My friend Dan Meblin sent me a couple of questions about using an acoustic guitar with a preamp, and I thought someone else might find them useful! He writes:
I have a question about acoustic guitar tone. I have a fairly high-end Taylor acoustic ($1500-$2K range). I noticed the output was really low, and found that most people pair an acoustic guitar with a nice acoustic preamp.
So, I did some research and ended up settling on the Fishman Platinum Pro.
this isn’t an endorsement; i just wanted you to be able to see what the eq controls look like
My first question: there are a couple EQ knobs on the guitar. Should I just keep both of those at center position and use the Fishman EQ for tweaking?
My suggestion: try both and use whichever you prefer. Perhaps a combination of both! The EQ curves on the guitar and on the pedal will be different, and some will sound better or worse with your specific instrument.
I see in the product picture that there is an “EQ mode” switch that allows you to select between bass and guitar EQ, and reading the manual tells me that this adjusts the voicing of the EQ controls … very interesting! I would 100% experiment with this also. Perhaps the bass settings will actually sound better for what you’re going for!
Fair warning: “play with the knobs and see what sounds good to you” is always going to be my answer. No one knows better than you what you like. And what I like might not be the same as what you like!
The point, always, is to use the gear that you have available to you to make the best sounds that you can — and you’re the person who gets to decide what that means to you.
Also: the “play with the knobs” idea pretty much always works better if you’ve read the manual. So always read your manuals! You might just learn something about how the knobs work that helps you use them in ways that you like better.
Dan continued:
Same question with the volume knob on the guitar. My feeling is that since the output of the Taylor pickup is so low, maybe I should max it into the Fishman.
Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is to turn instrument output volumes up as high as they go and then turn down as need be at the receiving end (preamp, mixer, amp, etc).
There will always be some amount of noise on the line along with the signal, so by turning your instrument output all the way up and sending the strongest possible signal down the line, you are by definition maximizing your signal-to-noise ratio! Which means a cleaner signal, which is generally something you want.
