[Almost Enough]

I play both acoustic and electric.

I actually prefer to play my acoustic, and old Guild G37. I give a lot of music lessons, mostly on location, so an acoustic is a must. Also, most the gigs I land are singer/songwriter type stuff, or one man worship sets. I tend to write my songs so they are adaptable to most instrumentation.

As for actual acoustic methods, I've never been properly trained. I pick up things as I go, but I've never learned any proper methods or anything like that. I'm mostly self taught. Most of my playing is sans picks, and is an integration of fake Travis picking, arpeggios, and punk rock and folk strumming. I overuse my capo, often transposing on the fly so I can play in an open key that I know a lot of cool tricks and licks in (ie C, G, D).

I've never really considered myself an acoustic guitarist, but more like what Rainer said, a musician that utilizes a timbre that fits the situation.

[martinedwards]

Originally Posted by Renza

Martinedwards that's some pretty impressive pics of your work.

thanks!!

its a nice hobby tha pays for itself.

the DOWN side is that when someone says something silly like "have you ever seen a doubleneck acoustic with a 8 strings mandolin on one neck and a fretless 5 string bass on the other?" I'm likely to rush off and make one!!

[rocket955]

Primararily acoustic. It's just easier because I don't have to have a lot of stuff to go with it. Amps, pedals and alike. I can pick it up and play without a utility bill.

[darfaz]

I've been playing guitar for 15 years and have played electric maybe 4 or 5 times. I guess I should branch out more.

[ICallHimTurtle]

Banjo for the win.

[Giga Hertz]

I'm more interested in picking up an electric and playing rock (mainly on rhythm) but I'm primarily an acoustic guitarist. It's what I learned first, and, at this stage, all we use at Church (save for bass and drums).

But yeah, I often just pick up the old acoustic and play whatever song comes up that I think is cool (regardless of genre). It's just easier than setting up my amp and pedal. :P

[quigs777]

Electric guitars are awesome but the problem I have when playing them is that I internalize the intensity of the killer vibrations they produce which messes up my already messed up technique. As a result acoustic guitars are my main gig these days.
In the last week or two I brought home a guitar I have had in layaway for 9-10 months. My first handmade guitar, a Bourgeois "Banjo Killer" Slope D. FedEx destroyed my Larrivee L-09 but thank God it was heavily insured. So i put that claim money on a Bourgeois and it still took forever to pay off the balance-but man is this thing sweet By the way I am new here and am looking forward to getting to know everyone here. Shalome...

[rocket955]

Originally Posted by quigs777

Electric guitars are awesome but the problem I have when playing them is that I internalize the intensity of the killer vibrations they produce which messes up my already messed up technique. As a result acoustic guitars are my main gig these days.
In the last week or two I brought home a guitar I have had in layaway for 9-10 months. My first handmade guitar, a Bourgeois "Banjo Killer" Slope D. FedEx destroyed my Larrivee L-09 but thank God it was heavily insured. So i put that claim money on a Bourgeois and it still took forever to pay off the balance-but man is this thing sweet By the way I am new here and am looking forward to getting to know everyone here. Shalome...

That is a seriuosly great guitar. Are you going to use it on a worship team?

[jeepnstein]

A Bourgeois? Those things are just flat awesome. Never saw one I didn't like. I put them up there with Wayne Henderson and Gary Cotten for a D style guitar.

How do you mic it for worship? I'm struggling with a guitar player on our team who insists on using a microphone instead of a pickup. It's just the way he's always played but it's a struggle to get him heard. No way, no how, is he going to put a pickup in one of his D45's.

Oh, and we need pics of the Bourgeois.

[quigs777]

Originally Posted by rocket955

That is a seriuosly great guitar. Are you going to use it on a worship team?

