Live Acoustic Guitar Hacks

You can have a great sounding acoustic guitar that sounds like trash plugged in. So let me show you how I fix that.
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L.R. Baggs Anthem Pickup amzn.to/3exwO3u
L.R. Baggs Lyric Pickup amzn.to/3cUnbv2
K&K Pure Mini Acoustic Guitar Pickup amzn.to/3KRwOHC
Sonicake IR Pedal amzn.to/3BYwgxi
Boss IR-200 Amp Sim and Cab Pedal amzn.to/3Bg4j23
00:00 Intro
01:06 Start at the source
01:56 IR Loader Pedal
02:59 Gear in the Test
03:24 Dry vs. IR Loader Example Strummed
03:53 Dry vs. IR Loader Example Fingerpicked
04:14 Short Reverb Trick
04:33 IR alone vs. Short Reverb Added Example Strummed
04:54 IR alone vs. Short Reverb Added Example Fingerpicked
05:18 Adding the Ambience at the Sound Board
06:45 Console Examples - Dry Guitar
06:58 Guitar through console reverb
07:24 EQ on Reverb Return
07:50 Dry Guitar - EQ Only
08:03 Reverb with Pre- and Post-EQ
08:16 Final Thoughts
09:01 Virtual Sound Check Challenge
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[@EricduToit]

"Make your acoustic guitar sound better" - brings an electric guitar to the party. I understand why, but that was fun. thanks James.

[@AttawayAudio]

To make a short story long, all of my instruments are my first instruments and in need of some upgrading and maintenance. I removed the piezo from beneath my acoustic guitar bridge to get the action from high back to normal, since the installer didn't do anything for that. So that's broken, my electric needs fretwork done, and my bass A string is way louder than the rest of the strings, which bugs the snot of out of me. So the list is long and my patience with making this video was... shorter than that.

[@toddleach1108]

I run an open mic where acoustic guitars are brought by participants. I have dealt with everything from A to Z. The #1 tools I use are: my ears & parametric channel EQ. No matter how bad the actual instrument & pickup/mic are, I can EQ the bad out of it. The EQ filter cuts may be subtle or extremely aggressive. The curve may look like a bad roller coaster design. It doesn't matter what it looks like, only how it sounds. Some key things I listen for: where is the boominess? Where is the boxiness? Where is the harshness? Does it have sufficient "airiness"? Those 4 key "frequency" areas are the pathway to success for me. Find them by boosting while sweeping left/right, then cut. Deep/narrow (specific frequencies) or wide shallow cuts (large tonal adjustments). The only thing I will boost is air (upper most frequencies), but still try to avoid that unless really needed.

[@AttawayAudio]

Totally. Thanks for the tips!

[@tomazklancnik7760]

Yes, true. I'm also doing this

[@atleengelstad5303]

The trick here is always use your ears...., on a soudcheck it can sound amazing soloed...., but in a dense mix, you want to get it through..., witout sounding harsh, or brittle....

[@Henminlul]

The moment I find this channel, my mixing capabilities incredibly beautiful. Thank you so much, big fan of you

[@catking7901]

I use an acoustic guitar with both magnetic and piezo pickup , when mixed well, it makes the sound less thin and bright without sounding like an electric guitar. The reverb trick is really useful

[@slimsantilli4476]

I've played many solo acoustic shows. The number one bit of advice. If you have a pre amp in your guitar. Put your guitars volume at 50%. Let the amp do the work.

[@johnmcvicker6728]

One trick I do is I sometimes don't want a mono guitar for our stream so I will duplicate the guitar on a 2nd channel and put a short channel delay (not effect) on it - been using 9.5ms lately. Pan orig channel left and new channel right and eq and reverb them differently. What happens is you get a mild chorus effect and guitar "sounds like" it is coming from the speakers and not centered or a wandering mono guitar signal in the stereo stage (it's wider than just guitar thru reverb). Our room is mono so I only put orig channel into the PA. I like it for the stereo broadcast feed - but I also like broccoli.

[@AttawayAudio]

1) Sweet! That's a fun trick. 2) Broccoli is awesome, so I'm not sure what your point is 🤣

[@michaeltablet8577]

What makes my acoustic guitar sound better is when someone else plays it.

[@AttawayAudio]

lol there are things I can't fix on someone's acoustic guitar playing, like when they strum ALONG the strings instead of ACROSS the strings, and the scratchy sound of the pick along the strings on each strum makes me want to run and hide

[@michaeltablet8577]

@@AttawayAudio Lol

[@Dr.Pepperdave]

Hahaha!

