KVR Audio

Reed · Post by **Reed** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:09 pm

I need a small 5-15 watt amp that sounds good with an acoustic guitar. (Godin Multiac)
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:46 pm

how much you wanna spend? Are you performing with it? For short money there is the Crate CA15 or the Ibanez TA20 with chorus...for a little more you can step up to Fender...for less you can step down to behringer (not a wise move imho)...fwiw I have sold Keyboard amps to be used as acoustic amps as well.

Chuck E. Jesus · Post by **Chuck E. Jesus** » Sat May 19, 2007 2:55 pm

a friend of mine has one of those fender acoustic amps, it's got a mic input, verb, etc and it's pretty cool, you could easily do a small place solo gig...don't know the wattage, but if you are going through the trouble of amping an acoustic, i'm not sure why you would want five watts...

G&L_player · Post by **G&L_player** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:18 pm

Reed wrote:I need a small 5-15 watt amp that sounds good with an acoustic guitar. (Godin Multiac)
Any suggestions?
Thanks

If you buy an actual acoustic guitar amp, plan on going above $300. However, if you're just looking for a regular ole guitar amp, you can spend between $50 and up.

How good is your acoustic guitar? Is it a $150, or is it a premium piece of the tree? If you've invested in a good acoustic box, then definitely spend a little on tone. Acoustic amps have become popular, during the past 10 years or so. Before that, everyone just used regular amps. A good tube amp will provide lotsa tone on an acoustic.

If I were buying a small tube amp today, I'd probably buy this 5w Fender for $200 (street price):

http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2330100000

The 5w Fender is not to be underestimated! Everyone who's owned a Champ and/or Princeton will tell you that. So, don't compare it to the 15w/25w transistor types.

If I just wanted any ole thing, I might grab a 15w Peavey Backstage for around $60, or a 25w Rage 258 in the $120 range.

Once again, I have no idea where you're coming from, so I approached the question very generally. FYI: the acoustic amps are big on the EQ and contain low-imp vocal connections.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:59 pm

G&L_player wrote:
Reed wrote:I need a small 5-15 watt amp that sounds good with an acoustic guitar. (Godin Multiac)
Any suggestions?
Thanks
If you buy an actual acoustic guitar amp, plan on going above $300. However, if you're just looking for a regular ole guitar amp, you can spend between $50 and up.

How good is your acoustic guitar? Is it a $150, or is it a premium piece of the tree? If you've invested in a good acoustic box, then definitely spend a little on tone. Acoustic amps have become popular, during the past 10 years or so. Before that, everyone just used regular amps. A good tube amp will provide lotsa tone on an acoustic.

If I were buying a small tube amp today, I'd probably buy this 5w Fender for $200 (street price):

http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 2330100000

The 5w Fender is not to be underestimated! Everyone who's owned a Champ and/or Princeton will tell you that. So, don't compare it to the 15w/25w transistor types.

If I just wanted any ole thing, I might grab a 15w Peavey Backstage for around $60, or a 25w Rage 258 in the $120 range.

Once again, I have no idea where you're coming from, so I approached the question very generally. FYI: the acoustic amps are big on the EQ and contain low-imp vocal connections.

agreed on the little fender, but not for acoustic...clips too easy...as Chuck says some of the fender acoustics are really nice for the money, though a Roland keyboard amp will also sound awesome and often has several channels.

FWIW, once these two girls came into one store I worked at, they had an acoustic act. They were looking to buy a Fender Passport and an acoustic amp...they left with a Mackie 1202 and JBL Eons...we tried many set ups, this one was super sweet...the Eons really were faithfuk to the full acoustic sound. Having just two singers and one guitar it didn't mud up at all...a little large (but not bad because the Eons were powered), but I have thought about this many times since...it was a nice set up.

