acoustic sounding PU's for electric?...hehe...just read this. it'll make sense. :)

  • Thread starter Thread starter WEBCYAN
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WEBCYAN

WEBCYAN

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ok, here's my question.
The pickup configuration on my guitar now is a humbucker on both the bridge and neck positions, and a single coil in the middle.

It sounds fine for heavier rhythm playing and for flange and really "washy" sounds, but I want somthing a little different.

Alot of the stuff im writing is power chord based, but there is a whole lot of really intricate clean finger picking using different chord voicings, tunings, etc... (dont look at my avatar... :D )

My problem is that my "clean" tone sounds too synthy. Too electric. I dont want to totally use an acoustic, cause then it sounds too "folky". Can any of you recommend both strings and PU's that will give a more "acoustic" tone. I know a hollow body electric would help, but I just cant afford one now.

Maybe if I got a PU that was really hot? Im not sure...
All I know is that I dont like the clean sounds Im getting now. I almost like how it sounds more with the amp off and just playing the strings. hehe...

thanks in advance....
 
Acoustic sounding electric pickups

I know what you mean about wanting a more acoustic sound out of an electric. One of the main differences is in the increased sustain of an electric. That just seems to throw the entire sound out into the twilight zone. I've heard that Parker Guitars or Parker Music or Parker something makes a stratlike bridge system with a transducer pickup built into the bridge. And they make the electric guitar with acoustic pickup built in. Also I've heard of people miking the electric guitar, just putting a mic up close to the guitar and playing sans chord, amp, nor nothin'. I've not tried either of these so I can't say too much about them.
I play a Strat through a Zoom 503, and when I want an acoustic sound I set it on Vox crunch with the gain pretty low, and keep the effects minimal and narrow stereo rather than huge wide stereo. It is far from a real acoustic sound, but when I'm wanting to focus on writing and pure music, well this helps get me in the zone.
A lot of the newer amp simulators have an acoustic simulator. You might check them out. I've already mentioned my own unit's brand in another post tonight, so I'm starting to sense that I'm preaching for it, but I'm almost positive that one of their newer units has an acoustic setting (Zoom 505, 505II, or 606). You might take a look at the new PODs, Behringers and Digitechs, also, to see if they have an acoustic simulator.
 
Hey CYAN, why don't you pop in a PAF at the neck and wind in .011 gauge strings? Mabey that'll help.

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Mic the strings and mix the sound in with the electric (that is, record the electric normally AND put a mic on the strings). I do this quite a bit, and it's a pretty neat sound. There's a tune on my website called "Bad Day" where I primarily used the mic'd string sound from the electric for definition, and then processed the living hell out of the electric sound (which I ran direct) until it sounded kinda like an organ or something. Listening back it's a pretty shitty recording, but I still like the mic'd electric sound.

If you've got an MXL603s it works really well for this, but even an SM57 works...you have to get in pretty close and crank the gain to get something useful though. It helps if you're going direct or can put the amp in another room.

Slackmaster 2000
 
You might look into the J-Station, it has two good acoustic sounds.
Here is a link where you can hear what it sounds like. Flat top and boat back are the ones you'll want to look at.

http://www.johnson-amp.com/jstation.htm

A lot less work that changing pick ups.
 
A strat style guitar with single coils and the middle pickup being selected is a very acoustic type sound. You can add the neck pickup for a little more bass or the bridge for a little more gain.
 
We did this country style tune, and wanted that acousticy tone, but the acoustic we had on the day was a shocker... missing two nylons strings... hehe.
I put an AKG D770(which is a great all purpose mic) aimed at the bridge and another on the amp cabinet, and mixed the two sounds with the one on the bridge being favoured. It sounds cool if you do this and pan one left and one a little right.
when I've got enough channels free, I do this as much as possible now, I really like the sound. (If I had a DI as well, I'd love to put a DI track in the mix somewhere too...)

DR_Sbaitso
 
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