well mostly recording but live as well, and I'm not looking for amazing quality.... plus I'm not too knowledgable about electro-acoustic guitars but my brother has an acoustic which cost £150 new which I think is very good so does that give you any idea on the sort of quality I expect?You will not get a lot for your budget. What are you looking to do with it? Live? Recording? If I was tied to that budget I'd look second hand and forget the electro bit...
well mostly recording but live as well, and I'm not looking for amazing quality.... plus I'm not too knowledgable about electro-acoustic guitars but my brother has an acoustic which cost £150 new which I think is very good so does that give you any idea on the sort of quality I expect?
When it comes to low priced acoustics,your best bet is to head down to the store and sort through them,used and new.Play them with your eyes closed and don't buy a guitar because of the way it looks,at that price range at least.I've got a Yamaha six string and a Seagull twelve string that play and sound great for cheap,but were scratched up ugly ducklings.
As far as pickups,some are better than others,none are better than a mic for recording.
I wasn't trying to discourage you from getting an electro acoustic, just saying that my cheapo one is shit as an amplified acoustic. It sounds like lemons fused with Zebedee springs..........just to reiterate, I know I am not going to get the best quality when it is plugged in and if I ever do use it live then it'll likely be used as a rhythm guitar with a band around it (bass, drums and keyboard) so it will not be the centre of attention, I just want to get the acoustic sound.
I wasn't trying to discourage you from getting an electro acoustic, just saying that my cheapo one is shit as an amplified acoustic. It sounds like lemons fused with Zebedee springs..........
For a fair amount, you can get a good pick up {perhaps with preamp and EQ} that does make your acoustic sound like a real acoustic when plugged in. Most that I've heard don't. On my 12 string, I had a fairly pricey one fitted and even that doesn't sound like an acoustic when plugged in. Not to me anyway.
However, over the years, I think that there has developed an "electro~acoustic" guitar sound. It's ubiquitous in christian rock and pop and especially worship music. It's a sound I rarely like but it's in alot of post 80s music. It's a sound that is certainly not electric and certainly isn't acoustic but somewhere in between. Almost trying to be Jim McGuinn's 12 string Byrds sound but without the 12 strings.
What I've done is to utilize the minuses of my guitars and turn them into plusses with heaps of experimenting and I now have a range of acousticesque guitar sounds that I can actually say that I like, in addition to miked acoustic guitars.
that sound in the middle of electric and acoustic is what I'm expecting really. I just want to make sure I am going to get that sound and not some fuzzy or unclear sound.
You almost certainly be disappointed with the sound of the cheaper pickups. Even decent pickups need quite a bit of tweaking to get them to sound and behave well. Spend your money on the guitar part and just use a cheap magnetic soundhole pickup until you can investigate something better. Thank me later..
adding my budget up, I can actually spend up to £205.
with a quick look on ebay do either of these look like a good buy?
Tanglewood electro acoustic guitar (TF2C-SN) with hard case | eBay
Yamaha CPX-5 VS Electro Acoustic Guitar | eBay
well I've just watched a video on how to install the pickup but is that still the exact same mechanics to when you have an electro acoustic apart from where the wire is hanging out?