I have no idea about how to make a good, amplified accoustic sound. It'll be me and the ever talented singer on accoustics, I've got a Takemine EG260G that I bought on a whim cos it was cheap and my 18th b'day present Kaman Montana EM25-4 which the dude in Sound Control Glasgow said was better than those silly coloured ones I was looking at (It was 1991, I feel excused).
The Takemine's piezo output sounds shit and the rudimentary electrics on the Kaman have long since gone south.
The question is, I have circa £500 to throw at this so am I better fitting a decent after market pickup / pre-amp to the Kaman (which I love the acoustic sound of) or splurging on a new guitar with better onboard electronics?
Comments
Some of the best live acoustic sounds I've heard have come from magnetic sound-hole pick-ups (Fishman and the like). While they don't sound as detailed as a good mic, they don't sound as artificial as most piezos.
Sounded interesting.
You should be able to replace and upgrade the electrics on the Kaman for much less than £500 too - what type of system does it have in now, a passive piezo and volume/tone controls? I seem to remember they did. If so, removing the controls and connecting the pickup directly to the output jack and also using an external preamp will work wonders, the pots always really kill the tone of a piezo pickup. (Assuming you think it has 'tone' anyway .)
Alternatively, a magnetic soundhole pickup with a built-in preamp may sound much better, and with a little ingenuity you can run it through the existing controls if you want.
Remember that at the end of the day, at an open mic no-one really cares whether you have a great acoustic tone or not. The PA will usually be average at best, and as long as the result sounds roughly like a guitar, no-one will really notice the difference.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
@icbm I'm a complete novice when it comes to amplifying acoustic guitar. Will an out board pre-amp improve the current one even if i leave it place?
Have you seen how much a decent outboard preamp costs yet?
Something like an LR Baggs Para DI or a Fishman Aura (although the Aura probably isn't the best choice with a guitar that already has electrics, it works best with a passive piezo).
To be honest I probably still wouldn't bother if the aim is just to do open mics though - I've never found it an issue unless the guitar is *really* awful, and even then it doesn't matter that much, the soundman can always EQ it at the desk and get a tolerable sound.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein