I just play at home for myself and maybe once in a great while for a few family and friends. I have never been able to get a nice acoustic sound out of any acoustic amp I have tried so I thought I would like to try a powered speaker.
I have looked at a lot on youtube and really the thing I would want it for the most is getting a nice sound from my acoustic. I wont be playing music through it or doing any type or DJ thing, just the acoustic guitar and vocals. I have kind of narrowed it down to two. The Boss S1 Pro or the Everse 8. From all the vids I saw it seems that the Everse 8 has a drop more volume but is not as clear or natural sounding as the Boss and will take a bit of EQing. The Boss on the other hand has a drop less volume but seems more clear and is pretty much set so there is not really any EQing needed. The Everse has more effects but the Boss has reverb and that’s all i would use. Both have decent apps but I think the Everse app seems better.
I am sure they both would work and do what I need just fine but I would thought I would ask here and see if anyone had some real life experiences with either of the two!
I haven’t tried either of those, so I can’t offer any advice on choosing one or the other.
My advice on amplifying acoustics is that you’ll get the best result by mic’ing the guitar. If that’s not an option and you need to use a pickup, the next best thing is using something like the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI, which uses IR models to give you output that sounds like an acoustic guitar instead of the weird plastic quack of a piezo on an acoustic. I’ve had good results with that preamp going straight into the board, or going into an acoustic amp or a FRFR speaker.
I’m curious about your desire for acoustic amplification in a home setup. Are you wanting to amplify at home because you’re practicing for stage performance, later, or is it for some other reason? (Usually for at home or for small rooms you can just sing and play an acoustic without amplification.) I’m not saying it’s a bad approach or anything, I’m just curious.
It all starts with the guitar. What sort of pickup and EQ does it have? If it is a piezo you may just be fighting with their inherent brittleness (which can be EQ’d out). With a little bit of tweaking you should be able to get decent acoustic tone from just about any amp, with a mic or a PA system. I can’t talk you into or out of any particular system. Either way you have to be willing to play with your tone a bit.
The amp I have now is a Joyo BSK40 acoustic amp. It’s a decent amp for me at home. I took your advice and watched a few videos on how to EQ and acoustic amp. The guitar is a Gibson j45 with a LR Baggs VTC Under Saddle Pickup. With the 3 EQ adjustments all set at noon it sounds a bit brittle and very overwhelming with the bass. I get a much better sound by moving all 3 EQ knobs to the left. I can add more treble though and it sounds pretty good. But the bass can still be a bit overwhelming to me. This Joyo amp has a lot of knobs and inputs and two of them are amp in and amp out. Using the amp out which i have read is to connect the signal to a mixer or a PA. It bypasses all the amp controls and actually it sounds really good to me. Very good. So maybe I do not need to waste money on a powered speaker because it does seem like this is doing the same thing now. But I am thinking a DI pedal might be something i could use? Maybe something with reverb ? But honestly, this sounds good using the amp out to plug into.