Tedly Nightshade Posted April 6, 2003 Share Posted April 6, 2003 I have found that my Univalve is most useful as the very best acoustic guitar pickup preamplifier that I have ever heard, hands down, no question. This at rather low gain, into the Rock input, with 2 12AT7s and a 6L6, all JJs from Eurotubes. Send this into the power amp of your choice. A vintage Ampeg V4 through the power amp in is pretty dang sweet, and you want hi-fi PA full range type of speakers. Using a B-Band pickup, and some choice speaks, I got my Collings dialed to where my engineer found the sound coming from the speakers and the sound coming acoustically from the guitar to be virtually identical. He couldn't believe some of the high harmonics coming out of the speaks... It also sounds really cool going from the V4 to a Leslie 122. My keys player, a fanatic lover of the psychedelic electric guitar, said it was the most enjoyable electrified guitar sound she'd ever heard. I don't know if I would go that far myself, but she tends to be pretty dang spot on... A WOP BOP A LU BOP, A LOP BAM BOOM! "There is nothing I regret so much as my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" -Henry David Thoreau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael saulnier Posted April 6, 2003 Share Posted April 6, 2003 Ted, I haven't tried this, but now that you've mentioned it... I'll give it a go. I don't have a nice Collings, but my Taylor 714 should sound sweet! Thanks for the tip... guitplayer I'm still "guitplayer"! Check out my music if you like... http://www.michaelsaulnier.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedly Nightshade Posted April 6, 2003 Author Share Posted April 6, 2003 I percieved immediately that solid state was not going to do anything but exacerbate the inevitable dry, flat, papery pickup sounds, and I've tried fine tube mic preamps (nah...), plugging straight into tube guitar amps with no preamp (works pretty well, although it's pretty quiet even with the amp on 10 and the guitar amp speakers tend to be far too directional to get a natural sounding acoustic guitar sound from more than one angle to the speaker- it'd either be too bright or too dull if you just moved a few feet.) This is a revelation for me, and I've put a lot of time into mic'ing the guitar with nice mics and all that- problematic indeed for stage, if you're in an ensemble, no matter how quiet, but the only other way I could get a decent sound. Now I won't even bother to try to mic it onstage. I put the Univalve line out into a nice DI to provide a "looks like a mic" signal for the PA, and lay on into the geetar! Have you tried the B-Band pickup, guitplayer? It needs to be installed just right, but it's incredibly much better than a piezo (god I hate those things), really does justice to the instrument if installed well with a bridge that works with it (I like bone best by far, but bone is not always very even in it's response, so you may have to find the right chunk. The faux bone I didn't care for that much.). A WOP BOP A LU BOP, A LOP BAM BOOM! "There is nothing I regret so much as my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" -Henry David Thoreau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael saulnier Posted April 6, 2003 Share Posted April 6, 2003 Originally posted by Ted Nightshade: I percieved immediately that solid state was not going to do anything but exacerbate the inevitable dry, flat, papery pickup sounds, and I've tried fine tube mic preamps (nah...), plugging straight into tube guitar amps with no preamp (works pretty well, although it's pretty quiet even with the amp on 10 and the guitar amp speakers tend to be far too directional to get a natural sounding acoustic guitar sound from more than one angle to the speaker- it'd either be too bright or too dull if you just moved a few feet.) This is a revelation for me, and I've put a lot of time into mic'ing the guitar with nice mics and all that- problematic indeed for stage, if you're in an ensemble, no matter how quiet, but the only other way I could get a decent sound. Now I won't even bother to try to mic it onstage. I put the Univalve line out into a nice DI to provide a "looks like a mic" signal for the PA, and lay on into the geetar! Have you tried the B-Band pickup, guitplayer? It needs to be installed just right, but it's incredibly much better than a piezo (god I hate those things), really does justice to the instrument if installed well with a bridge that works with it (I like bone best by far, but bone is not always very even in it's response, so you may have to find the right chunk. The faux bone I didn't care for that much.).I haven't tried the b-band... Considering my love for Taylor's, I'm probably headed toward an upgrade of my guitar for one of the new ones with thier new pickup system... but maybe in another year or so... guitplayer I'm still "guitplayer"! Check out my music if you like... http://www.michaelsaulnier.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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