GOING LIVE
Plug an acoustic guitar into an amp or a PA and it becomes a completely different animal. We gather together industry experts and top players to talk about how to get the best possible sound from your instrument on stage
Getting stunning acoustic tone on the live stage can be tricky – our panel of pros shows you how to sound great with pickups, EQ, amps and more
Playing an acoustic guitar in a live setting was once a precarious business. In the very beginning you were lucky to get heard in any venue that was bigger than your living room, and, even when microphones came to the rescue, it meant players had to remain static for fear of fading away completely.
Jump forward to the late 60s and members of the singer-songwriter boom were either content to stay put in front of mics or try taping electric guitar pickups into their guitar’s soundholes – ironically turning their dreadnoughts into would-be electric guitars. But at least they could move around a little.
Later on saw the dawn of the transducer ‘bug’, which affixed to the guitar with a putty-like substance that resembled Blu Tack. At the time, they were welcomed as being cutting edge, but the sonic results were a long way from anything resembling high fidelity.
Now, of course, we take under-saddle piezo pickups for granted. In fact, as we’ll see when we hear from four of the best acoustic players out there (page 15), some performers employ space-age technology to deliver their guitar sound to a concert audience. But first, we’ll hear from the companies that took the acoustic player’s plight to heart and offered an all-in-one solution to the problem of getting heard…
Ovation was one of the pioneers of electroacoustic guitar design, how does the company continue to innovate?
“Ovation is the inventor of the piezo-ceramic pickup. More than 50 years have passed since Charles Kaman brought forward his idea of a modern-era guitar to the global market. Inspired by traditional standards and blessed with an open mind, his initial profession as a helicopter manufacturer gave him an unusual edge. He dared to approach guitarmaking in a way that is still polarising today.
“A specific, fibreglass composite (Lyrachord) combined with a semiparabolic body shape (Roundback) were the ingredients for a completely new tonal experience on the well-populated acoustic-guitar market of its day. The final breakthrough was fuelled by the acoustic/ electric version of the Ovation guitar. Again, Kaman’s experiences from the aerospace industry were the trigger for this development. The result was the piezoelectric pickup, the first of its kind. It enabled acoustic guitar players to come to the forefront in a band arrangement or soloists to play in large open-air venues.
“We are currently working on a new preamp that is relatively small and very easy to use, but offers many different timbres, especially in different sound settings. We are also working on a new version of the famous OCP-1 – a slightly different shape and new materials should bring out an even better and clearer defined sound. The first samples were already very promising.”
Do you still consider the Roundback as being key for a stage-ready acoustic?
“We are still 100 per cent convinced from the Roundback concept. It has proven it has a kind of speaker effect when a stringed music instrument is used purely acoustically; remember the old shell-shaped orchestra stages before there were PAs? Because it’s made from one piece and there is no glue joint between the sides and the back, the guitar is more stable in its inner statics. If you compare it with the dome roofs of old cathedrals, here, too, a physical impact from the outside or even its own weight is much better diverted and spread by the semiparabolic shape. There is also no need for bracing on the back, which reduces weight. The idea of using piezo-ceramic crystals to pick up vibrations for a pickup was just one way. Charlie had already used these crystals for vibration measurements on helicopter chassis, and he also used them to optimise the vibration behaviour of the body-shape and tops of his guitars, and to optimise the materials used for the body. An example of this is the GS Body, which contains 30 per cent fibreglass and so-called micro-glass bubbles that reduce the weight and transmit vibrations better.”
Ovation guitars don’t always feature a conventional soundhole. What are the benefits of the soundports as an alternative?
“Ovation broke with the use of a centre soundhole with the invention of the ‘multiholes’. No doubt, the traditional centre soundhole still makes sense and is accepted today, even though it is actually placed on the top where most of the vibrations occur, and that was also the reason why the multiholes were moved to the edge. The top has a larger area to vibrate and the soundholes are closer to the player’s ear and this is also the reason for soundports – a better monitor for the player, who hears himself better so that he plays better and more sensitively. We’ve already made guitars like that for Kaki King and Melissa Etheridge. Depending on what I want to use the guitar for, soundports definitely also make sense.”
“Inspired by traditional standards and blessed with an open mind, Charles’ initial profession as a helicopter manufacturer gave him an unusual edge” THOMAS NEUHIERL
Is there such a thing as an all-rounder – an acoustic guitar that sounds great both acoustically and plugged into a PA or amplifier?
“For the reasons I have just explained, a Mid-depth would be a good choice, and we offer these in a wide variety of versions and colours. If you were to refer to the electronics alone, the OP Pro Studio with its three-band EQ exciter and compressor/ limiter circuits would be at the top of the list, as it brings a smile of satisfaction to every soundman’s face, especially at live shows on stage. A real top-seller, however, is a Super Shallow in Regal to Natural, but as we all know, the eye also ‘eats’ with us. I think everyone has to know what they want to use it for most, and then they should let themselves be guided by a gut feeling.”
www.ovationguitars.com
Building a guitar that sounds as good acoustically as well as via a pickup system on stage is always a compromise from a construction point of view. How do you accommodate both when creating a guitar?
“Takamine’s first products featured plywood tops, because some people believed that a plywood-body construction would reduce feedback. Shortly after, most of our guitars adopted a solid top. At present most Takamine guitars use solid tops and backs, and we don’t do anything special for electro-acoustics.
“Feedback can occur for many reasons: a song’s key, a specific pitch, frequency response characteristic of the PA, a venue’s shape… Nobody has the perfect method for guitar making to counter these variables. Our original Palathetic pickup had very few problems with feedback and current mixing consoles have better EQ, and so engineers can realise a beautiful acoustic guitar sound without feedback.”
With improvements in pickup systems and PAs, we’ve noticed smaller guitar body sizes are becoming popular with players who perform live. Is the day of the mighty dreadnought nearing its end?
“Eric Clapton released Unplugged in 1992 and used a Martin 000-42, which has become his trademark. That was 30 years ago and smaller body sizes became more popular from this point and electro-acoustics have embraced the smaller body sizes since. Many professional musicians use smaller guitars not only on the concert stage, but also in a recording situation. Small guitars like the 000 and OM have a well-balanced sound and they are accommodating to current demand. Even with that, many guitar users will continue to like the big bass sound and rich overtones of a dreadnought. We don’t think the dreadnought will disappear from the guitar market.”
How can a performer maintain his guitar to keep it in perfect condition for the live stage?
“First, you should change the strings and use a new battery every time! A guitar tech will change the battery for every show. Then check the sliders and turn each of the control knobs [on the guitar’s preamp] every so often to prevent noise. Finally, an L-shaped jack plug is better than a straight one as it relieves stress on the end pin socket.”
www.takamine.com
“Takamine’s first products featured plywood tops, because some believed that would reduce feedback” MAKOTO TERASAKI