acoustic guitars and clean tones

[Isabellacat]

Lately I've been practicing on my acoustic, I find that more of a challenge than practicing on an electric. You really hear your mistakes alot more on an acoustic compared to playing on  electric,where it's easy to hide underneath effects pedals and heaps of distortion. I'm studying some classical pieces on my acoustic at the moment.

Anyone else like noodling on an acoustic?


Also have  been exploring cleaner tones on the electric, trying to use less and less distortion.I feel the less distortion,the more challenging it is to sound heavy. I don't feel expensive gear and fancy pedals is what makes a player great.  What are your favorite amp settings for clean tones?

[spookstrickland]

I love acoustics.  I just got a Fender Strat o Coustic a little while ago and love it!

[mawso]

I like to have my amp set so that I can get a clean tone just by touching the strings really lightly.. maybe backing off the volume knob as well.  But I usually hit the strings really fkn hard, so I have a lot of room to dial things back just a lighter attack.  This works well for me because I tend to like cleans that have a tiny bit of hair on them though, and I'm also into dirty tones that are still pretty well defined and have a solid attack.. I'm not into the whole hi-fi crystal-clean vibe, or the huge mass of gain thing.  Although I see that both those things have their place as well - just not for me.

You are 100% right that lots of effects and/or distortion can hide sloppy playing.  I tend not to plug my electric in when I practice, for precisely that reason (well that's what i tell myself, the truth is I'm just lazy).

[MichaelZodiac]

Right now, I don't have my bass with me and I can't transport it here. Luckily I have an old acoustic lying around here and while it's not a bass, I treat as a bass acoustic just to play everyday. It is definitely more of a challenge but at band practice I love to turn it up and just enjoy the jam and ride along the drums and guitars.

[VOLVO)))]

Ive got a couple of practice instruments, all of them play like utter shit, so when I transition to something that doesnt suck, it's all easy to play.

Drums, i practice with marching sticks and ankle weights.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[johnny problem]

Love the clean tone.  I like adding reverb and sometimes a little phase.  I always use the neck pickup and sometimes use the bright switch on my amp (I get surf type sounds that way).

[bitter]

I like a run of the mill clean tone that I can add a clean boost to. the tubescreamer adds that touch of brightness, mild grit, and compression that smooths out my playing. I also like to run reverb whenever possible to make it all sparkle.

[Isabellacat]

I love acoustics.  I just got a Fender Strat o Coustic a little while ago and love it!

Sounds nice! You got any pics of that?? I've got two acoustics...one has broken strings and the other's been refurbished. Fretboard's really smooth on that one.

I like playing 'Dee' by Randy Rhoads alot . It's a nice fingerpicking excersise. Hopefully I'll get to this level of acoustic fingerpicking:

[strangelight]

i learned on an acoustic precisely so that when i picked up an electric guitar eventually, it would be easier. i used only the acoustic for probably the first three years that i played. when i got electric guitars, i'd either practice with a clean tone or not plug it in at all most of the time. still much easier to play, especially since my electric guit is 1000x better than my acoustic.

i only use pedals if i'm writing stuff or trying to figure out how to make cool sounds. never use em just to work on my technique because it totally masks how sloppy you are.

[clockwork green]

I don't most of my writing on acoustic but not really on purpose. I always have one near me on the couch plus sometimes when I play electric I spend too much time tweaking tones and playing with pedals. It's nice to just strip things to basics.

[Chovie D]

started on a rented acoustic, then an electric, then a classica nylon stringed. read music and everything, cannot read anymore.
classical guitar was quite a challenge, but very rewarding.


These days I pick on a martin D18, 72 guild d40 and a seagull 12 string.
I use em to write or for porch or tv pickin.
I cannot say I play much at all anymore, but when i do its an acoustic.

I dont use settings for clean tones on electric as much as i will use a different amp for clean tones.
For cleans I use fender amplifiers, or if recording ...I will use line6 modeled clean tones. They are quite good...its their fuzzy tones that are thin and weak....but theur clean tones? quite good especially recorded. My recording interface is line6 toneport so the models are there for me to use and saves me the hassle of micing an amp and making sure no one is mowing their lawn or whatever.

If you have a couple acoustics Id recommend settng up one with an alt tuning, something open, even if just for a couple months.
suddenly alot of confusing  stones and zeppelin stuff will make MUCH more sense to you and you'll get some insights you wouldnt have otherwise.

m,y favorite acoustic player is probably willie nelson.

theres this guy in austin who can pretty much wail on an acoustic. Monte something

[Mr Neutron]

monte montgomery is a mutant.

ive probably watched that version of little wing 20 times. yeesh.

