I think one of the worst events in the history of mic’ing acoustic instruments was the moment someone first slapped a microphone inside an acoustic guitar. There. I said it. Hey, I’m no expert. Heck, I’m only a decent guitar player. I know this. And you’re right, Mr. Acoustic Guy, there are quite a few phenomenal acoustic guitar players with proven tone, studio and live, with internal mic systems. Let me just point out that I’m one of thousands of church engineers across the country who get to mix everyone else. Weekly.
Now, I’m not against microphones inside guitars but honestly, things are a little out of control. Ever since it turned into a mainstream trend, the sound of an over-blended internal mic has become the Lawry’s Seasoned Salt of the guitar world. All food at my grandparents’ house tasted the same thanks to that stuff. Every time I hear the inside of an acoustic guitar I try to get away with just a little sprinkle on top of the mix because it makes me throw up in my mouth a little. I fear this unnatural sound has become so common that the general public accepts it as a great guitar sound. Please friends, I beg of you… choose the red pill.
Well, I hope you’ll forgive the hyperbolous intro but I do want to make this a memorable post about acoustic guitar tones. I think it’s important.
After the jump: the best tones I’ve gotten to mix and why I think they’re good.
In my limited experience, the best live acoustic guitar tones I’ve ever gotten to mix are from Bebo Norman (back in ‘00 and ‘01 for Ten Thousand Days and Big Blue Sky) and Scott Haus, our worship pastor at Cornerstone. These guys share impeccable playing style, sense of time, and an objective ear for tone.
Firstly, tone is in the finger not the instrument or the gear. Two people can pick up the same guitar and sound completely different. Give me great playing style on any old guitar and I promise you I can make you sound good in the house.
I don’t remember what Bebo had for preamps. I just remember that he had tiny gooseneck mics in his Collings and Larrivée poised an inch or less behind the strings to catch the sound of his fingernail picking. Blended ever so slightly with the piezo pickup this combo created the perfect tone for his expressive finger picking style. Every single note the guy plays chimes in a space all of its own.
Scott has a couple guitars with a blend of mics and transducers – a Louden and (I think) a Larivée. (I had all his info in a text message I deleted. Ugh, my life.) One of the magical elements in his setup is a pair of Raven Labs PMBII preamps. I have fond memories of the day they showed up on his pedal board. I recommend them for any acoustic instrument you need to blend a piezo and a mic with. They sound absolutely brilliant. Scott blends just enough mic in, which is probably much less than you’d expect.
Here’s the deal. An acoustic guitar sounds like it sounds when you’re standing in front of it, not as if you’ve stuck your head inside it. In a live situation with a full band it’s practically impossible to get a great tone with a mic in front of the guitar. So, agree with me or not, the goal is to recreate the sound of an acoustic guitar, not capture the actual sound. I say it a lot: What we do involves smoke and mirrors. A great mix includes an element of illusion to achieve a larger-than-life sound.
The secret to the illusion of Bebo’s tone was that you could hear the dynamic human element of his fingernails on the strings but the direct signal from the piezo pickup made the sound system sing. It sounded like a real guitar, not the inside of a guitar. Again, there is a difference.
Same thing with Scott’s tones. There’s just enough mic involved to make it sound believable. He arrived at his blend because he has refined critical listening skills and an objective perspective – not a generally accepted idea that the more wood you hear the better.
So, my advice to acoustic guitar players: Swing the pendulum back toward simplicity. Giving us more direct signal lets us put you right where we want to in the mix and when those 8 bars of the second verse carried by your strumming alone come along, we can make the system sing with your strumming. Also, remember that you’re playing a percussive instrument. Lock in with the drums! A little bass player’s tip for that is to listen to the drummer’s right hand; the hat and the ride. If you want to know where someone is going with their right foot, listen to their right hand.
Oh, and go light on the Lawry’s too. Too much of a good strong thing spoils it.
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I completely agree. When I record in studio, I use a mic on acoustic, but it is so hard to use one live. There are a few (very few) guitar/pickup combinations I like, one being the gibson rig one of our WL’s is playing with right now. Everything else sounds like dirt to me and needs way too much work on it to make it sound decent just using the pickup inside. Our other WL’s taylor pickup sounds NOTHING like listening to the guitar unplugged, which means his requires all kinds of work to make it sound okay. A couple weeks ago I mixed for a guest with a martin, and it was okay, but still not the same.
Solution: Play a McPherson :)
Oh man, don’t get me started on the Taylor expression system.
I’ve only had one out of three sound good and that’s because it matched the player’s strumming style. The others had zero definition to the tone; all cardboard and ether. I know it’s possible to get great tone out of it but IMO it’s too complex of a system for the average guitar player to tweak on and honestly most players want to buy something that sounds great and just works. People will believe something sounds great by virtue of how much they spent and the brand name.
I do like Taylor guitars, don’t get me wrong. I just think the expression system is a mistake for most people especially in a full band context.
You’re the man. Totally want to echo how crucial it is to lock in with the drummer’s right side. Get off on that and it kind of sounds to me like the drummer is playing a second hi-hat with a third hand but that it’s not exactly in time.
Give me more tips for playing well!
Great post. I’ve got a guitarist on a worship team that sits on a stool when he plays. His ono-board pickup is messed up so I use an MXL condenser on a stand pointed at about the 12th fret area. I get compliments every time from the audience when I do that.
I cringe when I hear someone on the smooth jazz station playing lead on what sounds like a plugged in Ovation (of which I’m on my third, btw.) I got the most amazing recorded sound out of an $80 auditorium-sized Epiphone with a cheese-o Audio-Technica mic into the ol’ Fostex X-15 4-track. It’s what’s happening in front of a well-set up gtr with good strings that we wanna hear. The new preamps are sounding better and better, but like you say, it’s the touch. (Really, really thin picks are sort of a magic bullet for a silkier sound, imho.) And why do so few people use a high-strung (Nashville) guitar onstage? That’s a very forgiving setup, and Pete Sifuentes used to string his Guild that way whenever we played with Fitts. You’re on my soapbox there, Sam…
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