produce enough volume, even when played without amplification, to be heard by a small audience in your living room, on your front porch, or in a coffee house or similar setting. However, if you want to be heard by larger audiences, if you’re playing with other musicians, or if you want to record your acoustic guitar, you’re going to need some extra equipment, or “gear”. At a minimum, you will need: (i) a transducer, such as a pickup or a microphone, to convert the mechanical sound waves into an electrical signal; (ii) a “lead”, or cable, to carry the signal from the pickup or guitar; and (iii) an amplifier, PA, or recording console, to convert the electrical signal back into sound and either (a) broadcast the sound to your live audience, or (b) capture the sound to a recording.
This is the first in a series of articles to be presented right here on Acoustic Guitar Gear to explore the different options you have for recording and performing with an acoustic guitar. We will discuss the various styles of acoustic guitars (and electro-acoustic guitars) and how to select and purchase one. We will look at different pickup and microphone options, including the option of using a combination of a pickup and a microphone. We will also review and compare the many possibilities for amplifying and recording your acoustic guitar. And, of course, we will also take a look at optional acoustic guitar accessories such as capos, tuners, preamps, and processors.
In addition to exploring the world of acoustic guitar gear, we will also discuss various aspects of playing the acoustic guitar. Topics will include fingerstyle guitar playing, alternate guitar tunings, and the history of the acoustic guitar and related acoustic stringed instruments. Please check back often for interesting and informative articles, and to contribute your own comments and observations.