[@brucepackard5890]

Many/most acoustic guitarists in the genres I mostly work with (folk, bluegrass) switch a lot between strumming, finger picking and flat picking. Thankfully most use mics rather than pick ups. But when dealing with pickups (particularly piezos) I often find that a setting that makes a piezo pickup "acceptable" for one of these playing styles does not work for the other playing style(s). I sometimes solve this by duplicating the guitar channel and switching between quite distinct settings as needed. Have you tried this?

[@davidhunt6508]

I have a Boss Line Selector pedal that can be used for a variety of setups, such as different pedal chains, though I use it so I can switch between guitar and bass or guitar and mandolin so I have one cord and can use my tuner pedal, and then output to two different channels depending on which instrument I am using(a/b channel select). However, since the pedal has a distinct volume control for each output channel, if you were playing just one instrument(ie. guitar) you could run a separate out from both a and b into your DI box(many have 2 parallel inputs) or do the same thing using a 2 to 1(Y) 1/4" cable and then you could have a for strumming and b for [finger]picking. That way the onus is on the guitar player for switching volume outputs. BTW, I know they have volume pedals that can be used to very the volume of an instrument, I just don't know if said pedals offer multiple set points for preset volumes, or if you just sweep from off to 100%.

[@davidhunt6508]

Also, I have never tried my suggestion, just thought about it after seeing your comment.

[@deinyr]

Simple solution: A good acoustic guitar + LR Baggs Anthem pickup + Reverb.

[@migrantfamily]

In my experience there’s a trade off between sounding natural on one hand and convenience and feedback rejection on the other. My preferred solution is soundboard transducers, think K&K Pure (there are less pricey options). I typically play on a pretty quiet stage. My no.1 is a Norman and it has an unusual under-saddle pickup that uses a capacitive strip instead of a piezo. That doesn’t have the typical brittle tone that seems to be inherent in the design which puts the crystal under stress due to string tension. That pickup was in the guitar when I bought it. Unfortunately, I can’t find any information about it. When I plug in I always use some degree of compression. I have one layer of compression in my preamp pedal (Nu-X Stageman) and a dedicated compressor pedal (Ampeg optocomp) that I switch in and out more as an effect when I want the guitar to smack a little harder. Or I can dial the compression all the way back and use the output control to compensate for my guitars having very different output levels.

[@AttawayAudio]

Nice! Yes, I've heard contact pickups that are quite nice. They're actually on my list of upgrades for my acoustic.

[@gringoloco543]

Good advice! I'd also compress the harshness out of it. And if it's in a large mix, I'd do a lot of subtractive EQ.

[@TheMaddoxfam]

The IR didn’t do anything for me but I was genuinely impressed by your wet reverb trick.

[@AttawayAudio]

The IR definitely had a FEEL while I was playing that I didn't notice as much while I was listening back, so it could definitely be a good thing for monitoring/player confidence. But yes, the reverb opens up a world of possibilities.

[@Nick_Sorenson]

IRs are great for amp sims but I find the acoustic IRs to be a little phasey sounding. When they first came into popularity, I was hoping to get a plugged in acoustic to sound like a mic'd acoustic. Still no such luck! And no way most live stage volumes will lend to using a small diaphragm condenser on acoustic. Maybe the best solution is using a track of prerecorded acoustic and playing along with the piezo volume low. Not the best solution, but it is what it is.

[@itsmatchew]

Love to see the videos! Keep it up!

[@AttawayAudio]

Thanks! Will do!

[@Thewanderer_378]

Ok. Each Taylor is different. The one we have at our church is interesting. I can't remember the model but the one that our number two player brings in is far different sounding because of the pick-ups. And he's a finger picker!. I don't have to use very much EQ at all. A Fishman pre-amp and a direct box.

[@AttawayAudio]

Yeah there are some that sound fantastic.

[@babadziada4499]

I wonder what will give a better effect Boss IR or maybe a device like Hotone Omni AC Acoustic Simulator. Have you perhaps used this last one?

[@daverios222]

If it was easy you wouldn't need us. Hysterical , love it!

[@markwinslow2449]

I use a Fender Smolder acoustic overdrive on my taylor 12 string and a NUX Optima Air on my Washburn 6 string. Makes the guitar sound good over the PA.

[@markwinslow2449]

I know I'm pointing out the obvious but that's not an acoustic guitar

[@keithdarwin5786]

my bag-o-tricks just got bigger. Nice. In my church our issue is with mud. Piano, bass, toms - all merge to provide mud. I EQ the guitar to cut some lows turning it into a hi-hat with chords so that it has its own sonic space. Warm & rich sounding just doesn't cut it.

