Would you buy an electro acoustic if you only played at home?

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Do you plug your acoustic in when playing at home?

Just curious as I would probably only ever play an acoustic at home, so what would be the reasons to plug in?

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  • VimFuegoVimFuego Frets: 15477
    if I liked to tone of it unplugged, if I liked how it played etc, then yes I'd buy one even if I'm only playing at home.

    I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.

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  • LewyLewy Frets: 4126
    edited October 2021
    It's not my bag but usually people plug in at home for two reasons:

    1) to use fx
    2) they play that tippy tappy loopy style that relies on being plugged in


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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    Yes, I use an electro when playing at home.  Mostly it's plugged into a DAW, sometimes via pedals, rather than into an amp.
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14324
    Electro-acoustic is convenient for recording. Much, much cheaper than professional room treatment, microphones and outboard processors.
    Be seeing you.
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  • Switch625Switch625 Frets: 576
    My first acoustic was actually an electro-acoustic (Washburn EA16), simply because when I was looking for an acoustic guitar this one happened to be on sale and I liked the look of it. I think I plugged it in once just to test that it actually works but other than that it's played purely as an acoustic and sounds lovely. I prefer the cutaway style and slightly smaller body too compared to a traditional acoustic.
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  • KeefyKeefy Frets: 2272
    A no from me, because:
    (1) Electronics add to the cost, so for the same money you could probably get a ‘better’ straight acoustic;
    (2) I don’t like having features that I don’t use; and
    (3) I have a nagging feeling that sawing a hole in the side of a guitar and sticking a plastic box in it won’t help the unamplified sound.

    But of course if the guitar said ‘Take me, I’m yours!’ that’s a different matter.
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  • TanninTannin Frets: 5271
    There are brands which pretty much always provide their own well-respected pickup system (Takamine, Maton, Cole Clark). It is safe to assume that  their economies of scale are such that it adds very little to the cost. (In fact, by the time you factor in the cost of producing and stocking twice as many models, ones with pickup and without, just having one on everything very likely costs sweet FA.) I never mind getting the pickup with these brands, even though I seldom or never use it. On the other hand there are brands which add in third-party pickups and I always resent having to pay for that and would rather not have it.

    Best advice: completely ignore the presence of a pick-up. Play the instrument. If you like it and you reckon it is the best one you are going to get in that price range, buy it. Don't even bother looking to see if it has a pickup or not, just play it and make up your own mind.
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  • munckeemunckee Frets: 12255
    I occasionally plug mine in to have reverb, chorus, compressor etc. I think for recording it's useful
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  • MusicwolfMusicwolf Frets: 3627
    Lots of reasons to have an electro-acoustic at home;

    1)  I find the piezo makes it easy to plug into my rack tuner

    2)  ................er, did I mention the tuner?
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  • Possibly, if I was using it for online streams, I'm a tutor too so I do online lessons but prefer to mic it up so in that case an electro-acoustic would be redundant.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    Electro-acoustic is convenient for recording. Much, much cheaper than professional room treatment, microphones and outboard processors.
    Sounds worse though.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    I prefer the integrity of acoustic only from the terms of the instrument's response.
    Jamming a preamp/battery box in the sides of the instrument doesn't make it sound better.

    In instances where I need to plug in I use a simple piezo and then have all the electronics outside the instrument.
    I have an LR Baggs pedal that sounds better than any onboard electronics I've found.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    Not intentionally - even if you want to plug it into something, I always think a simple pickup and an external preamp is better, and can be bought later if necessary which allows you to spend more on the guitar itself initially, and get a better one - but if I found an unusually good guitar that I liked for other reasons and it happened to be an electro, I probably wouldn't turn it down.

    "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

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    Occasional benefits :)
    when your strings are a bit dead, or the temp/humidity is such that it’s playing a bit dead 

    practising , esp when you’ve in,y got one mic and you use that for singing , but you need to get the volumes right

    real reason
    playing acoustically inside a room means you get immediate bounce back / reflection from the walls, which is artificial, and for some reason makes me sound better / good.  I find to improve both my singing and guitar playing tone together, I need to record them together and then get depressed when I play it back to myself at how bad I sound compared to what I thought I sounded like when I only played and sang acoustically.





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  • DavidRDavidR Frets: 728
    My personal answer to your question lovestrat is no. I do only play at home for the most part now. I do record stuff but into a mic. I think of an acoustic as something without electrics and I have no need or wish for them. Reasons? Weight, aesthetics.

    Large element of one's requirements, fashion and personal likes and dislikes to this question - which is a good one.

    Also, looking at what's being sold just now, I suspect my preferences are in the minority.
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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    Electro-acoustic is convenient for recording. Much, much cheaper than professional room treatment, microphones and outboard processors.
    And yet it always sounds much, much crapper.

    Personally I would find it a waste of money that could be spent on better woods and construction… but I can see how it could be very useful for looping stuff etc.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    edited October 2021
    thermionic said:

    And yet it always sounds much, much crapper.

    Personally I would find it a waste of money that could be spent on better woods and construction… but I can see how it could be very useful for looping stuff etc.
    +1

    I can see the point for effects and looping, but even a basic dynamic mic in an average domestic room sounds better than a pickup system if you want to record the sound of an acoustic guitar.

    "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

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • KeefyKeefy Frets: 2272
    ICBM said:
    thermionic said:

    And yet it always sounds much, much crapper.

    Personally I would find it a waste of money that could be spent on better woods and construction… but I can see how it could be very useful for looping stuff etc.
    +1

    I can see the point for effects and looping, but even a basic dynamic mic in an average domestic room sounds better than a pickup system if you want to record the sound of an acoustic guitar.
    The best recorded acoustic guitar sound I have ever achieved was with a large-diaphragm condenser mic right in front of my face (behind a pop shield) and pointing down. The sound the mic picks up is quite similar to what you hear while playing. It’s a world away from the sound you get from plugging in, no matter how ‘open’ you think the pickup sounds.
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  • MellishMellish Frets: 945
    I'm on the side of spend the most you can afford on an acoustic. At a later date you could add electronics. Or a soundhole pickup, you could do THAT if you wanted to :) 
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  • TanninTannin Frets: 5271
    octatonic said:
    I prefer the integrity of acoustic only from the terms of the instrument's response.
    Jamming a preamp/battery box in the sides of the instrument doesn't make it sound better.

    And it doesn't make it sound any worse either. It makes no difference at all. The sides of a guitar have practically zero effect on the sound production, they are essentially there just to hold the back the correct distance away from the top and you could make them out of moulded plastic or steel reinforced concrete or roasted mashed potato and it wouldn't change the sound much. The instrument has so very nearly the exact same response with or without pickup as not to matter in the slightest.

    (I have seven guitars. Four have factory-installed pickups, three don't. Who cares? The gloss vs-non-gloss finish on the tops makes more difference than pickups ever will.)
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