Fender Blues Jr for Acoustic?

[Neal]

Sold my Gretech 5120 but still have the Blues Jr III. How might it serve as an acoustic amp with a K&K Pure Mini-equipped F-30?

Or am I better off selling the amp and buying one designed for an acoustic?

For that matter, what's the difference between a quality tube amp and an amp specifically designed for an acoustic guitar?

Neal

 

[dapmdave]

You'd be better off with something other than the BJr. The Fishman Loudbox amps (especially the mini) sound good with the K&K, or you could use a direct box/preamp and go direct into a PA or even just a single powered PA speaker. But there are lots of good choices and it'll be up to you and your ears to decide which you like.

Regular guitar amps are generally designed for use with magnetic pickups, and usually use at least a 10" speaker. Many are tube-driven (like yours). An acoustic guitar amp will usually be solid-state, with one or two smaller speakers (6-8 inch, usually) and a high-frequency driver of some sort. Sometimes you can get by with a solid-state bass amp, if it has a smaller (not a 15) speaker and an HF driver.

The acoustic guitar amps will also usually have some sort of notch filter and/or phase reverse circuit to help with feedback, and many have a second channel set up for use with a microphone.

 

[AcornHouse]

I generally use acoustic amps on stage. But, when I'm testing a new acoustic pickup install at home (also K&K minis), I plug in to my Princeton Reverb, and it sounds great! So, try it. Then you can judge if it'll meet your needs, or if you need to switch to an acoustic amp.

 

[MLBob]

On the recommendation of a friend, I tried a Roland keyboard amp he was using and was blown away by the great acoustic sound. I kept an eye out for a good used keyboard amp and finally located a used Roland 350. I go to it through a Radial Tonebone PZ-pre now, but even straight in without the pre-amp it sounded great. Don't see why more people haven't discovered playing their acoustic through a clean keyboard amp.

Bob