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March 2009
Posts: 416
Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | I'm new to electric guitars and, I think, I'll need to get a new amp. Can someone explain to me the differences between acoustic amps and amps made for strictly electric guitars? |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | An amp for acoustic instruments is really a small full-range PA system. Designed to have plenty distortion-free headroom, with a speaker or speakers with a relatively wide frequency response. Electric guitar amps are generally required to do the opposite. They are intended to distort easily, and have speakers voiced towards mid-range.
If you have an acoustic amp and want to use it with electric guitar an amp modeller such as a Sans-Amp, or POD as a preamp works pretty well. |
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Joined:
March 2009
Posts: 416
Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
If you have an acoustic amp and want to use it with electric guitar an amp modeller such as a Sans-Amp, or POD as a preamp works pretty well. |
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Joined:
March 2009
Posts: 416
Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
If you have an acoustic amp and want to use it with electric guitar an amp modeller such as a Sans-Amp, or POD as a preamp works pretty well. OK, confusion sets in. What is an amp modeller and how are they installed? |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | An amp modeller simulates an electric guitar amp and speaker, either digitally, such as the Line 6 Pod, or analog such as the SansAmp range. They can used just like an effect pedal, between the guitar and whatever amplification you are using. They allow you to get something approaching a good electric guitar tone through a PA system, acoustic amp or to a recorder. It's no substitute for a real electric guitar amp, but it's a reasonable cost-effective compromise. |
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Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Fletcher, how do you intend to use this new amp you're thinking about? Are you looking to simply plug in your acoustic/electric? Or are you looking for something for a pure electric guitar such as a Strat or Les Paul? |
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March 2009
Posts: 416
Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | I've gotten a Tornado.
Previously, I've only had acoustic and acoustic/electric Ovations, National dobros, and a couple of old 1949/50 era lap steels. My amps have been a National and a Supro tube amp also from the '50s that I've used for everything.
Recently I got a Marshall acoustic amp (which sounds really, really different from my old ones) and have been thinking about purchasing another amp just for the Tornado. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The only problem with older tube amps is they tend not to have master volume controls, and even low powered examples can be very loud. Unless you need distortion at low volume the amps you have should be fine for the Tornado |
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Posts: 4081
Location: Utah | If you plug your acoustic guitar into an electric guitar amp it sounds like crap. The electric guitar amp is very mid frequency heavy.
On the other hand, if you plug your electric guitar into the acoustic amp it doesn't sound too terrible. The acoustic amp has a much wider and flatter frequency response.
You can boost the mids on your acoustic amp and approximate the sound of an electric guitar amp run clean. If you want distortion you will have to generate it before the amp via footpedal.
So, one option is to buy a second amp. Another would be to buy an EQ pedal and a tube distortion pedal and run those through your acoustic amp.
I have a Digitech Bad Monkey tube distortion pedal. (Solid state that emulates tube distortion quite well). It has two output jacks, one to the amp and the other to PA. The PA output is voiced to sound like an amp, meaning it has boosted mids. It sounds ok. I think you could do a pretty good job of emulating the sound you want using an EQ pedal or an amp simulator.
Check out the Korg Toneworks PX4. It is a stereo digital box, the size of a pack of cigarettes, that has multiple emulations and effects. I have one and the sound quality is a 9 out of 10. It has a huge variety of emulations of amps and speakers, plus effects galore. You can plug it into your acoustic amp and use the amp as a PA. I have gigged with it numerous times, and recorded with it. It also makes a super headphones amp. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Besides the line 6 POD, and the Monkey, I can also highly recommend the BBE Green Screamer, which is a cost effective alternative to a tube screamer. What it does, is give you some overdrive. You can think of the three kinds of distortion like this:
1)Overdrive, which emulates the tubes being overdriven, giving a hotter, slightly broken up sound
2)Distortion, which emulates the speakers being overwhelmed, giving a hotter, very broken up sound
3)Fuzz, which emulates a broken speaker or one that has holes punched in it.
