How Acoustic
Electric Guitars Give You The Best Of Both
Worlds
Get That Extra From Acoustic
Electric Guitars When You Need It
Acoustic electric guitars are
not much different from your normal acoustic
guitar. The main difference is the addition of a
pickup. In an acoustic guitar, there is no built-in
pickup. If you want to amplify the signal, you need
to either stick a pick up under the bridge, or sit
close to the microphone.
Less To Carry With You
With an aoustic electric
guitar, however, the pickup is built right into the
guitar body. This has obvious advantages. It makes
it easier to amplify signals since you can just
plug in to a guitar cable. It also means that you
have less gear to carry around. You don't have to
keep an extra pick up on hand for playing a
gig.
Play The Acoustic Electric
Guitar With The Pickup Or By The Mike - The Choice
Is Yours
There are some people who do
not like using the amplifiers built into acoustic
electric guitars.
They would rather sit near to
a microphone and pick up the guitar that way. This
gives a dryer, sparser sort of sounds more suitable
to rhythmic playing. But I've always liked acoustic
electric guitars even when I want to amplify with a
normal microphone.
The reason is, having an
acoustic pickup built in doesn't stop you from
using other means to pick up the sound. You can
still use a normal mic to record the sound of your
guitar. You simply have the option of adding the
onboard guitar pickup.
Get Variable Sounds From
The Acoustic Electric Guitar
This is also nice if you like
to experiment with sounds. A lot of people I know
who play acoustic electric guitars like to mix
sounds from different sources. You can use a bridge
pickup and mix it with a microphone pickup, for
example.
Some guitarists even take it
a step further, adding contact mics on to the
guitar body at various points. Depending where you
pick up a signal, you will get all sorts of sounds
from the guitar.
This allows you to tweak your
sound, getting just the right signal for whatever
project you are working on. It also gives your
sound mixer more options when you are playing a
live show and trying to compensate for whatever
peculiarities the club has in its acoustic
performance.
Types Of
Amps
When it comes to changing
your acoustic guitar to electric, you'll find many
options.
There are full sized electric
guitar amps, and then there are the practice
size. These vary greatly in
sound and capability, but you often want to start
out with the practice amp.
This is about a foot to a
foot and a half square, and has very few options on
it. However, this is perfect when someone starts
out with the electric guitar. These electric guitar
amps are far less expensive than the larger ones
you would need for performance, but they do what
they need to do and they can do it well. Most keep
one later on for home use.
Buying Larger Electric
Guitar Amps
When it comes time to buy the
larger and performance based electric guitar amps,
you have to take some more time to see what you
want to get. There are some types of amps that are
better than others, and there are some brands that
people prefer.
Each of the different brands
of electric guitar amps have their own unique
sound. Some work better with different types of
music, and other times, people just have a
preference for a sound no matter what type of music
they play. So, you have to make the final decision
about the type amplifier and your current
needs.
Is Your Favorite Acoustic
Guitar Available As An Electric?
Only one drawback; sometimes
you run into problems of availability. Some
high-quality models simply aren't available as
acoustic electric guitars. Fortunately, portable
pickups have gotten so good at this doesn't have to
be a big obstacle.
Changing Accoustic To
Electric By Installing Portable Pickups
You can simply stick a pick
up under the bridge and mix in the signal as if you
were using a factory unit. Of course, you won't
have an onboard mixer like acoustic electric
guitars do, but you can always add a mixer into
your signal line. It may be a little bit less
convenient, but you can still get the sound you
like.
So, if you are into flat
tops, but need a boost in sound, you'll love the
versatility of carrying your acoustic electric
guitar to your next show. Get the sound you need
and give your audience the volume they want. Now,
play something!
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