However at 15 watts I'm not sure he's looking to perform with it, so I'm going to fathom a guess he's looking to use it for practice/recording...in that case he might want to consider a different route. Sansamp has a rackmount that's called the RPM http://www.tech21nyc.com/rpm.html their acoustic DI is awesome, I haven't heard the RPM yet, but it's adapted from that pedal and given Tech21's reputation I'm thinkg this might be a good investment...running your acoustic back through your monitors would probably yeild a good sound providing you're using okay monitors.

where02190 · Post by **where02190** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:00 pm

Assuming this is for live use and there's some sort of relatively good PA, spend $180 on a Radial J48 DI. Utilize the monitors if you need more than acoustic volume onstage.

If this is studio recording, a pair of ALG C414B ULS work great, and is my go to setup. On the cheap, you can get a pair of Samson CO2's for $130, and don't let the price fool you, these are amazing sounding mics.

G&L_player · Post by **G&L_player** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:44 pm

Hink wrote:agreed on the little fender, but not for acoustic...clips too easy...as Chuck says some of the fender acoustics are really nice for the money, though a Roland keyboard amp will also sound awesome and often has several channels.

Unless one gets into a $300+ range, they're pretty much going to run into a lot of trade-offs. The whole equation, of course, is based on the acoustic guitar- what the heck is it? Is it a $150 cheepie, or a $1,500 investment. Then, go from there, simply put. Why would anyone spend a lot of money amping pressed cardboard?

A decent bass/keyboard amp gets ya into that $300 range. So, why not just pick up an actual acoustic amp (i.e. speakers are optimised; EQ; vocals), if that's the case?

Hink wrote:However at 15 watts I'm not sure he's looking to perform with it, so I'm going to fathom a guess he's looking to use it for practice/recording...in that case he might want to consider a different route. Sansamp has a rackmount that's called the RPM http://www.tech21nyc.com/rpm.html their acoustic DI is awesome, I haven't heard the RPM yet, but it's adapted from that pedal and given Tech21's reputation I'm thinkg this might be a good investment...running your acoustic back through your monitors would probably yeild a good sound providing you're using okay monitors.

Live performance and recording, of course, are different cases, altogether. Unfortunately, the question was entirely vague...small amp for acoustic guitar. Does the guitar even have electronics?

If we're not talking about recording, clipping is not really an issue. It's simply a matter of plugging in to hear yourself play...nothing fancy here.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat May 19, 2007 6:01 pm

you'll have to forgive me but I really hate hearing an acoustic guitars using distortion. In fairness this goes back 30 some odd years to before I got my first electric and had a cheap acoustic with a Lafayette (sp?) pick-up attached to it (cheapest thing ever)...I played it like it was a strat thru a stack

..hey I was 12

Anyhow, now this is one of those insane little things that probably only irks me...I've run my Ovation through my Fender Blues jr, as long as it's not clipping I like it....otherwise it sends me right back to 6th grade...it's that sound...so it's more than simply plugging in to hear myself play. On the other hand if I plug my ovation into my xt live just as a pre with a smidgen of chorus and some delay it sounds really sweet blending with the ambient sound of my acoustic (which is on one of ovations with the multiple sound holes).

fwiw lafayette was the competition for radio shack back then, and they sold it all...much better than rat shack imho, too bad they went belly up. The pick-up was about as big around as a dime with a clip on the bottom and a volume knob on top...it just clipped onto your sound hole...I think it cost under ten bux...just a little nostalgia

Reed · Post by **Reed** » Sat May 19, 2007 6:37 pm

Thanks for the response guys.
I'm off to try out some amps!

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Sat May 19, 2007 6:38 pm

Reed wrote:Thanks for the response guys.
I'm off to try out some amps!

that's the best way to do it...have a ball

G&L_player · Post by **G&L_player** » Mon May 21, 2007 10:21 am

My bad...

, didn't realise that there were as many cheap and inexpensive acoustic amps available, today. There are.

FYI: it was hard to touch one for under $300 not too long ago. Once you go over $300, you have a lot to choose from, but I have no idea what kind of instrument you have, etc... So, I'll just mention a few under $300, as most 15w amps fall into this category. (Amps are listed with list and sales price.)

Crate CA30DG ($330L/$230SP)

Ibanez TA35 ($320L/$235SP)

Behringer AT108 ($90L/60SP)

Behringer ACX450 ($260L/$180SP)

Small Amp for Acoustic Guitar?