[roobagnall]

i was going to buy an electro acoustic but i was just wandering if i would really need a acoustic aamp for it, i mean ive go i marschell 15 watt for just playing around the house with but would i need to get another. thanks

[goldrush]

If you're content with just fooling around in your room an amp made for electric guitar can suffice. However, if you will be playing with others or you value keeping the acoustic qualities of your guitar when you amplify it, then you should certainly look into a good acoustic amp or PA system. An electric amp will "color" the guitar's tone (something you don't want with an acoustic guitar). Acoustic amps are designed to recreate the tone as close to natural as possible. A decent one starts around $500 and up, depending on the features you want (dual channel, wattage, etc.). Look into Genz-Benz, Fishman, AER, SWR, and Fender if you want to get started with checking them out. Also, plug into some PA systems and see if you like what you're hearing. Many people swear by them. I still prefer an amp that's engineered to recreate just acoustic guitar and not keyboards, harp, vocals, and everything else etc..

Hope this helps.

[ibanezdude70]

I played a very nice marshall acoustic amp the other day. It had in input for guitar and mic. I thought that was nifty.

[1Jimbo]

I've never tried it but I hear a keyboard amp sounds VERY close to an acoustic amp and you can get them small and cheap. Go to a music store and try it for yourself.

This post has been edited by 1Jimbo: 03 January 2005 - 09:18 PM

[CRG1400]

I have been looking for a new acoustic amp too, something not too fancy. I think i am going to get a kustom kaa 35th dfx. It has 30 watts, a microphone/extra microphone input, and has 8 effects. I know it is fancy, I have a Genz-Benz Strawberrry Blonde, so this one is kinda for messin around with in my house. I can get it for 150 at music123.com, when it is normally 270.

This post has been edited by CRG1400: 03 January 2005 - 10:41 PM

[rasav]

I may be old fashonied, but I perfer a PA system to a dedicated acoustic amp. You just get more bang for the buck. Most of the new PA's come with at least reverb and some have full on processors. The cost vs. performance (Comparing wattage) is less than 1/2 of an acoustic amp (100$ buys 100 watts for a PA Vs 250$ to 500$ for a 100 watt acoustic amp.)
The down side is in lugging speakers, heads and etc vs. a self contained amp unit.

[grumpy j]

I have an old Ovation roundback electro-acoustic and I have had the best sound in the studio using the P.A. system and two of the drummer's tom mikes...one near the bridge and one by the far end of the neck (weird, eh?). Not really practical for playing live or messing around though. The other problems with a P.A. are that
1. any movement of the guitar away from the mike is going to cause loss of sound quality, so you can't be moving around a lot while playing, and
2. Your strumming hand is going to be between the mike and the sound coming from the guitar, so you will need to be extra careful of extraneous noise from your pick and/or fingers sliding along the strings as you play and do quick chord changes. Then again, it may add to the ambiance you are trying to create.
The problem you may run into by plugging into any old amp with your electro-acoustic (at least what I have found) is that the reverberation of the strings inside the hollow body will cause a harmonic and may cause one of your open strings to start buzzing. I don't know exactly what it is about plugging into an amp that causes the effect, but I know that it was a pain. In my case, playing my Ovation on an amp designed for an electric guitar, with any kind of volume above speaking level, caused my B-string to buzz and hum. The hum increases in volume quite rapidly and generally makes a mess out of any open chord or note. No amount of tweaking to the gain or tone of the amp could eliminate the resonance. Of course, that could be due in part to the age and quality of the pickup in my Ovation as well. Have you thought of just buying an acoustic pickup to jam into your sound hole (sounds frightening) of an acoustic that you like? That way you can be assured of the quality of the pickup.

Hmmm...reading back through this post, I don't know as if I helped in the slightest...oh well.