7 Ways to Get an Acoustic Guitar Sound From Your Electric Guitar
Whether it’s just careful adjustment of your basic guitar and amp settings or looking into using more specialist equipment, here are seven ways to make your electric guitar sound more like an acoustic guitar.
My website: https://www.michaelbanfieldguitar.com
00:00 – Intro
00:33 – 1. Guitar and Pickup Choices
02:07 – 2. Basic EQ Settings
03:11 – 3. Reverb Type
04:05 – 4. Advanced EQ
05:10 – 5. Acoustic Simulator Pedal
06:28 – 6. Using an Acoustic Guitar Amp
09:27 – 7. Other Equipment Worth Considering
Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator Pedal – https://amzn.to/4jG5AUD
Boss RV-6 Reverb Pedal – https://amzn.to/44xCYbF
Fender Acoustic 100 Amp – https://amzn.to/3EsqB6a
GFI Enieqma Parametric EQ Pedal – https://amzn.to/4jBqXX2
#Ways #Acoustic #Guitar #Sound #Electric #Guitar
Originally posted by UCsdzt1tun0Gbe51Qm8SsBQQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkVeEM6V2L4
I love the BOSS AC-3, not to get an acoustic guitar sound, but to make my solid body guitars sound like semi-hollow body guitars
Any cheap used Yamaha acoustic guitar with an output jack is going to sound better than the Boss AC3. I suppose this pedal is useful if you need that "effect", but it still sounds electric no matter how you tweek it. Considering the noise factor and it doesnt work well with normal amps, I wouldn't think its worth the trouble. Just my opinion.
I haven’t yet bought an acoustic simulator pedal, but notice the Boss AC-3 has the feature that the line out is output when the pedal is on, and you have the normal rout (electric guitar amp) muted. So am thinking of buying one, save me from buying and taking along an acoustic amp, if the line out is good.
Very useful info. Makes me think of the possibilities. Thank you!
Hi Michael! Your beautiful guitar playing fits the theme very well. Thanks for the informative and well-prepared video.
A keyboard amp or PA is MUCH BETTER! Ya don't sing through a guitar amp do ya?
Moral of the story…….It Can’t Be Done!
Spray some deoxit on that 5 way! Great video, very informative 🙂
Thanks for sharing, I never miss a single one of your videos.
Brilliant
Have replaced my Boss Ac 3 recently with TC Electronic IR which has some decent acoustic IRs in it – removes the glitchiness the AC3 is prone to – use my piezo equipped electric. Use an acoustic boost pedal to boost the piezo and play into acoustic setting on Katana. Sometimes add Mosaic for a 12 string sound
Line 6 Variax (and James Tyler Variax).
Powerbridge with IRs beats any of the sounds here, but still not perfect.
Sg tones are beautiful here!
Here are a few alternatives.
The first works in real time. It is the Aura Spectrum preamp from Fishman. It's an acoustic guitar preamp / DI box that has selectable IRs of other acoustic guitars. It can help turn your small acoustic cutaway's piezo sound into more of a Martin jumbo sound. Or one of 18 on board IRs. You can also load your own IRs via a USB port on the pedal.
The second real time trick I use involves a Universal Audio plugin from Sound Machine called Wood Works. It only runs on one of their Apollo recording interfaces with DSP. These used to be really expensive, but first generation Apollos now routinely go for under $1,000. And they are still high quality 8 channel interfaces. The UAD2 plugins that run on the Apollo's DSP have also become really affordable and are considered to be among the industry's best.
Wood Works was designed to remove a lot of the 'squawky' sound from an acoustic piezo pickup whether it's mounted in an electric or an acoustic. And it does so really nicely.
I have a Hamer Duotone which has a piezo pickup built into its bridge with a separate jack so it doesn't get mixed with the magnetic pickup sound of the guitar. I often plug the Duotone's piezo output into the Spectrum preamp, select an IR and go from the pedal's XLR direct output into my UA Apollo.
Then I load Wood Works into the channel strip in my DAW (Logic Pro or Luna) and use its magic to really help the track sound like a mic's up acoustic guitar.
If you can't or don't want to go with the UA Apollo and DSP based plugin, Blue Cat's Re-Guitar has a acoustic guitar simulator built in. I don't find it to work as well as my UA solution, but it still does a nice job.
Now here's what I do to place the finishing touches on the sound of my Duotone's acoustic.
While not available in real time, Melodyne Studio has a tone spectrum application built in. In the case of turning your electric into an acoustic you'd record the acoustic guitar you are targeting into the application. The app creates what Melodyne calls a spectrum; an EQ curve and its harmonics for the target tone.
