General Music Chat

Off tonight to another Taylor Guitars Road Show. I guess if you're not into acoustics, it's be boring, but I think its great to be able to have the chance to play a dozen or so $3500-$7000 guitars with no salesperson trying to pressurize you to buy or looking down his nose at you because he knows you can't afford one of them!

ok, i'll be the first to say it...I'M envious!

have fun, mike.

Personally I have no interest in trying instruments I can't afford. Most of your tone comes from your fingers anyway.

Moreso with an electric than an acoustic.

Personally I have no interest in trying instruments I can't afford. Most of your tone comes from your fingers anyway.

Moreso with an electric than an acoustic.

I have a bunch of recordings from SAKER G. They prove exactly the opposite.

Too bad you missed the opportunity to hear some really great acoustic recordings. Jimmy is correct, even acoustics have all sorts of different squeaks and the way a players fingers touch them can have significant impact on the overall sound.

I haven't played an acoustic guitar in years but I find I will be doing so later this summer. I'll be accompanying a singer at a friend's wedding. The guitar is a Harmony - and not a bad instrument - I played it the other night and liked it.

Now of course, I want to get an acoustic. Luckily I'm already broke. Wait..?!

Talbot

No matter how good your ability is, if you play a cheap acoustic guitar it is still going to sound like a cheap acoustic guitar. A good player can make it sound better than a not-so-good player, but that's true of ANY instrument.
The Taylor guy said last night, when referring to the standard piezo-equipped acoustic guitars that are out there, they all pretty much sound alike when plugged in - and its true. Oh sure, the tone will differ from make to make, model to model, but they all have that piezo sound, an dit doens't really matter if its a $400 yamaha or a $1600 Martin - when plugged in.
I've heard people say they can't hear the difference between a $500 laminated back-and-sides and a solid wood guitar acoustically (not plugged in) - the fact is that there is a difference (if the solid one is constructed correctly), and that they and thier ears have not been trained to hear to hear the difference.

If you have any interest in acoustic guitars at all, check out a Taylor Road SHow when they come to your area (check taylorguitars.com for the upcoming road show listings.
The standard format is:
1st hour, they demonstrate and show you the various Taylor guitar shapes (there are 5 basic sizes) and different tone woods.
Then you get about a half hour to play any/all the guitars that are there.
Last half hour they talk about the Taylor pickup system and the hybrid T5 guitar, then do some giveaways.
Lot of fun - and free!

Yes, recording an acoustic well is an artform! I've got to the point where I can consistently capture the sound, using 2 mics (one pointed athe 12th fret, angled towards the soundhole and one at the lower bout). Of course, like recording anything with a mic, the recording space has to sound good.

On the electric side of acoustics: some people do not like the Taylor ES (1 gen 3, 2 mag sensor) system, some do not like the new ES2 system - some people don't like either of them! Some swear by some of the higher priced K+K or Baggs pickups, or the dual-source systems that use a mini mic in the guitar. Of course each guitar will sound differently with a different system in it. What you hear in 50%+ of most a/e guitars is a Fishman system. It's what's in my Fender and most factory Martins. A piezo pickup which gives that recognizable 'quack' in the sound that can be EQed down (but not out).
A couple of weeks ago at an open mic I was at (not mine), one of the hosts said to me after I did my 3 songs "how come my Martin doesn't sound like that?" She bought it earlier this year for almost twice what I paid for my Taylor last year. I just smiled and said 'I told you to buy a Taylor!'

Mike this is general chat. Post this stuff on the music, boring me to heck, music side of this. I know all the stuff you are telling everyone you do. Even when you DON'T!

You are going out of your way to explain recording techniques without mentioning the most important thing... YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY GUITAR. You really should start there.

If you don't have the key, It makes it much harder to open the locked door. You don't have the key. Not after the posts to CAPT SCOTT.

YOU ARE NOT NICE!!!!

I'm afraid you are incorrect again, MR Glenny J. Please read the top Headline Title on these forum pages:
This is a MUSIC forum. Irrelevant or disrespectful posts/topics will be removed by Admin.
Let me interpret for you: The Administration of this site want these forums - including the General Chat - to be about music.
If you don't want to read about a particular subject, you have the FREEDOM to not read that thread. But to tell others that they should not post the thread or put it somewhere else is infringing on THEIR FREEDOM.
Do you see your (once again) hypocritical stance on things? Probably not.

Brendan - what do you have for a mic? Miking an acoustic is always preferred for recording, no matter what pickup system you have.

Without knowing your recording space details, or what mic, first attempt should be with the mic 6-12 inches away from the guitar, pointed at the 12th-14th fret area, but angled slightly towards the soundhole. If your room is untreated acoustically, a simple dynamic mic like an SM57 will be better than a condensor, as a more-sensitive condensor mic will also pick up more of the room reflections.

I'm not familiar with that Fostex recorder, but make sure you don't have a compression FX running on the channel when recording or playing back - I know my old Boss recorder automatically had FX when you selected certain inputs and you had to manually turn them off.

in another thread i mentioned having a cpl of folks out yesterday to do some recording.

the gal had never been in a studio to record.

i had two small condensor Beringer C-2 mics (let the scoffing begin...they're actually QUITE good) in the array that mike mentioned.

she's got a mid priced washburn dreadnaught.....nice playing and sounding gtr for what it is, and she's always used the internal pickup on gigs.

she was a little confused and skeptical about why we were using mics instead of the p/u. in her gtr.

we plugged in her gtr and i had her play a bit while recording her gtr on three tracks. when playing them back i first soloed the pickup trk....not bad. she thought it sounded pretty good.

then i muted the trk w the p/u and played her the two trks recorded w the mics and panned them wide w slightly different EQ's and reverb/delay on each trk. it was pretty funny seeing her reaction!

needless to say...the gtr was unplugged pdq.

At the Road Show they demoed the new ES2 pickup system, available only in the 2014 800 series and a few slect other models.
Plugged into a standard mixer, EQ flat, and a couple of QSC 10" powered speakers on pole stands. It did sound good, even if it was not quite the same as the acoustic sound. The new ES2 uses a single behnd-the-saddle piezo pickup, not the usual under-saddle, and has 3 adjustable pole pices to adjust the tension of pickup-to-saddle under each pair of strings (E-A, D-G, B-E).
Reviews I've read on other forums are split about 50-50 between liking this system's sound better than what I have in my Taylor, the ES1gen3.
But there's no question that proper miking an acoustic guitar is always going to give you a better sound when recording, and if miking is an option for a live show, do it. Unfortunately, its not always an option due to movement of the player/guitar and feedback.