I have never seen the need for a special acoustic guitar amp. My electric-acoustic guitars work fine with my solid state, tube amps, and PA system. Regardless of which guitar I plug into which ever amp, it just takes some EQ and dialing in a good tone.
Iāve used my Yamaha THR10II with an electro-acoustic guitar (a cheap Harley Benton Mini) and itās pretty good.
Most amps designed for acoustic guitar will have EQ that is designed to sound good with piezo pickups, because that is, by far, the most common type of acoustic guitar pickup.
Iāve also, previously, used my Katana 100 mk1 with piezo pickups on an older acoustic guitar I had, and that was great too. Hereās a video demonstrating the Katana acoustic channel:
If you really want to tweak, the Katana has some specific FX types designed to shape piezo pickup, but youāll need to use Boss Tone Studio for this:
Back to the THR series, note that the THR is, primarily, a practice amp, so itās probably going to be of limited use for performing whilst the Katana is easily giggable. although the THR does allow you to add things like reverb and chorus effects. With a bit of reverb, my cheap HB acoustic sounds lush on the THR.
Iāve also used the THR with my bass.
I would say that the THR is good on bass (better through the speaker than the Spark) but is still a little underwhelming compared to a proper bass amp, as you lack that bass āthumpā.
But for ābedroom volumeā practice, itās pretty good
Cheers,
Keith
1 Like
I know my Fender Champion 20 isnāt exactly a high-quality amp, but my Taylor sounds much more natural through my Fender Acoustasonic 40.
1 Like
Use both my Mustand III and my POD Go for my 3 acoustics that have pickups. All work fine but you need to dial in the tone you want and have the guitar level setting balance just right.
Very easy to push the gtr end gain just a tad too much for it to sound pants.
All a matter of dialling in, balance and personal taste.
1 Like
Hi Frank, the THR series is legendary.
This was a game changer back in 2011 (I had the THR 5, already a blast), a couple of years ago I upgraded to the THR 10 II as practice amp, and purchased a Positive Spark GO for the travel, light and still enough juice for practicing in hotels (with an Ultra Light Electric Traveller Guitar).
Hey Derek @hartwood -
Just revisited this thread & Iām wondering if you ever decided on your new amp or equivalent? Lots of ideas thrown your wayā¦
Also, did you start building the electric kit? Building a guitar (or 2, or 3) is definitely on my āafter I retireā list of things to do!
Tod
Hi Tod
In many ways the number of suggestion I had didnāt really help, I could just have put a pin in a catalog. That said I am very grateful for all the suggestions and comments.
I gave up with the inclusion of a bass and just concentrate on the acoustic and standard electric.
I started with the Laney Acoustic combo but didnāt like it with the Eastcoast SG I bought with it and so I sent it back and got a Boss Katana Gen 3 50, which sounds great but is quite complex for a beginner like me to get my head around.
Sadly my wife is terminally ill with a very aggressive cancer and so I havenāt played anything for several weeks now. Not sure when I will be able to start again. She goes into the Hospice tomorrow. Best hope is its for respite care until her condition improves and she can get treatment for the actual cancer, otherwise I may have a lonely Christmas this year.
Many thanks again for all those that responded to my enquiry, it is much appreciated.
Oh Derekā¦
Iām so frightfully sorry to hear that your wife is so ill. Itās never a good thing to be unwell & cancer is terribly unfair - especially when oneās finally made it to the āGolden Yearsā of lifeā¦ they donāt tell you when youāre young that getting older means a lot more doctors & nurses in your world, do they? I hope that she has a good medical team who can help her - I live in a neighborhood with several older couples whoāve had to deal with different medical issues. Several of them have had various varieties of cancer & surprisingly theyāve all made it into remission due to the advances that modern medical treatments have provided to themā¦ Donāt give up Hope that your wife can overcome! Positive thinking & Prayer (if youāre so inclined) can make a big difference in the outcome - itās pretty amazing that the mind can make such a huge difference in how the body responds during a health crisis. Please reach out if you need someone to talk toā¦ Iām 62, my wife is 68 & weāve had our fair share of doctorās visits with some scary issues at timesā¦ talking things out helps as well, you know.
Again, so sorry for your news.
Tod
Many thanks for your kind wishes. Carol is 68 also and comes from a family where the females all typically live into their 80s even into their 90s and at least 2 being over 100, so this has come as a shock. She was clear in August but then the tumour has grown so fast and spread so aggressively all we can do is hope and pray. That said neither of us want to have a lingering end especially if that includes a lot of pain. I retired this year at 66 and whilst we didnāt plan any grand adventures we certainly didnāt expect this. I was always supposed to go first, Carol would be so much better at coping with my death than I will hers.
1 Like
I can totally relate to this Derek. My wifeās name is Carol alsoā¦ her family is very long-lived while Iāve already outlived both my parents & all my grandparents, therefore we both suspect that sheāll be around long after Iām goneā¦
Coping with the passing of your loved ones is probably the hardest thing to come to grips with - other interests in life can helpā¦ when my Dad passed I still had young(ish) kids & started coaching Little League baseball for my sonās team. It really helped me to focus on life at the time, all these 11 year old boys - full of P & V - trying to teach fundamentals to them while dealing with their parents & grandparents was a very busy sideline to everything else going on in our familyās world at the time.
