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I always have preferred the unamplified acoustic to its amped cousin. And that's what it is, a cousin -- same family, familiar genetics, but a person entirely its own.
I play my acoustic amplified sometimes, at open-mics nowadays, and still think the closest I get to a pure acoustic tone is having a microphone in the mix alongside a pickup. And yes, dealing with the inherent feedback issues arising from it is itself a compromise.
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10-01-2016 03:55 AM
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Larrivee, nice stuff. I bought mine, a P-09 long ago, when I still could!
Larrivée Guitars - Products
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Playing acoustically is always harder because of the larger right hand movement to get enough sound out of the instrument. Electric playing has its pros because the picking hand will be smaller and more economical.
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The larger hand movement is not what's harder IMHO (or rather, the larger finger movements), it's keeping the sound proper while trying to produce enough of it. It doesn't help that so many of the factory-built acoustics are clearly intended to be played through a (piezo) pickup and really make you work to sound at a decent volume.
Originally Posted by Epistrophy
I don't think that's entirely correct. I don't recall exactly when Martin brought out steel-strung versions of their guitars (very beginning of the 20th IIRC) but people had been putting steel strings on guitars well before that. Barrios is (in)famous for doing that, not to mention close relatives of the instrument that always used metal strings (not always steel). I also think that the intention with steel strings is not so much to be louder but to "cut through the mix" with louder percussive sounds. Playing with a pick does help to play louder but without one most acoustics have difficulty competing with a CG of similar (or even lesser) quality, in my experience. This was in fact corroborated by one of the people working for Dowina, who build "pure" acoustics.The "steel string" acoustic is not a 19th century instrument. They only date from the first half of the 20th century.
If it's for playing jazz you should probably at least consider an acoustic archtop, but in general, don't follow brand hype. Of course Martin build good instruments but so do Taylor and Gibson (just to name those other brands of factory-build guitars, each with their own associated music styles) and plenty of lesser known builders. Really good (solo) players often seem to play other brands (if they don't play a luthier-built instrument). Originally Posted by fasstrack
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A decent acoustic guitar for playing chord melody and jazz is the Taylor K14ce Builder's Edition. I first became aware of this guitar when reading an interview with Mimi Fox talking about hers. She even did a solo guitar album called "This Bird Still Flies", entirely on that guitar. She said it was the "most musical guitar" she had played. Anyway, I purchased one at Sunrise Guitars on a trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas two or three years ago. My personal preference is unamplified acoustic guitar, so this works well for me.
Tony
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Depends how your technique is Originally Posted by Epistrophy
It’s just different.
After years of playing acoustic with a floating hand and an efficient use of energy etc (I could play for hours like that), playing more electric with all that muting and small movements - not easy! Light gauge strings are hard for me too I’m used to using the string tension to control my picking. You can’t do that with gauges 11 and lighter.
Furthermore it sounds super twangy. So yeah different skill for sure. Getting back into it…
i think it’s like singing. Just because you can sing opera arias doesn’t mean you can sing well with a mic… and vice versa
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