Getting authentic gig sound...?

[johnzo]

I'm really wanting to get a really nice authentic acoustic gig sound... but keep failing at that.

Is the guitar more important... or the pickups... or the amps / speakers?

I want to know which is MOST important... or atleast which would be priority?

 

[boingoman]

A good live acoustic tone has been the holy grail for just about every performer at one point or another.

Many have washed up dead on the shores of Lake Soundslikecrap, their bodies picked over by small animals that make sounds like mocking laughter. Their wallets are empty, and their sad bones are ignored by all save closest friends and family. And even friends and family are a little wary.

I have heard cheap cracked acoustics with piezo saddle pickups that have tone to die for. I have heard (just tonight) a beautiful Martin with a blender system that should have been left in a rest area garbage can. Forty minutes of adjustments, and the best it could do was sound only mildly irritating.

Taylors, which I think sound like shit, usually sound great plugged in.

There seems to be not much rhyme or reason to it, no matter what anyone says.

My own setup is a shitty Fender acoustic. I glued a Dean Markley pickup to the top, on the inside of the guitar. It goes from there to an ART preamp, into an RNP set to "crush", to a parametric EQ, and out to a DI. Sounds pretty damn nice.

For a solo instrumentalist, IMO it's still hard to beat a good guitar, with a nice mic like you were recording, through a PA or a nice acoustic amp. (NOT Peavey, Roland, Crate, Fender, Marshall, or anything else under $1500)

As soon as you install something in the guitar, all bets are off, if you ask me. Starting with a nice instrument is always a good thing. Unless, of course, it ends up sounding like shit plugged in.
The only other thing you have control over is amplification, which like I said should be either through a PA, or a good acoustic amp.

 

[Treeline]

I have finally found a combination that does the trick.

I have an old Taylor that I retrofitted with a b-band dual signal pickup. There is an undersaddle transducer and an internal condenser mic, together with a small class-A preamp inside the guitar. No controls on the instrument.

I've tried everything - you name it, I've tried it. The best I could do was a really good acoustic guitar sound, using a tube blender and my Acoustisonic amp. But it was not my guitar's sound.

At my last gig I plugged in direct to the board from my guitar - channels 1 and 2 of a new mackie Onyx board. In that board, the first two channels can handle low or high impedance signals so you don't need a DI box.

The result was simply astounding. People came up to me afterwards and told me consistently that they were hearing my guitar as if it had not been miced at all - they heard the pure acoustic sound, but they were hearing it through a 900 watt Mackie PA. It was chilling.

So, YMMV, but before you buy something, take the smallest Onyx mixer for a direct test drive through a PA.

 

[Hard2Hear]

I really like the Fishman stereo blender on my Taylor 615ce. I think there's definately something to the blending of a piezo and a microphone sound. I got rid of my ES equipped Taylor cause I didn't like the sound of that. I'm really happy with the Fishman. I'd bet Treelines BBand sounds great, too. I also agree with going straight into the board. Those amps and processors just screw up the natural sound of the guitar.

I'll refrain from judgement on what boingoman said about Taylors...especially since he runs an acoustic through a compressor.

H2H

 

[sile2001]

I've got a Taylor 614ce with ES, and I'm still trying to decide whether or not I like the amplified sound. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of consistency in the stream of sound guys running the board...I dunno. I'm thinking about selling it and getting a 614 without electronics and mounting whatever I want in there....something like the L.R. Baggs Active I-Beam system.