āBusyā is goodā¦ helps to keep your mind occupied with more positive stuff instead of dwelling on negatives. Music is good also, listening to a new genre that you surprise yourself liking - learning to play songs that make you feel happy - singing out loud - all are good ways to channel helpful feelings!
Something Iāve always struggled with is the disappearance of my younger sister in 1988. She was abducted while out on a bike ride on September 20, 1988. She was 19 at the time, had finished her classes at University that morning & was just enjoying a nice afternoon on her bicycle on Highway 47 south of my parentās house in New Mexico - but never came home. We never found her, never found out what happened, never had any closureā¦ Iāve recently written a song, a Blues number about her called āTears on 47ā. I havenāt been able to play it all the way through at one sitting. Even after all these years the emotion overcomes me, my eyes fill with tears & my fingers canāt find the chords. The writing of the song was therapeutic, though. Working & reworking the lyrics until I felt that Iād come up with something āworthyā of my memories of my only sister help me to articulate the feelings that Iād bottled up inside. What really helped was to think of things that she loved, butterflies, watching ballet, tennis, singing, dancing & playing cards were some of her favoritesā¦ my wife & I will be playing cribbage & Iāll remember how my sister would howl with laughter when sheād played a really high-scoring hand.
Really good memories like that can help you through the time now with Carolā¦ remember your favorite times together, find old photos & reminisce those things that made you both fall in love with each otherā¦ youāll find yourself falling in love again!
Sorry for such a long postā¦ I actually could keep going but will close for now. Know that my heart goes out to you & your Carol.
Tod
So sad about your sister and the lack of closure.
I picked up the guitar again after 45 years so effectively starting from scratch as I wasnāt very good as a teenager and got worse into my 20s.It was something I thought I could do to keep my mind active. Carol bought me a Taylor 12 string for my birthday in April as I had always liked playing 12 string guitars. But the first guitar I bought this time around was a cheapish guitar branded Hartwood, which was the name of my former business and is still the name of my house and so I thought it was made just for me.
You right about the memories, my dad died at the age of 56 when I was just 13. He was a miner with 3 grown up sons and a daughter who was pregnant at 16 so I didnāt feel I got a lot of his attention, but I do remember one to one conversations in front of the fire at home which I still cherish.
Carol and I have been together for 36 years so was have a good many memories to look back on. We never want kids and Carol was just about my only friend so my life will be void of many things but it is a void I will endeavour to fill. Probably the worst thing is we have a dog, a Boarder Colley named Meg that has always been her dog, she wont come near me normally. With the illness Meg has also withdrawn and s so obviously distressed despite she actually gets more attention from neighbours who take her for walks. I guess animals have a grieving process too
1 Like
Thank you.
Memories can be so bittersweetā¦ focus on happy instead of sad.
My Carol is my best & only true friend. Weāre a team in every respectā¦ make all of our major decisions together & yet we still can be spontaneous & surprise each other with regularity. Our 40th anniversary is at the end of this month - 40 years of riding the emotional roller coaster!!! We have 3 adult children & 7 grandchildren who are extremely good at trying oneās patience!!!
About Meg, I remember a coworker whoās daughter was ill in hospital for months & had to give her dog to her parents until she got betterā¦ the dog wouldnāt eat & was losing weight rather quickly. It seemed to be grieving because she was not around. It was a big Labrador & so there wasnāt a way to sneak it into the hospital. They tried to show the dog videos, put their daughterās clothing next to the dog bed for the scent, everything the vet said to try but nothing seemed to work. One night, they were having steak for dinner & noticed the dog sniffing noticeably. My coworker put a small piece of steak in his closed fist & let the dog sniff it. Then, he let the dog see the meat & ate it in front of the dog. He repeated this several times until he finally let the dog eat the steak. By this time, the dog was very curious & interested what would happen next. They cut up several very small pieces of steak & put it in the dogās bowl along with the dog foodā¦ mixing it well so the scent of the steak permeated the foodā¦ the dog ate well from that moment on & eventually gained his weight back. He was a different pup from that day on. The daughter came home from the hospital & when they reunited, they were both overjoyed to be together again!!! Moral of the story, just be very kind & patient with Megā¦ Border Collies are so clever & theyāre a very loyal breedā¦ sheāll eventually come around to be more accepting of your attention as well!
Tod
Many thanks for you kind words and advice. I have lots or tears already this morning whilst we wait for the ambulance to transport Carol to the Hospice. Meg will go with a friend who has been walking her over the past few weeks and has become used to her dogs, I am sure she will settle in time.
Thanks again. I hope this thread will be of support to others who may read it on this channel. My email should you wish to message me direct is
1 Like
Derek @hartwood
No ā¦do not show youre email this wayā¦the bots will get you and you will get flooded with spamā¦
Greetings
@Richard_close2u can you clean Dereks mail from the message here?
Derek,
We can use the forums here to message you directly. You will see an envelope shaped icon on your own icon in the upper-right (at least on a computer. phone, I am not sure). I sent you a private message so you can see what it looks like.
So sorry to read this Derek, sending hugs and metta to you both.