I use my Taylor 710 BCE 25th Anniversary model for the target tone spectrum. I mic the acoustic sound bypassing the piezo built into the guitar.
Then you record your electric (or in my case the piezo sound from my Hamer) into the app. You can now paste the acoustic's spectrum into that of the electric guitar. There are also lots of tweaks you can use within the spectrum that can help get a more realistic result.
BTW, you can use this tool as an instant pickup simulator as well. Record the sound of a guitar with a single coil, save its spectrum, and then record the sound with a humbucker pickup. Then paste the spectrum to instantly change the pickup type. This works surprisingly well.
Unfortunately the spectrum tool is only available in Studio. It's not in the less expensive versions of Melodyne.
I’ve had the Graphtec ghost pick up system in my Starfire hollowbody for years. Does a pretty good job. Its piezeo saddles ran to a small circuit board that handles the acoustic sim. I opted for the additional push/pull volume pot that gives either a dark or bright acoustic.
I have a GT-1000 and just select a single-coil/split sound on guitar, add a touch of chorus, some reverb, and go out through an IR of an acoustic. You can experiment with mixing a sidechain with the acoustic simulator, or just blend two IRs, etc. and will probably get better results if you have a piezo pickup. I find using a good IR on its own to be sufficient, really.
How about a hollow body where you can use it percussively? Helps to have some feedback cancellation but idk. I saw the guitarist use one of these for Neon Trees and it was seriously convincing for their acoustic strummy "hooks"
the taylor t5 sounds much better and more flexible
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a video like this before. Thanks for the tips!
Try an EQ pedal into a DS1.
You need a relatively low signal off the guitar.
You definitely want to make sure bass cut a bit.
Keep mids prominent.
But you need the treble just a smidge below the mids.
Prety much you'll need an EQ shape similar to a treble booster going into the DS1.
The tone and level are to taste.
The magic is the way the treble clips in the diodes. So it's a bit of fine tuning, but it's there.
Personally, more useable than an AC3, which I have.
Thank you, Michael. I’ve been wondering if it’s feasible to use an electric guitar to do solo troubadour type of gigs. Electric is so much easier to play than acoustic and it can lend itself to more variety of sounds, especially with a looper. Do you have an opinion about that?
Hi Michael, within a coverband situation, I am using a piezo equiped guitar together with my Line 6 helix. I am using a specific preset with a specific IR for this piezo pickup and I must say that within the band mix this gives me very staisfying results.
What a fantastic video as always have a good day also happy Easter from Canada also April 18th also April 20th is my dad also my friend birthday respectively ❤????
Well done. I'd add my two cents with dialing back the tone a bit (5-7) on my junior with a P90, adding a bit of reverb and playing gently and closer to the neck. It's not really a substitute for a real acoustic but it's enough for the two or three songs I need that vibe for.
MICHAEL BANFIELD, Take the Boss Acoustic pedal output go to an EQ pedal mid scoop then go into the guitar amplifiers Effects loops RETURN port, Make a video part#2 to see what you have come up with. This is a much better way than to buy another acoustic guitar amplifier and have to carry it around for gigs, just use the guitar amplifiers RETURN port.
I went in a bit skeptical thinking the answer would be “just get an actual acoustic” and while it might still be, that acoustic amp really pleasantly surprised me!
A bit of a left field suggestion but I would get people to try the Jerry Garcia thing. Clean fender amp, bass 0, mids 5, treble as high as you can stand it, strat middle pickup. Emphasises the glassiness while pulling out the mids and bass which makes for a very articulate tone that is reminiscent of an acoustic! I think this sound works so well for even non Dead stuff, you can play lots of David Rawlings like lines and it rewards an expressive picking hand
It might not be the most efficient method, but I've gotten some decent acoustic sounds by using a 2$ clip on piezo electric pickup on the guitar headstock.
I plug the guitar normally on channel 1 of the audio interface and on channel 2, the piezo pickup. Blend both channels to taste.
Cheers from Chile!
I struggle to get a decent acoustic sound out of my acoustic.????????????
Eq pedal is your best friend here. Flat amp and eq like crazy.
My SG has a neck coil tap . I wouldn't use it if it was an acoustic song,but you can hide it in a band mix.
Luckily,my venerable BOSS GT 6 has a 'not totally awful' acoustic patch, which is OK via a PA.
Tbh,if I needed an acoustic sound for a gig,I would probably take an acoustic.
Sweet SG Michael. Looks boss.
Really interesting and helpful video, thank you for doing it! I use a Hotone Omni AC acoustic simulator, and like it a lot. It does a good job of making things sound as a good as possible in a live setting. It goes right in my chain, but also has an XLR out so I can run it direct to the PA from the chain.
awesome video as always!!! thanks!!