tips for acoustic electric guitars

G

gusfinley

New member
I thought I'd give us all as chance to post tips for using our accoustic electric guitars....

here's mine: Compress the Hell out of them!!!

I hate the sound of those Klacky piezo pickups and thier harsh harmonics. I deal with them about 90% of the time in my line of work. What's worse is when you add another acoustic electric in the mix.

Use a compressoer on the channel insert or bus insert that the A/E guitars are on, adjust settings to taste. I like a lot of compression about a 2-3:1 ratio and the threshold pretty far right. I enable the auto compression feature also. You can easily adjust the amount of harmonic content you want using the compression settings (threshold and ratio.)
 
yeah....

scrubs said:
Here's a tip: Don't record using your piezo pickup. :D
Click to expand...

my line of work is live sound, actually.... which is more or less what this thread would be applicable too....

I have heard of people mixing thier acoustic tone and pickup tone in recording situations through.....
 
gusfinley said:
my line of work is live sound, actually.... which is more or less what this thread would be applicable too....

I have heard of people mixing thier acoustic tone and pickup tone in recording situations through.....
Click to expand...

Yeah, that makes sense. I thought you were making new age jazz or something where lots of the stuff sounds like it was recorded direct via piezos...yuck. Anyway, thanks for the tip on the compression. I'll give it a shot on my next live outing.
 
I've been struggling with this for a long time.

When I began experimenting in the studio, I found a sweet spot using a single SDC pointed at the bottom front of the body. This is the very same spot that's missing on all cutaways! Turns out the same spot used to control the acoustic problems on stage is the very spot I needed to get the sound I was after.

So for now in the studio, I'll record the direct out of the acoustic/electric along with an SDC (near 12th fret) and an LDC (on the body). Blending the three signals usually gives me the sound I'm after with enough punch to be heard in a dense mix.

Live is a totally different animal. I played an Ovation Custom Elite (1986 Collector's edition) for several years. It sounded thin through a D.I., so I would always play through a JC-120 and have the sound guy mic the cabinet.

One thing I noticed about Piezo pick ups is that they sound good IF you really lighten up on your picking attack. Otherwise, I really dislike the sound of Piezos. The Fishman blender systems that are becoming popular now are getting closer, but I'm not totally sold on them just yet.

I prefer the L.R. Baggs system over anything else.
 
Last edited:
i read the pervious posts on this thread, but i'm still kind of new to the board so i don't know if i'm in the right thread....but... i'm just looking for some acoustic guitar recording techniques...i'd like to improve my recordings some. mostly looking for things like mic placement, compression (if so where in the recording chain), EQ etc... i'm looking for that classic, warm acoustic sound...

let see...useful info....curretnly using a 57 to record guitar, but open to new mic suggestions in a similar $ range. I record mic to mixer, mixer line in, Sound Forge 6.0. the guitar i'm looking to record is a Garrison G-4 series (cutaway...hope that doesn't get rid of the sweet spot :)) The guitar has a lot of natural deep, warm tones.

Thanks!!
 
ZekeAcoustic said:
i read the pervious posts on this thread, but i'm still kind of new to the board so i don't know if i'm in the right thread....but... i'm just looking for some acoustic guitar recording techniques...i'd like to improve my recordings some. mostly looking for things like mic placement, compression (if so where in the recording chain), EQ etc... i'm looking for that classic, warm acoustic sound...

let see...useful info....curretnly using a 57 to record guitar, but open to new mic suggestions in a similar $ range. I record mic to mixer, mixer line in, Sound Forge 6.0. the guitar i'm looking to record is a Garrison G-4 series (cutaway...hope that doesn't get rid of the sweet spot :)) The guitar has a lot of natural deep, warm tones.

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Here's my favorite article on miking acoustics. It is for stereo techniques, but you can use a single mic. I would start with the mic about 12" from the fretboard at about the 12th fret. The SM57 is not my favorite mic for acoustic. I much prefer a condenser. I use the MXL603s and Shure SM81 most commonly for this task, but there are plenty of other mics that will work. The Studio Projects B1 is another popular choice under $100.
 
scrubs said:
Here's my favorite article on miking acoustics. It is for stereo techniques, but you can use a single mic. I would start with the mic about 12" from the fretboard at about the 12th fret. The SM57 is not my favorite mic for acoustic. I much prefer a condenser. I use the MXL603s and Shure SM81 most commonly for this task, but there are plenty of other mics that will work. The Studio Projects B1 is another popular choice under $100.
Click to expand...

thanks...the article was what i was looking for. i have phantom power on the board but when it is on to all the channels. there shouldn't be an issue using conders mics at the same time as the others right?...provided they're connected power off??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top