Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Well I don't get to post about "playing" a guitar much cause the ones I've been playing lately have not been Ovations... But.. be that as it is.. I recently cleaned up my Trace Acoustic amp for someone to use, and needed a guitar to test it out. I have also recently acquired a VXT so I thought that appropriate enough.
FWIW, also in the past few days I have played TWO 12-strings through it. One is my Balladeer with the pre-amp, the other is a Pacemaker which although has some sort of pickup in it, does not seem to be an Ovation pickup and no pre-amp. I also played my OFC Adamas through it.
Ok... so what's all this have to do with the VXT.. All I gots to say is for those that are looking for the sound of an Acoustic plugged in, and think the VXT can't do it... you just didn't try hard enough.
I'm pretty sure if I blind tested people to pick out the real acoustic guitar be played, they'd have a hard time doing it.
For me, I'm not looking for the VXT to sound acoustic as I rarely play an acoustic. I like the clean tone, but when I plugged it in, it was so close... I just had to try and get there.
My formula, was the VXT in MONO mode. Set the pickup switch to the neck pickup, back off the tone to about 5-7ish. Then starting with the blend all the way to the piezo side, bring it toward the middle until it sounded right.
Now, the caveat... while the TONE is roughly the same as an Acoustic through the same amp.. things like sustain, and the other assorted sounds like the string noise, the difference between 9's and 12's etc.. are apparent. But strumming along, doing leads, and especially in a mix with other instruments, I think only the true acoustic aficionados would be able to tell the difference if they weren't watching you play.
Now it's not just the guitar setup either. On the amp, I had the "shape" turned on, and the EQ was slightly dipped at around 1K. The Bass was in the middle "0", but the treble was backed off to about -2... just a touch of reverb.
Again, did the VXT sound exactly the same as the Acoustics? well no.. sustain and string gauge play a huge role. BUT... I have certainly heard enough Acoustic guitars amplified that didn't sound like an acoustic at all once amplified. In fact, I would venture to say, in a real world situation with other instruments, it would MUCH easier to get a really nice "Acoustic sound" from the VXT, then from an actual Acoustic guitar after you get done filtering it for feedback and such. No question, the actual acoustic would sound better under perfect conditions... but I don't believe I have ever played or run sound at a gig under "perfect conditions"...
Anyway, the VXT is really growing on me. It's a set neck which I like, and the tonal range is amazing. While two amps seems real clever at first, I think a two channel amp (clean and dirty) using the VXT in MONO mode provides the most flexibility... at least for me. |
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | For me, I was not all that impressed with the acoustic sound until I heard Matt Smith at Amelia I. From the audience perspective, with eyes closed, it was amazingly close to an acoustic. I've been using mine ever since, always mono like Miles, and with just a slight amount of the neck pup dialed in, but nowhere close to the middle indent. |
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