okay, today i’m going to cover a topic that’s very close to my heart. acoustic guitar sound and live performance…
you see, i’m an acoustic guitar player. not a guitar player. an acoustic guitar player. i literally don’t even own an electric guitar [although i do own a complete amp pedal board rig... but that's another story...]. i’m also a poor dumb sound guy. these two things have combined to produce one monstrous pet peeve. we’re talking like elephantine-esque [yes, ine and esque are redundant and repetitive] peeve.
[i had a mini-rant in here culled from years of frustration in dealing with this issue, but i decided it was petty, so i deleted it... trust me, you didn't want to see that side of me...]
so, i’ll cut to the chase. i don’t care what kind/brand/price of acoustic guitar you play, it almost certainly sounds awful once you plug it into a sound system. and while some of you may have brilliant sound engineers at your disposal who can work some magic on that sound, most of you probably do not. and frankly, if you want it to sound good, you should take responsibility for that sound. you’ve spent countless hours on all the other aspects of what you do, spend a little time on your guitar as well…
first, let me tell you a couple of ‘unfortunate truths’.
1. your guitar plugged in will only barely resemble the sound your guitar makes naturally. i don’t care what pickup system you have, it’s simply nearly impossible to make a guitar sound like a guitar without putting a mic in front of it where the sound of the guitar actually is. and that’s not a very practical thing to do in a performance situation.
2. the things that make a guitar sound great in your living room [lightweight, acoustically active top, etc.] work directly against it in trying to make a good amplified sound. that fantastic instrument will turn into a feedback monster by vibrating sympathetically at precisely the frequencies that make it sound great. you cut those frequencies to kill the feedback, and wham, there goes your sound… i have a beautiful, custom hand-built guitar that never leaves my house because it’s such a bear to get it to sound good amplified. my performance guitar is a 20 year old off the shelf takamine. sounds like a piece of plywood. until you plug it in…
3. there is no ‘one magic solution’ that will make your guitar sound great. there is no perfect storm of guitar/pickup/processor that will answer your prayers. so let that idea go. let it go… just… let… it… go…
however, the good news is that the quest for a really nice guitar tone does not have to break your budget.
here’s an example to listen to….
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCBynicEXY[/youtube]
[for best sound, select 480p]
the guitar sound you are listening to is the sound direct from my rig. no studio trickery. no extra nothing. most importantly, that sound is generated by a beat-up 25 year old mid-range takamine, and a $100 [thank you ebay] sound processor.
the trick is not the gear. the trick is taking the time to tweak the tools you have on hand to get the most out of them you can.
okay, so now some concrete recommendations.
1. buy it. no matter what guitar or pickup you have, invest in some sort of external preamp/processor. there are hundreds of combinations out there, so you may have to do some experimentation to find what works best for you. but i have yet to hear any guitar sound good without some kind of external processing.
2. bring it. don’t rely on the sound system/tech to ‘fix’ your sound. it/they can’t/won’t. if you need eq, bring it. if you need compression, bring it. i.e. buy an external box/boxes that will provide what you need. my favorite thing to say to sound guys is ‘just leave it flat and turn it on’. i always get a skeptical look [especially since my guitar looks like a high school science experiment gone terribly wrong] that turns to gratitude when they turn it on.
3. tweak it. if you aren’t the techie type, work with someone who is. offer to take your sound tech out to lunch in exchange for an hour or two of tweak time. hook your stuff up to the church’s sound system, and then work with your guy/gal to get the best sound you can without any eq or other interference from the sound system. i spent several hours on my sound. in 1990. i haven’t had to rework since.
4. take it [easy]. less is more. you’re gonna want a little compression. you’re gonna need some eq. you might even want to add some effects [my sound has a little chorus and reverb]. but if you’re ‘hearing it’ it’s probably too much.
there are a huge number of other things i could add to this topic, but i’ll stop there. if you have a specific situation, just post a comment and i’ll see if i can help out.
thanks for reading. and remember…
God may be satisfied with a ‘joyful noise’, but the rest of us would really prefer a ‘joyful beautiful sound’. so help us out here…
bfn,
brian