I'd go with either the Sans Amp or the Green Screamer, depending on how much money you got. The good news is even if you move on to a regular combo, you will use it. In terms of effects the three biggies are, reverb, overdrive and delay. You have to have two of the three to make that groovy electric sound. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | And one of the three has to be overdrive. Of course, that's just my opinion, but it works. |
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Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | If you are new to Electric Amps, and want overdrive or distortion there are many types or sounds of overdrive and distortion. People try to give them names like punch, drive, scream, but bottom line, they are different, very different.
I would recommend getting a nice amp you like and can afford that plays clean. Then I highly recommend http://www.option5-online.com/ Destination Overdrive. This unit can emulate most basic distortion and overdrive sounds you might decide you like. It acts very Tube-like, it doesn't have some of the "characteristics" of a traditional distortion or overdrive pedal. Yu could use this to help "find" your sound.
Another way is to listen to lots of guitar players and when you hear a sound you like, regardless of the music, find out what they are using. Keep in mind, unless you SEE them play through it, a recording doesn't mean much, so youtube can be pretty handy. Especially the uploaded videos of people just showing songs. |
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Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | You could always use something like this . . .
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July 2004
Posts: 766
Location: New Hampsha | The Prof and I agree. I run my T'Head and Condor through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10 and have a smile for 3 days afterwards. |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I like these two:
http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/amps/guitar/trademark30.html
http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0231502000 |
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March 2009
Posts: 416
Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Crap, now I'm just incredibly confused..reverb, overdrive, delay, distortion, modellers..it's like a new language I've never been exposed to.
I blame it on that new marshall amp I got with all its' switches and ports and knobs and pedal. I feel I need to take a guitar amps 101 course! Or maybe just stay in the '50s - plug in the guitar, turn on the power, wait for the tubes to warm up, and play. But the acoustic/electric Ovations sound so much nicer running through the marshall..but the lap steels sound really flat. From all this it seems the tornado should be happy for now through the old tube amps and I've got alot of learning to do before I buy anything new. |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | I have your solution! :eek:
Buy this amp from me! :p
(Or from evilBay)
It has more effects and crap than you will ever need!
I has a tube in it, plus a bunch of Digital 'models' on top of that.
It has additional parameters to tailor with and two channels (but only one input).
Just something else to think about! :cool:
Behringer \'Vintager\' AC112 Workstation... 60 watts, 99 presets, 2 channels $200 shipped to Conus
Guitars not Included! |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Here's another alternative . . . the latest micro from Genz Benz, a 600 watt unit with a tube preamp (this one was actually made for bass) hooked up to a house speaker enclosure with twin 18s and four 6" speakers. This was just an experiment to see if it worked. It did. Don't try this at home.
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April 2009
Posts: 39
| Originally posted by FlySig:
If you plug your acoustic guitar into an electric guitar amp it sounds like crap. The goal with an amplified acoustic guitar is to keep the amp in the linear (non-distorting) portion of its operating range. I'm a big fan of Orange amps (both tube and solid state models), as they have very useful clean and overdriven regions. I've used them for years with my Ric 12s (and now with Ovations) and generate an awesome clean tone. The tube combos are rather pricey, but the larger solid state versions (15 Watts or less, such as the Orange Crush 15R) are very reasonably priced (less than $100 of you shop around) and are more than powerful enough for personal use or for small gigs. They have multiple gain controls (preamp and master) which allow plenty of headroom for acoustic use. You can find them on Ebay, but see if there's a dealer near you where you can try before you buy. |
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March 2009
Posts: 416
Location: On the Coast - Halfway between SF & OR | Originally posted by Old Man Arthur:
I have your solution! :eek:
Buy this amp from me!
It has more effects and crap than you will ever need! That's just what I need! Does it come with an instructional DVD?
Reality is, I know what a volume knob is for (that's the only control on my old amps) but that's about the end of it. |
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Amp Info
