alanwaston
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2017
- Messages
- 3
Hi Everyone,
I'm a beginner, been practicing on my own for 7-8 months and just started taking lessons. I only have 1 Acoustic guitar, but when I've been going to lessons my teacher has been using an electric guitar, and one of the things he's been doing is repeating sections with a looper pedal. I am fairly intrigued by this and was thinking of trying to get setup at home so I could use this kind of thing for a learning tool. I have a Tascam recorder, an iPad, etc.. but all of this stuff seems really clumsy compared to a looper pedal + amp. Lots of fiddling, lots of time with my hands off the guitar, not loud enough to hear/terrible quality, etc.. (The tascam records nicely but doesn't have much of a speaker at all, the iPad has louder speakers but records pretty poorly.)
I have an Alvarez with an LR Baggs Element VTC that came from the factory.
Last weekend I went and looked at a used Amp that I found on Craigslist nearby, very inexpensive. However I was worried it wasn't working correctly and passed on it. It wasn't working without it's overdrive switch turned on and the gain turned up which didn't seem normal from what I had seen looking at the instructions and reviews online. Lots of hissing and popping, etc.. too. (It was a fender Frontman 10g.) Some feedback as well.
I then went over to a guitar center and asked for help. They let me try a Fender Mustang I, which seems to be another cheap amp that people say can be OK for an acoustic electric with lower expectations. They didn't really have anything tailored for an acoustic that was in a reasonable price range or power range for me to use for practicing at home. (Everything in the acoustic range was $300+ and at least 60w.)
Anyway we did get my guitar working with the Fender Mustang but there was a ton of feedback. They tried to say my guitar was the problem and to make an appointment to have it serviced. I ended up not doing that because my guitar is working great acoustically and I didn't want to leave it there and not be able to play.
When I got home and did some google searches it seems the person who helped me didn't know what they were doing with Acoustic guitars.. they had me turn the gain on preamp on my guitar all the way up, and they had me sitting with the sound hole facing the amp. From what I read that alone can be enough to cause an acoustic guitar with pickups to feed back. It was also Saturday and there were about 20 people going crazy with electric guitars in the room at that point.
Is there any good documentation for beginners on how to get started? I am going to ask my teacher to look over my guitar with me next time I see him and see if I can get past the feedback issue there but I'm tempted to just order a practice amp online. I kind of get the impression if I was given time to read the instructions for the amp at GC and orient the guitar correctly, etc.. I would have gotten it working and there is nothing wrong with my guitar.
I am looking for something that is:
- Not that loud (home use)
- Can possibly be used with an electric guitar later too
- Pretty reasonably priced.
- Headphone and aux jack, I like to plug a phone/ipad in as I'm starting to try and play along with recordings, and I mostly practice at night so the headphones may be important at times.
Stuff I've been intrigued by would include things like the Fender Acoustasonic 15, Fender Mustang I V2, The Yamaha THR models (a little pricey), etc..
It is not real helpful that there doesn't seem to be any user manual at all from LR Baggs on how to use the knobs on the VTC on my guitar, the two knobs are not even labeled anywhere in the instructions. (Instructions are just for installation anyway)
I'm a beginner, been practicing on my own for 7-8 months and just started taking lessons. I only have 1 Acoustic guitar, but when I've been going to lessons my teacher has been using an electric guitar, and one of the things he's been doing is repeating sections with a looper pedal. I am fairly intrigued by this and was thinking of trying to get setup at home so I could use this kind of thing for a learning tool. I have a Tascam recorder, an iPad, etc.. but all of this stuff seems really clumsy compared to a looper pedal + amp. Lots of fiddling, lots of time with my hands off the guitar, not loud enough to hear/terrible quality, etc.. (The tascam records nicely but doesn't have much of a speaker at all, the iPad has louder speakers but records pretty poorly.)
I have an Alvarez with an LR Baggs Element VTC that came from the factory.
Last weekend I went and looked at a used Amp that I found on Craigslist nearby, very inexpensive. However I was worried it wasn't working correctly and passed on it. It wasn't working without it's overdrive switch turned on and the gain turned up which didn't seem normal from what I had seen looking at the instructions and reviews online. Lots of hissing and popping, etc.. too. (It was a fender Frontman 10g.) Some feedback as well.
I then went over to a guitar center and asked for help. They let me try a Fender Mustang I, which seems to be another cheap amp that people say can be OK for an acoustic electric with lower expectations. They didn't really have anything tailored for an acoustic that was in a reasonable price range or power range for me to use for practicing at home. (Everything in the acoustic range was $300+ and at least 60w.)
Anyway we did get my guitar working with the Fender Mustang but there was a ton of feedback. They tried to say my guitar was the problem and to make an appointment to have it serviced. I ended up not doing that because my guitar is working great acoustically and I didn't want to leave it there and not be able to play.
When I got home and did some google searches it seems the person who helped me didn't know what they were doing with Acoustic guitars.. they had me turn the gain on preamp on my guitar all the way up, and they had me sitting with the sound hole facing the amp. From what I read that alone can be enough to cause an acoustic guitar with pickups to feed back. It was also Saturday and there were about 20 people going crazy with electric guitars in the room at that point.
Is there any good documentation for beginners on how to get started? I am going to ask my teacher to look over my guitar with me next time I see him and see if I can get past the feedback issue there but I'm tempted to just order a practice amp online. I kind of get the impression if I was given time to read the instructions for the amp at GC and orient the guitar correctly, etc.. I would have gotten it working and there is nothing wrong with my guitar.
I am looking for something that is:
- Not that loud (home use)
- Can possibly be used with an electric guitar later too
- Pretty reasonably priced.
- Headphone and aux jack, I like to plug a phone/ipad in as I'm starting to try and play along with recordings, and I mostly practice at night so the headphones may be important at times.
Stuff I've been intrigued by would include things like the Fender Acoustasonic 15, Fender Mustang I V2, The Yamaha THR models (a little pricey), etc..
It is not real helpful that there doesn't seem to be any user manual at all from LR Baggs on how to use the knobs on the VTC on my guitar, the two knobs are not even labeled anywhere in the instructions. (Instructions are just for installation anyway)
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Relax: http://freeringtonesfree.mobi/, http://freeringtonesfree.mobi/message-tones, http://freeringtonesfree.mobi/ringtone/jallikattu-song-5671.html
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