How to make electric sound acoustic ?

[Andrew Riggs 0]

Im doing a worship set tonight at church. I own a voxac15 and a telecaster. Up at the church is a vox valvetronix. How can I make this sound as much acoustic as possible. I will be playing rythem and want it to sound full not bright and chimey. Should I use neck or bridge pickup or series?

[AlanH 174]

For me, neck and bridge together sounds fuller and you can experiment with the volume knobs for each to get a nice blend. If you can't find a patch/setting for acoustic simulation on your amp I would advise going for a very clean setting and dialing in some chorus (especially) and reverb/short delay. A bit of low end on the EQ might also add some of that acoustic depth.

[Cú Chulainn 22]

piezo

[milod 665]

Do first what Joe's tellin' you about your amp - I'm not familiar with it.

 

But in terms of technique on top of the electrical side... I'd say keep your strumming away from the bridge.

 

With or without what Joe suggested, (as in assuming your amp only has minimal controls) you may also wanna see what settings on the guitar and amp together, whatever controls are available, might come closest to a sound you find acceptable. Technique can also make far more of a difference than some folks wanna admit. Sometimes the bridge pup only but with the tone turned away from the trebly end works on some guitars...

 

I'd also try it with however you do your church's overall PA sound to see what comes closest to what you're looking for.

 

m

[heymisterk 104]

Do first what Joe's tellin' you about your amp - I'm not familiar with it.

 

But in terms of technique on top of the electrical side... I'd say keep your strumming away from the bridge.

 

 

[thumbup]

 

The closest I could ever get was to play with both pick-ups on, tone all the way up, BUT...playing as close to the neck pick-up as possible. I found that using just the neck PU made the tone too dark.

 

Don't expect miracles; I found that out when my acoustic was in the shop and I had to play my electric for my church choir. I also know that BOSS makes an acoustic simulator, but haven't used one.

[milod 665]

I know I have an acoustic simulator on my Zoom 707II multi-effect pedal.

 

It sounds about as much like an acoustic guitar as the average Hammond B3. <chortle> (The 12-string emulator is worse.)

 

A dedicated pedal might be half decent, but I've personally never used one.

 

m

[Notes_Norton 589]

I've got a Digitech RP355 multi-FX pedal, and it has a couple of great acoustic emulations. I find that if I use both pickups with the treble turned all the way up and then choose one of the acoustic emulations, it sounds almost like a flat top guitar with a mic in it.

 

Notes

[btoth76 336]

My way is: moderate chorus and analog delay. I have an acoustic simulator in my Zoom multi, but it's a terrible one. Cheers... Bence

[RaysEpiphone 68]

The best way to get an acoustic sound is to use an acoustic guitar... Its a no brain-er.

[Twang Gang 429]

Never going to get a Telecaster to sound very much like an acoustic, but I would say use middle pick-up position, roll off the treble some, and strum closer to the neck pick-up.

[milod 665]

There's one possible option not mentioned.

 

One might try an inexpensive contact mike, at least in lieu of a full piezo bridge. I think I saw some of 'em while paging thru Guitar Fetish. Shut off all the Tele electronics and use the contact mike alone.

 

I used one years ago - it's still somewhere in a box in a back closet. The strength is that is just might let a Tele sound like an acoustic, although placement likely would be pretty important, and an amp likely would need to be cranked up.

 

The weakness with any contact mike on an acoustic was that it tended to feed back. In spite of all my messing around with such stuff before AEs came out and that's all I've bought since then, I never tried it on a solidbody, so I can't speak from experience.

 

But... for a relatively few bucks it might be worth a try. A Tele shouldn't have the feedback problems of an acoustic - on the other hand, it probably also isn't as resonant to get a strong vibration to the contact mike.

 

m