[@RufusKSala]

Try playing with your low cut / high pass settings on every channel. Don’t be afraid to experiment with setting the frequency higher than you might think to. The low E on a bass is around 41 Hz, so don’t be afraid to push that up even a bit (depending on your room, whether you have subs, etc.) Start the piano at least an octave above that (double the frequency to go up by one octave, so around 80 and up), then figure out where the toms fit in terms of room and resonance. Remember, if it’s already muddy, you’re not doing any harm by removing even some of the low end / fundamental. Especially with the bass, a lot of the “heard” sound (as opposed to felt) is in the low order harmonics, think 80/120/160/320 Hz (if they are playing lines between the low E and the octave up 12th fret on the low E string). Good luck!

[@rfjguzzo]

8:30 high-hat with chords LOL

[@BobK115]

i'm in a 3 piece band, 1 acoustic guitar/singer, bass, and drums. How can I take the mono acoustic signal and widen it and make it fuller and give more room for the vocals? I have him going through a DI into my Presonus rack mixer. It doesn't sound terrible, but he's a soft singer. I have a decent amount of compression going on. Sometimes the guitar can drown out the vocal. How can I move the guitar out of the center?

[@jonathanarleys]

In the case here we are the same, guitarist looking for best accoustic tone on an electric guitar... For me it all done by digital pedal, just using my Nux MG300. Not the best guitar digital multieffect but it sounds good enough for me in a live performance... I'm not a fan about reverb and resonance thing on an accousstic guitar (and digital piano to, I just turn this function to Off), let my sound engineer do the reverb job there...

[@RobertFreitag]

I tried using an acoustic IR from worship tutorials this last sunday. it sounded great at home through ATH-M50 headphones, but then in church it didn't work (on stage monitors). At home it seemed to accentuate the lows and highs which was good, but at church it seemed like the mids were getting out of control, about to feeback. I use a rubber sound hole feedback blocker so it wasn't actually feeding back, but something weird was going on. the band was only guitar drums and keys. Any thoughts on that? could it be from the monitor feeding back? or just the tone didn't suit the room or band? it seemed like very different results from home to church. I play regularly on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums or vocals, and am aware that tone at home by yourself might not suit the band, but something weird was happening with the IR, I suspect it was feedback so I'll try using a monitor at loud volume at home to see how that sounds.

[@AttawayAudio]

Weird! I haven't experienced that. What type of pickup is the guitar? Is it a mic with the piezo or just a mic?

[@StickMartin]

Big ups. This video instantly improved my tone. You're videos have helped me quite a bit over all. With a good mix, my 4-hour gigs fly by. With a bad mix, they seem to take forever. You mix tips I've made my whole life easier. Thanks again

[@AttawayAudio]

I'm so glad it's been helpful! Time really does fly when you're having fun mixing.

[@surge-tech9381]

Nice video

[@WhiteTurtleDiver]

I am so at a loss for why you are playing an electric guitar in this video.

[@Hadadoh]

I wondered too

[@AttawayAudio]

My acoustic guitar pickup is broken. The X-bridge has piezo pickups in it LIKE an acoustic guitar does. My desire to share these tips outweighed my patience to get my pickup fixed :)

[@burtonfzz]

4:09 wow 😮

[@user-bf5sh7me2r]

my boi be sounding like David Schwimmer

[@romeovelasco4151]

It says acoustic, why electric?

[@AttawayAudio]

My acoustic pickup is busted... electric has piezo pickups in saddles

[@atleengelstad5303]

But why on earth use a strat to mimic an acoustic sound? Why dont use an actual acoustic? with a piezo pickup?

[@AttawayAudio]

My piezo on my acoustic is broken. The goal for this was to demonstrate a bad acoustic sound and make it better. The strat's x-bridge is a great example of that.

[@undahandeddrumma]

Great video. Can't help feeling like this guy has a voice changer on though...

[@AttawayAudio]

lol you know it's on the "david schwimmer" setting :)

[@antonitobing]

6:25 - 6:43 I'm lost 😅 a little bit complicated? really? 🤣

[@AttawayAudio]

Well it's a video on acoustic guitars, not audio routing... so the rabbit trail would have taken a bit

[@theorignl4415]

​@@AttawayAudiothe mute effect is always a game changer! 🤣

[@savedalsman2081]

Step one, grab an electric guitar and process the sound to make it sound like an acoustic guitar. ???

[@AttawayAudio]

My acoustic guitar pickup is broken. The X-bridge has piezo pickups in it LIKE an acoustic guitar does. My desire to share these tips outweighed my patience to get my pickup fixed :)

[@lorenvguitar614]

Why don't you use an acoustic guitar for this demo, I thought this was a prank video. Waste of my time.

[@AttawayAudio]

I think I mentioned that my acoustic pickup is broken, so I used the piezo pickups in my strat. Sorry to waste your time. But the goal was to take a terrible acoustic sound (provided by said strat) and make it less terrible.