LiveMusic Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Recently, bought a cheap Takamine for a backup guitar. Tested it against other guitars in it's price range ($269) and it beat even more expensive guitars. Was playing through a California Blonde amp, about $850, I recall. The Takamine sounded great. Now, I'm playing through a Carvin PA system, no amp. The Carvin Cobalt acoustic sounds great. The Takamine does not. Just ho-hum. Just wondering how much "value" you place on a guitar amp. I had Fender Acoustatonic Jr. and I did not like it very much. Maybe that California Blonde amp was pretty good. > > > [ Live! ] < < < Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Hi Duke, sounds like the Tak doesn't have a built in pre amp and the Carvin does. An acoustic amp ought to sound like a small PA system with maybe eq specific to acoustic. I've got great acoustic tones through just PA. There's a Fishman pre amp that's pretty reasonable. It would probably give your Tak the level and eq it needs to sound good through the PA. -David http://www.garageband.com/artist/MichaelangelosMuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveMusic Posted July 12, 2004 Author Share Posted July 12, 2004 Originally posted by DC: Hi Duke, sounds like the Tak doesn't have a built in pre amp and the Carvin does. An acoustic amp ought to sound like a small PA system with maybe eq specific to acoustic. I've got great acoustic tones through just PA. There's a Fishman pre amp that's pretty reasonable. It would probably give your Tak the level and eq it needs to sound good through the PA.The Takamine (EG240) has bass/treble/gain. The Carvin has Fishman with several effects to tweak. What I don't understand... is that Takamine, reason I bought it was it sounded SO good plugged in. Again, through California Blonde amp. As for adding a pre amp, I dunno, if it costs more than a little, might as well just buy a better guitar. > > > [ Live! ] < < < Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave251 Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Is there a preamp in the Tak? A battery? If not, that IS the difference. An acoustic guitar amp has the proper input impedance to accept a feed from an UNBUFFERED piezo signal....the PA does NOT. The CA Blonde does have this on the input. I would guess that is the difference. Once of the reasons the Tak is inexpensive. You have a couple of choices...buy an outboard buffering preamp for the Tak...or a dedicated acoustic amp to go with it. Just make sure the input impedance on the amp is AT LEAST 1 meg ohm....5 meg would be a lot better. Dave Wendler Instruments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dak Lander Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Duke, I'm sure your TAK is a passive system and will have considerably less output than the Carvin due to the Carvin's battery powered preamp. That's really a small sound system built into that Prefix Plus Active Pickup System, with a compressor, notch filter, eq, phase switch and a brilliance filter. What you need to do is put the TAK in a different channel, so you don't have to re-adjust once the levels are found, & make sure the 20 dB gain switch is engaged (IN). From there you should be able to tweak the TAK to get some great tones. When you start to use that amp system live you'll find that the 20 dB gain button can be the cause of feedback so you'll have to get into the habit of plugging in the equipment into the same channels each time if you don't get into the habit of switching them all off upon shut down. I think your amp likely came with the gain switchs off (out) to protect from mic feedback. Our Joint "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it." The Duke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveMusic Posted July 12, 2004 Author Share Posted July 12, 2004 Originally posted by dave251: Is there a preamp in the Tak? A battery?Yes. > > > [ Live! ] < < < Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiveMusic Posted July 12, 2004 Author Share Posted July 12, 2004 Originally posted by daklander: Duke, I'm sure your TAK is a passive system and will have considerably less output than the Carvin due to the Carvin's battery powered preamp. That's really a small sound system built into that Prefix Plus Active Pickup System, with a compressor, notch filter, eq, phase switch and a brilliance filter. What you need to do is put the TAK in a different channel, so you don't have to re-adjust once the levels are found, & make sure the 20 dB gain switch is engaged (IN). From there you should be able to tweak the TAK to get some great tones. When you start to use that amp system live you'll find that the 20 dB gain button can be the cause of feedback so you'll have to get into the habit of plugging in the equipment into the same channels each time if you don't get into the habit of switching them all off upon shut down. I think your amp likely came with the gain switchs off (out) to protect from mic feedback.Okay, that makes sense, I'll try that. > > > [ Live! ] < < < Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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