Great acoustic guitar tone

[mentoneman]

Getting proper acoustic guitar tones to translate live was always a fun challenge from a FOH mix perspective. how has your experience with acoustics guitars live been?

i can count on one hand the times where i felt everything came together between the player, gear, and my working the house system to really create something bigger than the sum of the parts.

as far as day to day popular brands in order i prefer Martin, Gibson, Taylor, and Ovation in regards to easiest to get a decent sound quickly.

The highlights:

1) Paul Clark / Petros Guitar / tc scf

2) Billy Batstone / Baby Taylor downtuned w/ heavy strings / Manley DI

3) Phil Keaggy / Olson Guitar / Pendulum preamp / Boss Dimension C pedal, Line 6 DL-4, Lexicon Jamman, tc 1210

4) Doyle Dykes / Taylor signature Doyle Dykes Black Rose Guitar / Rivera Sedona amp/ Fender Deluxe / stereo pedalboard

5) Roby Duke / Avalon Guitar

and for an example of a recorded acoustic tone i would consider great:

 

[Texsunburst59]

Steve Lukather is an amazing guitar player, but to ME , he relies way to much on delay and reverb for his tone.

Personally I don’t care for this example because of the effects and the tone is to bright.

Just my opinion.

 

[Texsunburst59]

To ME this is great great live acoustic tone.

It doesn’t hurt that Nuno is a MONSTER guitar player, and makes most pro electric and acoustic guitar players jaws drop.

 

[Drade76]

agreed

 

[mentoneman]

Steve Lukather is an amazing guitar player, but to ME , he relies way to much on delay and reverb for his tone.

Personally I don’t care for this example because of the effects and the tone is to bright.

Just my opinion.

i can appreciate that.

i believe that many live strummers like Taylors because generally they have a cut to them that can be heard through the band.

for the guys i mentioned whom i thought had the best live tones, first and foremost they had the right physical touch on their instrument. then they came to the table with a full understanding of what they wanted to sound like in the house and had all their gear fully worked out to achieve that.

 

[mentoneman]

To ME this is great great live acoustic tone.

It doesn’t hurt that Nuno is a MONSTER guitar player, and makes most pro electric and acoustic guitar players jaws drop.

nuno is great.

my first impression sonically is that the guitar is set up with low action and light gauge strings for playability over tone. likely compressed as it sounds very even from low to high.

the other great acoustic concert i attended was the super trio with dimeola, mclaughlin, de lucia, and steve morse opened the returned at the end for a final trade off solo jam!

 

[Texsunburst59]

WOW.

That must’ve been an amazing concert seeing all those guys live.

All monster guitar players.

 

[HellraiserJohnny]

I have to take you back to Feb 1972. The Band was Hot Tuna. The album was Burgers. This is the first studio recording of Jorma Kaukonen (guitars) and Jack Casady (bass) as an offshoot of The Jefferson Airplane. This tune is call "The Water Song". IMHO, this song shows more artistry, heart, feeling and grace than most of the other hot shot guitarists to this day or any since. Listen as the song builds and builds to Crescendo after Crescendo taking the listener along for the ride. Not flashy or ego driven, just beautiful melodys built to take you on a pleasant float down stream on the water. If you have never heard it before, please enjoy. HRJ

The Water Song

 

[inyarak74]

I have to take you back to Feb 1972. The Band was Hot Tuna. The album was Burgers. This is the first studio recording of Jorma Kaukonen (guitars) and Jack Casady (bass) as an offshoot of The Jefferson Airplane. This tune is call "The Water Song". IMHO, this song shows more artistry, heart, feeling and grace than most of the other hot shot guitarists to this day or any since. Listen as the song builds and builds to Crescendo after Crescendo taking the listener along for the ride. Not flashy or ego driven, just beautiful melodys built to take you on a pleasant float down stream on the water. If you have never heard it before, please enjoy. HRJ

The Water Song

Never heard that before, thank you. Excellent tune!

 

[mentoneman]

WOW.

That must’ve been an amazing concert seeing all those guys live.

All monster guitar players.

those players i listed numerically were individual performances i mixed live except for Phil Keaggy who toured with his road manager and also mixed his live sound. i just availed our system to him and assisted him as needed.

the super trio w/steve morse was indeed a single concert with those masters under the stars at the Waikiki Shell amphitheater.

spellbinding. dimeola and morse’s picking accuracy and articulation in particular was just bananas and sounded a bit like this:

 

[Texsunburst59]

Well this has turned out to be a fun show your acoustic recordings that inspire you.

This guy is unworldly on the acoustic guitar.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

What is all this acoustic tone you guys are talking about? I've never heard of such a thing. Is it like when you forget turn the distortion pedal on and crank the gain?

 

[Anje]

Few examples I love that come to mind:





(guitar solo starts around 5:00)


of course that masterpiece with Paco, must have been amazing to see the live tour w/ John:




And that particular live from Gilmour:



Have fantastic memories seeing him live on this short tour, that intro of Shine On when he brings "pads" with the delay was mesmerizing to witness live!