Mic or plug in

I've always quite liked using a sm58 between fret board and sound hole hate plugging my acoustic in sounds great unplugged and a Mic seems to keep that character my only experience of condensers live was feedback but I didn't do the sound so dunno what the prob was.

Btw I also left my blues band at Christmas, was hoping to goto uni but UK fees have rocketed so I'm stuck now and regretting it didn't know there was this much time in a week to do nowt in lol.

Mic'ing in the studio is fine and prefered.  But the studio environment is controlled and quiet.  Having a live mic on a stage where most likely the audience volume is louder than the guitar could be less than ideal.  You're going to pick up a lot of ambient noise.

The best thing to do is..if your guitar had electronics...is to, along with the internal electronics is to get a soundhole conderser mic or a soundhole pickup.  wiring the two independently to mix the two pickups shouldn't be a big deal.  On my Takamine withe CT-1 (cool tube) pick up, I also run a soundhole pickup.  The electronics on the guitar allow to to blend the two to my liking.  also, an outboard acoustic pre-amp is nice allowing you get some extra gain and EQ before going to the console.

Hope this helps.  I always found getting a great acoustic tone live was a lot harder than getting an electric tone.

A super-cardioid gives good gain w/o feedback. He said he didn't want piezo, which is a good choice for less noise of course, and with a mic inside a good call. But he also might want a banjo and mandolin for the same gig.   One mic can do a decent job for all 3 IMO.  Given the number of musicians mentioned already on stage, moving around doesn't seem like a requirement anyway.

Rock ON & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

Did I mention cheap?

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

Man, I love reading your posts!!!    Maybe there's a Green Hornet mask special down at the Wally Mart regarding that worrisome showing your face again in public the way the ahem, practicing is been goin'! 

Rock ON & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

Absolutely correct, drugs do not "make" or "help" you play better.  Additionally, even if they, and this obviously includes liquid drugs, i.e. containing any alcohol, even IF they make you THINK you play better, it just is not the case or six pack! To show you how long the misconception surrounding marijuana and musicianship quality goes, going back to before most were born, World Book encyclopedia, a real encyclopedia of note, had in it's entry for marijuana a sentence that stated EXACTLY that! Almost word for word-Some musicians believe marijuana helps them to perform better, but there is no merit to it.
Now, even if any substance achieves a perception to the player of better musicianship, it is absolutely not attributable to said "enhancer" if they are "on"!  Study that phrase kids, it may save your career...maybe your life. Do I believe one, or moreover, EVERYONE should play stone cold sober???!!! Absolutely not!!! But you might try it if you never have. What comes across is your REAL musicianship...in my semi-qualifried opinion...

Rock On & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

If you can't get people working on songs at home then your band is going no where fast, its to hard and frustrating to try and learn songs at practice unless your practicing 3 or 4 days a week. Which if you have a family your not. You might want to look for a band that everyone is on the same page.

Yes the pickup will work fine for what ever it is I'm trying to do.  As far as the practice goes I totally agree we are going nowhere fast.  Funny thing is when we started this thing it was just for fun sometimes at work.  Then someone suggested we plug in and get loud and it turned into a rock band.  We practiced way too much for my schedule and I quit after our drummer had a falling out with us.  So the rest of the guys wanted to do this acoustic thing so they could still play out.  We hadn't played together since September of last year.  This guy I'm talking about hasn't touched a guitar since our last gig!  Now they want to do this acoustic thing to play out still with some of our old set and a host of new songs since we don't really solo as much with acoustics.  Funny thing is I'm more then happy sitting around playing guitar at the house on the sofa with a couple of people there or nobody.  Its when I go to practices and play "Brown Eyed Girl" for 45 minutes then switch to a song we know like "Simple Man" and end up having to practice that for 45 minutes that really burns me out.  Whats sad is I can be a perfectionist at times, but I've checked my ego on this because I know people don't practice like I try to do and we still can't get simple stuff.  I can't even figure out why they bring out the mics and pa for practice, I mean we are playing acoustic guitars why plug in?  Sorry really just a bad rant going on here.  Bands really suck I think Robert Johnson had it right play 2 guitar parts and sing.  If your not happy with the band its yourself to blame.