|
|
Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 56
Location: Edmond, Oklahoma | I'm not much of a solid-body electric guitar player, although I do own a couple. I often take one to band practice at church, to experiment and gain more familiarity. But Sunday morning, I almost always have my Ovation Folklore LX in hand, as it's just so RIGHT. (If that had been the first guitar I'd purchased, I might only have one or two guitars now, rather than ten.) I play it into a Roland KC-500 mixer/amp, as it was just sitting there, and it sounds darn good. Sometimes I'll pass it through a Yamaha MagicStomp for a chorus effect, etc.. But it's hard to beat the straight guitar sound.
Now to finally get to my point. The thing that's bugging me is that occasionally we have a rock-style song, and I need to pick some lead melody, or play a 12-bar solo. I'd like to stay with the simplicity of carrying a single guitar to church (and often the director moves right from one song to another, not allowing time to switch guitars). So my plan is to use the MagicStomp (or other effects box) to attempt to temporarily switch my acoustic guitar to sound somewhat like an "electric" guitar. I think I'm semi-successful, but it could undoubtedly be better.
Any tips on how to electronically (i.e., with pedals or some such device) get a lead electric guitar sound out of my acoustic guitar? I hope that's not too heretical. ;)
I've tried going the other way, using a solid-body guitar with piezo pickups, ostensibly to generate an acoustic sound for the 95% of the time I need rhythm guitar, but the piezo-"acoustic" tone of the solid-body guitar just does not hold a candle to the real thing. I'm sadly disappointed by the Boss AC-2 Acoustic Emulator pedal, also. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Try out a Boss BluesDriver pedal. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | Getting the piezo imput signal from your Folklore to sound like a real solid body guitar is going to be hard.
There used to be soundhole magnetic pick-ups that probably would work better than the piezo but that would require an A/B box for switching.
What's wrong with just playing the leads as amplified acoustic?
Here\' a Bill Lawrence pup on eBay. I used to have one of these and it does do a good job of sounding like an electric guitar especially when used with a fuzz/distortion box. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Have you tried downloading some of the electric "effects" from the Yamaha website into your acoustic stomp? You might not have to buy the Blues Driver, which would be the way I would go, if the the effects in magic stomp don't work.
Remember, you'r just going to get an approximation of an electric sound.
The other way to go, is just use an electric combo, and turn up the gain. It'll sound electric then. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 548
Location: Up North | Three letters, VXT |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | The supposed acoustic sound of the VXT hasn't "sold" me (yet) . . .
I'm hoping I'll change my mind come May. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2006
Posts: 51
Location: Arizona | I've seen some humbucker pickups that sit on a mount in the sound hole, but I don't know how well they work.
Sounds like you need a Taylor T5 or the new Fender VG Stratocaster...
http://www.fender.com/vgstrat/home.html
;) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | As you are going to just sort of "mimic" the electric sound, unless you go for a Hamer Duotone or the like, try finding a stomp that will do the work for you. Otherwise, if you are doing any significant volume, feedback will be an issue. Any of the "pickup on an acoustic" solutions, are going to sound like a pickup on an acoustic for the most part, where as a modeling box will take what comes in, and make it sound electric.
If you are playing "plugged in" all the time, I agree that the VXT would probably be a good option. I'm sure they are out there, but I know of no guitar that's plugged in, that can beat an Ovation pre-amp for sound.
Really just depends on how critical the sound is you need and how picky you want to be. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 56
Location: Edmond, Oklahoma | I appreciate the suggestions. I think the MagicStomp will work as well as anything. Just need to pick the right patch with the right amount of gain and overdrive. Don't want to scare the old ladies.
OMG! I'd totally missed the announcement of the VXT. Bravo, Ovation!
Do the Ovation fans feel like the acoustic sound of it is authentic? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Tim, you might see if Yamaha has a vintage or British crunch sound in their downloads. This is a relatively good sounding simulation of several effects. I was horsing around with the vintage crunch preset on a cheap Digitech multi one day combined with a Legend Ltd and was relatively impressed by how well George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps came out. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2007
Posts: 225
Location: Stow, Ohio | As someone who is a high gain fanatic, I tried my Celebrity deluxe through my od pedal and through my amps own gain channel.......sounds like poopoo!
Take an electric with you, or get a solid body with a piezo bridge...second thought nah. you can get an inexpensive universal guitar mount that hold any guitar in the playing position using a spare mic stand. I have one and it works great. except I have the acoustic on it instead. but it hold solid bodies as well. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 1817
Location: Minden, Nebraska | I think it's easier to get an electric to sound decently acoustic than to get an acoustic to sound electric and sound good. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1132
Location: NW Washington State | Another vote for a magnetic soundhole pickup. It would be easy and cheap to try something like the old standard Dean Markley pickup: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320103176032 These have sold for about $25 recently. Using an overdrive/distortion pedal and an A/B box could give you a usable sound.
-Steve W. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | if you can get far enough away from the amp and crank the gain wide open you can get a acoustic to sound like a nasty electric with lots of distortaion......i ran my folklore thru my valve jr with the bad monkey tube overdrive pedal an dit sounded like a distorted electric but the soundboard transducer fedback alot.....jason |
|
| |
Making Acoustic Sound like Solid Body. Suggestions Sought
