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gambit 8 April 2005

Hi all

The new band is going well and I am doing a lot of 'sonic' experimentation. For a couple of the songs I require the acoustic to sound overdriven, like a valve amp. I am using an [="http://www.ayersguitar.com/guitars/type_d/dcs.htm"]Ayers Dreadnought[/]="http://www.ayersgui…"]Ayers Dreadnought[/] fitted with a Fishman Classic 4 and a [[url=http://="http://www.marshall…"]Marshall AS50R[/]="http://www.marshall…"]Marshall AS50R[/]. Has anyone tried to do this kind of thing? Am I asking the impossible? Should I just use an A/B switch between 2 amps? (Half the set is electric / half acoustic)

Tommy - do you have a similar acoustic setup and could try the bad monkey for me?

Thanks all

G

Comments

Tommy P. Fri, 04/08/2005 - 15:19

For rock chord work right?...I'd bet some cut EQ at the overtone frequencies will help best, with less stage volume and more FOH. If you can direct out with something relegated to just this task, you can just flip it on when you need it without messing with your acoustic stage settings. A modelling distortion box would be ideal into the FOH console, I think.

The Bad Monkey is more of a mild boost, not really a strong distortion pedal. I'll try my Ovation into the J-Station and see how it sounds.

I'd like to hear what others have tried too.

gambit Sat, 04/09/2005 - 01:33

Hey Tommy,

Thanks for the quick reply. To expand more on the why - think of Alanis Morissette's song, 'Ironic'. On the recording it kicks in some 'grungier' guitars for the chorus to lift it. Now I could use my electric with an acoustic simulator, but for me the sound of the acoustic is more important. So I am using a pure acoustic and almost need an electric simulator!

I was thinking of buying a cheap solid state amp to compliment the marshall but that would mean 3 amps on stage, which is just silly. I want to keep this as simple as possible so FOH sound is out, we already have 2 female singers and sax and its going to get muddy.

So ideally I would like a floor box that can be kicked in at the appropriate time. I have tried a Boss DS-1 but it was too much and sounded really bad & produced alot of undesired feedback. (I have a feedback buster in the sound hole of the guitar if thats of any help to anyone!)

The other alternative is a magnetic pickup that can be routed to the valve amp - anyone tried these?

G

gambit Wed, 04/27/2005 - 02:01

Well following on from my own thread, I've had some time off this week and went to my local guitar shop (LGS) and tried some pedals through various acoustic combo's. The winner was a Boss BD-2, [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.roland.c…"]Blues Driver[/]="http://www.roland.c…"]Blues Driver[/]. Its the lowest gain of the Boss range but still with a tube warmth of a valve amp. It has very simple controls and so is ideal. It still sounds a little fizzy but for 50 quid it will do for now!

G

anonymous Wed, 04/27/2005 - 11:15

you might also want to have a look at the Boss OD-20. It models about 20 stomp boxes and will do everything form a light blues overdrive to a molten metal mental dropped octave meltdown. I A/Bed it with my tube screamer before selling the tube screamer and it was a perfect match.

They come in at about 140 bucks new and you will never want another distortion pedal !

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