HOLY SMOKES! Great Live Sound From My Guilds....

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Howdy, Fellow LTG-ers! I just have to share my giddiness over finally finding a live sound I'm happy with after many years of trying all sorts of things:

So, I am a real stickler for sound. I love guitars that are only mic'd when live if possible, and love the live recordings from the 60's and 70's of the folk artists that just stuck a mic on front of their guitars because that's all there was to do! I think John Denver's "An Evening With John Denver" album from 1975 is the best example of a live show with full band and orchestra that relied solely on mics. It is a superb recording and sort of my reference for live acoustic sound. His F50R and F612 sound amazing on that album.

I've tried many various pickups over the years: K&K Pure Western, K&K Trinity System, JJB's, Fishman Matrix, Fishman Aura, LR Baggs M1A. I've plugged them into various DI's: BBE Acoustimax, LR Baggs Para DI, the Fishman Aura DI box, K&K Dual Preamp...but I gotta tell ya:

This morning I had to do some work on the church's sound system and since I got some new gear to get ready for this John Denver show I'm doing a week from Saturday I thought I'd try it all out. Since its just a solo acoustic show I firstly got an Audix ADX51 that sits on a small mic boom on my mic stand pointed at a 45 degree angle to the guitar on the bridge side of the stand as opposed to the neck side. WOW. Talk about a beautiful tone for my DV62 and G212. That mic does a gorgeous job!! Given that the vast majority of my live playing is in quiet spaces like churches, museums, etc I can get away with only a mic most of the time. I LOVE this condenser, and I was able to find it on Ebay for only $100. If you are looking for a nice mic for your acoustic, check that one out (and it goes nicely with my Audix VX5 mic for vocals).

But what I was really excited to try was the Tonebone PZ Pre which arrived today. Since I am switching between both guitars during performance I was drawn to the PZ Pre for its dual channel abilities along with the fact that it is so well reviewed and has a robust feature set. My DV62 has a passive LR Baggs IBeam in it, and the G212 has a LR Baggs Lyric mic installed. I ran them into the PZ Pre with Monster Acoustic cables, ran to the board with an XLR and HOLY SMOKES!!! I initiated the piezo buffer on the IBeam to boost the signal and I haven't heard a better sound out of it in the 7 years I've had the guitar. The Lyric mic in the G212 is mind-blowing. The PZ Pre is hands down the nicest Preamp/DI I've heard and used and am really happy to finally have one. Anyone else have one of these? They truly rock.

The icing on the cake was then using both the ADX51 along with the pickups. The combination of the two is the best mic/pickup combo I could possibly think of. It was a trip to hear the natural tone of my Guilds echoing in the sanctuary. Whether delicately fingerpicking "Christmas For Cowboys" or strumming the dickens out of "The Eagle And The Hawk" the sound was just "there." Now when I've got to play with other folks in church or around town I can rely more on the pickups and be perfectly happy, and when it's just me I can use this ultra-sweet combo or just the mic and enjoy the experience of truly hearing my guitars amplified.

Sonic bliss achieved! Just had to share :) Anyone else really happy with their live sound? Share your bliss!

Peace, Shawn
 

Westerly Wood

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My Guild D25 Br with a simple K&K mini pup plugged direct into soundboard with no coloring at all rocks!
cuts thru mix well and I get a nice mean growl out of it. got to be combo of K&K mini (passive pup too), all hog woods, aged wisdom of the D25 itself (1971), heavy hand. Oh and the deader the strings, the better it sounds.

i also employ a 2.0 mm pick. Change I make like 3 years ago, has made a huge difference in output.

of course, i might just have lower expectations :)

go figure. sadly, the santa cruz is kind of a dud in comparison plugged in.
 
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walrus

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WW, a 2.0 pick on an acoustic is wild! It MUST rock!

walrus
 

MLBob

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Anyone else really happy with their live sound? Share your bliss!
Peace, Shawn

And did ya know that you can run a dual-source pickup system into that PZ-Pre as well?

I have a K & K Double Helix soundhole pickup paired with a K & K pure mini in one of my Guilds. Both have been Eq-ed through a K&K 2 channel box, and then both get sent into the optional two channel setting of the Tonebone where they can be blended & tweaked further.

Love the PZ-Pre..... lots of options to run other outputs without affecting the sound you've dialed in for the guitar.

wFJn7ku.jpg


Bob
 

Rayk

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And did ya know that you can run a dual-source pickup system into that PZ-Pre as well?

