Is an Acoustic amp of value for Practicing at home

Gear & Tools Talk 🔊 Amplification & Effects
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As the title suggests would an acoustic guitar amp be usual when practicing at home?

I see some benefits such as inbuilt loopers, the ability to connect a mic.
But my concern, is that it may mask / amplify poor technique when playing fingerstyle.

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I play mostly fingerstyle and I find an acoustic amp of great value at home. For one specific purpose which is rehearsing for open mic performances. When I started performing open mics I found it quite disconcerting at times because amplified random things sound different. Getting a decent amp and rehearsing with it helped a lot. I’d say it amplified my technique, wouldn’t say poor technique because it sounded fine unplugged.

It would also help with using loopers and other effects.

Most of my playing with acoustic is unplugged.

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I play along with YouTube songs, so I Bluetooth the laptop into the amp and use headphones so as not to bother my wife more than necessary.

I also have the somewhat unusual situation of being almost completely deaf in my right ear, but hear okay with my left ear. Since the sound hole on the acoustic guitar is on my right side, I don’t hear it real well. The headphones take care of that.

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Thank you tony for your reply.

You raise an interesting point on open mics and its something that I didnt consider. So far I did one mic on the community and plan do more in the future.

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Thanks mark for the reply.

I am struggling with the concept why would I need an acoustic amp, however I can see the value of a headphone socket to keep the peace at home!

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Rob, when I started to play regularly at a local Open Mic one of the organisers suggested to me that I should practice more with an amp at home. His rationale was that the greater sustain you achieve when amplified would aid in learning to play/strum less and work on dynamics. There may be something in that though confess I typically play acoustic at home.

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I like the freedom of just picking up the acoustic and jusy playing and its seems counter intuitive to plug in the acoustic at home!

However, you raise a good point regarding dynamics

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I also bought a mic and mic stand so i could rehearse as close as possible to the open mic. it really reduced my nerves at the next open mic

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