Joe's Live acoustic rig. (Page 1 of 2)

My acoustic rig is the Yamaha acoustic, plugged into a SSL channel strip, then run into a Klark DI ending at a Electro-voice wireless.  Electro Voice monitor set on Kill...
Joe Bonamassa

Thanks!  That was fast.  Now I have some research to do.

I would like to hear some more about Joe's acoustic rig and why is the wireless defeating the purpose of the Pure Audio Wave mic preamplifier? And why was a mic preamplifier chosen for an acoustic guitar instead of a preamp specifically designed for acoustic guitar sound and control like the Taylor K4 for example?

Rock on Joe! Any way you do it, it works!

Cagey

I've observed Joe's sound from the acoustic up close. I can't imagine it being improved upon. As many here have said, it is 90% in his hands. Others use electronic circuits to get around that? Lets see what Joe says. I know he has said in the past that there were beach towels stuffed in the Yamaha, and the new git has a foam insert you can see in the hole.
Rick

+1 You beat me to it! A clear case of engineering knowledge not equating to guitar tone knowledge. This is pretty much good guitar tone 101 and certainly not mistake 101. 

Hey Cagey,

no doubt you've researched the topic very deeply, but some of your assumption are incorrect.

First : stompboxes can be designed to go in front of the amplifier, such as compressors, overdrives and distortions, or Wha wha pedals just to name a few. Plug one of those into an FX loop and you'll know why they should be between the guitar and the amp.

I agree completely! There are some designed for this, but once again, you are giving up the preamp in the head if you do this! As a sound guy from a technical point of view I would use the preamp and effects loop and NOT use the pedals up front, but that is just me. Just an opinion. I would want to make full use of the preamp, not use some rinky dink little foot box to rely my "sound" on.

Nope. I would purchase the most expensive high end tube preamplifiers money could buy and my guitars would be plugged into various several of those and the effects would be looped in before the amps. They make guitar tube preamps that cost thousand$ of dollars for a reason and it is my humble opinion those mega buck preamps are NOT to be replaced by some inexpensive little stomp box run off a 9 volt battery with 5 transistors inside. I just do not see how super great sound comes out of a little 9 volt box when a bigger box can provide more room for more and better electronics to give you an even better sound in my technical opinion. This is just my opinion for better or worse...

Second : Eddie Van Halen never used the Palmer speaker simulater to get his original ( as in first 4 albums ) signature tone. He used a Variac, a device designed to control the electrical current's value to the amplifier ( and it wasn't even designed for that initially ). Speaker simulators can sound ok, but they're far from sounding like the real thing... Tom Sholtz designed the Rockman preamp, the ancestor to today's PODs and other modeller type things.

I think the system I referred to was a touring rig around 1986 which showed a Palmer installed after one of his 5150's and this signal was fed into two H&H V800 rack mount power amps. A neat technique though I would not choose a 5150 to drive it. Eddie probably had to for endorsement contract reasons.

Tom Sholtz designed the "smart gate" noise reducer too!

Third : While a guitar lead and wireless sound slightly different, a wireless is NOT a preamp ( in the musical sense ). It is a converter and as such its only function is to take the sound from the guitar and bring it TO the preamp for level amplification and EQ...etc... And you're right about the fact that no one would use a wireless in the studio for many reasons, tone being one of them...

The preamp is suppose to be half of the source of the sound, not cut out and cut away by a wireless in between! The EV belt pack is acting as his preamp regardless, and it is precisely between the guitar and belt pack transmitter that creates his sound. The receiver simply receives it and amplifies it to a line out signal and then why have a PRE-amp if you do not need one to PRE-amp the signal to a useable line level signal? The preamp is not made for 1 to 1 ratio pass through. It is made to take a small signal from a pickup and boost it to line level cleanly. Joe is bypassing it with the wireless rendering the preamp useless in my opinion.

Cagey

Ken, of Orlando said this:

"+1 You beat me to it! A clear case of engineering knowledge not equating to guitar tone knowledge. This is pretty much good guitar tone 101 and certainly not mistake 101."

For guitar I would have to agree with you.

Cagey

A small digression you may like Cagey. I have just the opposite problem. I do commercial marine electronics, quite a bit for commercial fisheries, specifically tuna purse seiners. When the ship is retrieving the net, they use a hydraulically operated winch that has 1000 hp driving the pumps. This is a BIG sucker and generates about 115db spl on deck. We must overcome this and produce legible audio for the safety of the crewmen on deck. We use two EV folded fiberglass horns with 70 watt drivers using 70 volt drive pointed at the work area. A commercial 250 watt Bogen amp is used. We are able to produce 120 db spl at the work area 100 feet away. It ain't very hifi but that beast is loud and clean!
Rick