I have a K & K Double Helix soundhole pickup paired with a K & K pure mini in one of my Guilds. Both have been Eq-ed through a K&K 2 channel box, and then both get sent into the optional two channel setting of the Tonebone where they can be blended & tweaked further.

Love the PZ-Pre..... lots of options to run other outputs without affecting the sound you've dialed in for the guitar.

wFJn7ku.jpg


Bob

Ooo I’m liking Bob ! Haha 😎
 

Westerly Wood

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WW, a 2.0 pick on an acoustic is wild! It MUST rock!

walrus

It was a big change in tone and volume for me, like playing with medium gauge strings I would imagine, Walrus. Definitely goes well on a guild dread.
 

livemusic

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Thanks for the info ShawnGarvey, I, too, love a mic'd sound. Can't stand sound of so many performers using onboard pickups!

Also wild is the poster revealing he uses a 2mm pick. Will try that. Any particular brand? Decreasing pick noise is important to me.
 

Westerly Wood

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2.0!!!! It must BE a rock!

you get used to it, even when strumming fast. a pick of lesser girth just feels too thin to me now. i am stuck now with 2.0 :)
i wonder if there is a size larger....
 

Bonneville88

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2.0 mm qualifies as a man-hole cover!... which makes you a manly man indeed! :saturn:
 

Westerly Wood

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2.0 mm qualifies as a man-hole cover!... which makes you a manly man indeed! :saturn:

Ha!
I think I stumbled upon them at guitar center back when i lived in Texas. my D25 was sounding thin and I was looking at jazz picks that are real thick, then i see these black gray colored Dunlops, 2.0, i was hooked on first strum, as the D25 totally lit up. All hog dreads are not super easy to get the sound out of them. Spruce tops are way more projecting. Hog is a wet blanket.
 

adorshki

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you get used to it, even when strumming fast. a pick of lesser girth just feels too thin to me now. i am stuck now with 2.0 :)
i wonder if there is a size larger....

Being a Dunlop fan myself, at the other end of the scale (60mm), I think you're topped out.
My sympathies.
Maybe you could start stamping 'em outta old Barry Manilow records?
On second thought, better not.
It might infect the guitar.
 

Westerly Wood

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Being a Dunlop fan myself, at the other end of the scale (60mm), I think you're topped out.
My sympathies.
Maybe you could start stamping 'em outta old Barry Manilow records?
On second thought, better not.
It might infect the guitar.

“Does Barry Manilow know you raided his wardrobe?”

Oh I had to. One of best movie quotes of all time.
 

Aristera

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Westerly Wood,

I tried out 2mm Dunlop Gators after asking Dave Kilminster (touring guitarist with Roger Waters and Porcupine Tree) about his choice in picks. He felt he gets more tone and sound out of the 2mm. I tend to agree. I do smooth the edges with one of those nail file boards with the three finishes. I get a nice buff on the last step.

J3Vtue.jpg
 

chazmo

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Shawn, that's great! I've never had much opportunity to "find my sound" re: amplified acoustics. I don't know if Guild ever used L. R. Baggs electronics in their acoustics, but I think Doyle Dykes might have. Really not sure. Maybe it was Fishman... Anyway, it's great that you like your system. It's always some sort of compromise for stage performances, I suppose.

I do know that the most realistic sound I ever heard outside of a microphone was came from the New Hartford guitar(s) with the D-TAR multi-source system. If I were to buy a new system, I'd get that, but (disclaimer) I don't know if that would be the best system to use when playing with a band.
 

dreadnut

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Shawn, I think you would like the solid silver Kennedy 1964 half-dollar pick that I bought from "Peter's Plectrums" in the UK.
 

Westerly Wood

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Westerly Wood,

I tried out 2mm Dunlop Gators after asking Dave Kilminster (touring guitarist with Roger Waters and Porcupine Tree) about his choice in picks. He felt he gets more tone and sound out of the 2mm. I tend to agree. I do smooth the edges with one of those nail file boards with the three finishes. I get a nice buff on the last step.

J3Vtue.jpg

yup, there it is!
I let my strumming file down the pic edges :) a pick lasts me months...even with heavy strumming. as well, never had a string break using D'Addario, Ernie Ball or Martin lights.

side note: my wife gave one of my pics to a kid recently and he goes:" wow, i can hear my guitar now..."

maybe i am onto something. Or, buy a better guitar :)

lastly, long time ago i was playing a Stanford dread at the time using a 1.4 mm pick or whatever is the size down from 2.0mm Dunlops. My daughter told me to tone it down, too loud for her LOL...she comes in at very end of this video...oh i miss those days.

https://youtu.be/bg2bZjAGPg0
 
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