how do I amplify an acoustic?
I am checking out a fishman rare earth pickup in my acoustic. I ran it thru a fender deville and a pod. I am underwhelmed by the sound I get, it is very electric sounding. Does anybody have any advice?
# 1

It could be that its the pickup, BUT, I've heard some pretty good things about the rare earth pickups (though they are on the pricy side.) That leads me to believe that you might want to try running it through an acoustic amp, fender makes a line of amps that aren't outrageously expensive ($420 retail for the smaller one, and $640 retail for the big one, might be more but i only know of 2 of their "acoustasonic" amps) specifically built for acoustic instruments (not just guitar, all acoustic stringed instruments, so if you want to plug in that mandolin, go for it.) As fender amps go, the deville is about as far as you could get from a pure acoustic sound, so i think it would make sense that you would hear an electric type tone. I mean you can practically play metal thru a deville. You're not going to sound like SRV with an SRV strat and a marshall stack cranked to 10. See if your local guitar shop has any acoustic amps, fender or otherwise. If you can't find them, at least try running it through a fender twin or something like that before assuming that the pickup is the problem (I don't know if I come off sounding like a fender fanatic, and while i do love fender guitars AND amps, just so u know, i play thru a line6 flextone, and i love that too.)
# 2
Well, I finally got this worked out. Daniel had the right idea, using an electric amp was ultimately the problem.
I did get a fender acoustasonic amp (the little one). Once i put my martin thru it with the fishman, boom! Beautiful sound, just like you would expect.
I can't wait to get off work and play it again. It really worked out great.
Jon
I did get a fender acoustasonic amp (the little one). Once i put my martin thru it with the fishman, boom! Beautiful sound, just like you would expect.
I can't wait to get off work and play it again. It really worked out great.
Jon
# 3

quote:
Originally posted by jbroder:
I am checking out a fishman rare earth pickup in my acoustic. I ran it thru a fender deville and a pod. I am underwhelmed by the sound I get, it is very electric sounding. Does anybody have any advice?
It depends on your budget. If you have big bucks to spend, get a P.A. system. Get a decent stage or recording microphone, and maybe an acoustic preamp. Sounds good. A little pricy but, hey. What can you do?
# 4