[neighbor664]

If you have a couple acoustics Id recommend settng up one with an alt tuning, something open, even if just for a couple months.
suddenly alot of confusing  stones and zeppelin stuff will make MUCH more sense to you and you'll get some insights you wouldnt have otherwise.

Totally! I wish someone would have made this clear to me 20 years ago. 

[Ranbat]

If you have a couple acoustics Id recommend settng up one with an alt tuning, something open, even if just for a couple months.
suddenly alot of confusing  stones and zeppelin stuff will make MUCH more sense to you and you'll get some insights you wouldnt have otherwise.

Totally! I wish someone would have made this clear to me 20 years ago. 

This is why I bought a Stella for $30. I knew I wouldn't use it for regular practice or playing, so I tuned it to Open G and grabbed a slide. Then I bought another one and tuned it to Open E. It's a great way to break up the monotony of day to day playing and learn about open tuning.

[Chovie D]

this is the number one acoustic jam of all time

[Isabellacat]

started on a rented acoustic, then an electric, then a classica nylon stringed. read music and everything, cannot read anymore.
classical guitar was quite a challenge, but very rewarding.


These days I pick on a martin D18, 72 guild d40 and a seagull 12 string.
I use em to write or for porch or tv pickin.
I cannot say I play much at all anymore, but when i do its an acoustic.

I dont use settings for clean tones on electric as much as i will use a different amp for clean tones.
For cleans I use fender amplifiers, or if recording ...I will use line6 modeled clean tones. They are quite good...its their fuzzy tones that are thin and weak....but theur clean tones? quite good especially recorded. My recording interface is line6 toneport so the models are there for me to use and saves me the hassle of micing an amp and making sure no one is mowing their lawn or whatever.

If you have a couple acoustics Id recommend settng up one with an alt tuning, something open, even if just for a couple months.
suddenly alot of confusing  stones and zeppelin stuff will make MUCH more sense to you and you'll get some insights you wouldnt have otherwise.

m,y favorite acoustic player is probably willie nelson.

theres this guy in austin who can pretty much wail on an acoustic. Monte something

I've got 2 acoustics and I set one to this tuning...


TUNING: C# F# C# F# A# C#


Jimmy Page uses that one alot. It's very exotic sounding.....Great to play that song 'Wonderful One'.


Although it's tricky to tune to that because sometimes the high string could break. Love the sound of it tho.

[SpaceTrucker]

If you play acoustic, learn to finger pick, once you learn it in riches all your playing. it makes playing an acoustic sound more like your playing an instrument than a guitar. if that makes sense.

Here's one of the best. But he is playing an acoustic electric in this. Believe me. The man is good. Check out this Clean(relatively), Tele and a fender amp sound. Real funky.

[clockwork green]

My favorite cleans come from baritones (not just in tuning but that extra scale length adds depth and twang) and 12-strings. One of these days I'll get a double neck with a standard 6 and a baritone 12.

[Chovie D]

hell yes spacetrucker!

Clarence White (Byrds)is a good fingerpicker/flatpicker too...

Oddly, tho i dislike the grateful dead, i very much like Jerry Garcias fingepicking ...Tony Rice too.

youtube tony rice and you''ll get a ton of lessons for his licks..

[rayinreverse]

I rarely have any electric gear at home. I write/record almost everything on acoustic,then take those songs to practice.

[SpaceTrucker]

Jim Croce is good too. You want to learn about dim and those other non maj min 7th chords and how they work in a song that's the guy to practice. Time in a bottle is just beautiful beyond words. He died Way to early.

[Isabellacat]

I rarely have any electric gear at home. I write/record almost everything on acoustic,then take those songs to practice.

Yea that's pretty much how I write songs.

[Corey Y]

Nope, I don't like acoustic and I'm not really hot on clean tones. Well when it comes to clean guitar tone it just depends on the type of music I guess, but I don't like playing acoustic. My main instrument is bass though, so having the muscles in my hands/fingers built up isn't really an issue for me at all when playing guitar. I have an acoustic, which was my mom's since the 70's, but I keep it more for sentimental value. I broke a string on it something like 9 years ago and I still haven't replaced it. I don't begrudge anyone else getting their acoustic riffing on though, have fun.

[Baltar]

I went right to a Paul for my first.  Never owned an acoustic.  Too easy to bang up and break.

[Isabellacat]