Neville’s Advocate
This month, Nev Marten details his long and winding journey into the land of the acoustics
Acoustic guitars, and playing them, possibly gives me more pleasure, than electrics or amps (believe it or not). However, I’d never call myself an acoustic guitarist, because, at best, my fingerpicking is sub James Taylor. I don’t use altered tunings that much and have no desire to tap and slap the things. But I do love them and I own three. All Martins. I keep a Dreadnought Junior at my sister’s place, use an OM-28 Reimagined on stage, and have an D-28 Authentic as my sofa companion. But currently the devil on my left shoulder is whispering, “You really need one of those Atkin 43 vintage Gibson J-45 types you saw at the show,” while the angel on my right is saying, “No you don’t, you already have three, you have nowhere to put it and you’re not even a proper acoustic guitarist.”
Jason Sidwell, our senior music editor, talks about ‘desire’ or ‘require’. If you simply desire it out of lust, or boredom, think twice, but if you require it for specific tasks and it will pay you back, then get it. Trouble is, that devil and angel are always chattering away, complicating things, so ‘desire’ can easily be transformed to ‘require’… But my guitars do pay me back. The OM-28 I got recently has almost paid for itself with gigs, and, by the end of the year, will be earning me money. Having owned the D-28 for four years, it’s truly self-sufficient – even the Dread Jr was bought for a specific purpose and it’s always lovely to reunite with it.
Playing acoustic live has gone from the total nightmare it was 30 years ago, to being a breeze. I’ve been through the gamut – I remember having an Ibanez stick-on bug, then burying Barcus-Berry Hot Dots in the bridge of my Gibson J-40. They sort of worked, but handling noise was an issue, the tone was very ‘piezo-ish’ and they were prone to feedback. I then invested in an Ovation. It was a rare Anniversary model and a very beautiful guitar. Ovation’s hex-pickup system really worked, but the bowl-back wasn’t to everyone’s taste and they could sound ‘hard’. I ended up selling mine to fellow Gibson guitar repairer Dick Noordijk (still one of Holland’s top guys), in Rotterdam. Since then, I’ve tried most of the brands. I liked the Fishman Rare Earth, until you get up the neck and it starts to sound ‘Strat-y’; I had an OM-28 Retro with a Fishman Aura system, but it was messy to use and the tuner wouldn’t register on stage if anyone else was playing, but I loved a Fishman Ellipse Matrix Blend in another Martin. Meanwhile, I adored the tone of a Headway in an old J-45 and have had various instruments with LR Baggs and Fishman systems fitted as standard. My current live acoustics both have Baggs Anthems in them, as I find they offer the best overall tone for my taste. They aren’t pretty, and I find them mildly confusing (you can’t see what does what inside the soundhole, and I can never remember). But once set I don’t touch it.
On my main rig, I put the OM-28 through my Helix (I use a Line 6 G70 wireless and can switch from electric to acoustic signal). It sounds fantastic. I use a valve studio mic model and have two acoustic patches on the Helix, one for strumming and the other for picking. I never have issues with howl or feedback and I get identical tones gig to gig. The D-28 was my stage acoustic, but now I use the OM, as it’s much easier to play standing up due to its slimmer body. I do Classical Gas live and it’s easy to screw up, but I find it that bit safer on the smaller instrument.
As you can see, my quest for the ultimate acoustic sound has been long, arduous and expensive. I think I’m there, but the siren song of that Atkin still carries on the wind.
Unless acoustic guitar is our main instrument we tend to relegate them to also-ran status, when in fact, within an acoustic lies absolute truth. You can’t run and there’s nowhere to hide (no effects to mask iffy playing), but sitting on the sofa picking out parts or strumming tunes is one of my greatest stress relievers. I still can’t play You Can Close Your Eyes by James Taylor every time without a single slip, but it hasn’t stopped me trying, 40 years on!