Just as soon as I get a pickup in it. I have had really good experience with Trance Audio's Amulet / Acoustic Lens set up (the lenses are mounted under the bridge plate NOT under the saddle) coupled with a Sunrise magnetic pickup. Its pricey but at the same time produces zero feedback (which is REAL important) plus the tonal flexibility that is available, especially in a recording situation, makes this set-up ideal.
The Amulet (outboard pre-amp / modular control) allows a person to seperate the signal coming out of your guitar by way of a 5-pin endpin jack . a persons two source set up can be 2-acoustic lens pickups (one pickup to pick up the treble strings and another (ac.lens) pickup to pick up the bass strings) or you can do what some folks do and use one ac. lens for the treble strings and a Sunrise pickup for the bass strings which is the setup I use on my Martin. Especially in a recording situation, you can produce a stereo field for your guitar (bass strings in the left channel and treble strings in the right channel which I rarely if ever use in a live setting) and/or put different reverbs on each channel or just a light chorus on the bass strings or just delay on the treble strings etc,. Like I said the Trance set up is real pricey but is incredibly versatile especially in a recording situation.

[quigs777]

Originally Posted by jeepnstein

A Bourgeois? Those things are just flat awesome. Never saw one I didn't like. I put them up there with Wayne Henderson and Gary Cotten for a D style guitar.

How do you mic it for worship? I'm struggling with a guitar player on our team who insists on using a microphone instead of a pickup. It's just the way he's always played but it's a struggle to get him heard. No way, no how, is he going to put a pickup in one of his D45's.

Oh, and we need pics of the Bourgeois.

Maybe you can help your friend research the huge plethora of non-invasive acoustic guitar pickups that are available to folks like us these days. Otherwise, If he still does not want to get some way of boosting his guitar signal and it's too much of a hassle for you to use a mic then the only other thing I can think of is to tell your guy to play really LOUD.

Sorry i dont have better pictures. The back and sides are actually brown and not orange (Click to enlarge pictures(?))

[rocket955]

Originally Posted by quigs777

Maybe you can help your friend research the huge plethora of non-invasive acoustic guitar pickups that are available to folks like us these days. Otherwise, If he still does not want to get some way of boosting his guitar signal and it's too much of a hassle for you to use a mic then the only other thing I can think of is to tell your guy to play really LOUD.

Sorry i dont have better pictures. The back and sides are actually brown and not orange (Click to enlarge pictures(?))

I think my GAS just shifted gears.

[quigs777]

Maybe a better way to relate what I am trying to say is that if my music director tried to mic up my guitar and his efforts did not produce good results, for the sake of the TEAM he would probably tell me to find another guitar to use that has a pickup in it or get a pickup for my instrument or play really loud or not play at all. Afterall, a team ministry is not about the individual but about the collective group in that ministry co-operating together to do a really important job.

[jeepnstein]

Originally Posted by quigs777

Maybe a better way to relate what I am trying to say is that if my music director tried to mic up my guitar and his efforts did not produce good results, for the sake of the TEAM he would probably tell me to find another guitar to use that has a pickup in it or get a pickup for my instrument or play really loud or not play at all. Afterall, a team ministry is not about the individual but about the collective group in that ministry co-operating together to do a really important job.

True, but we are trying to learn a thing or two from him as well. I'm in South Eastern Ohio and the musicians here tend to have very strong ties to Eastern Kentucky. This is especially true in the case of our lead player. He's toured with some of the giants of bluegrass music and is getting private lessons from one of them. He's a flat picker in the Clarence White/Tony Rice style. And a very good one at that. Those guys just don't go for pickups, or at least the really traditional ones don't. He'll reluctantly use a sound hole pickup if I make him do it and he's spent an awful lot of time looking at the K&K in my Seagull. He's just not ready to make that jump on his Martins. None of the guys he plays with regularly do it either and I'll be darned if I'm going to tell him I know better than them. His spiritual and musical input into the team outweighs any slight technical headache he throws our way.

He is our Rock. A self-proclaimed simple hillbilly who carries that Martin in one hand and his Bible in the other. Everyone should have someone like him in their lives.

You're one of just a handful of people I've come across using the Trance Audio setup. Everyone raves about it. Do you do your own mix and send it direct or do you have a sound man who is up to the job? I've just got tons of questions and could probably go on forever since I'm a bit of a gear head.

[quigs777]

Good point. This city boy has learned one more good thing today.
I have a P. Tools rig that I am trying to learn to use and have some recordings using the Martin HD28 that has the Trance / Sunrise system in it. I can send a tune or two to you if you can let me know where you want it sent. The one tune is an instrumental tuned down to a B maj. tuning which is a new low for me anyhoo, it's interesting so I will be re-doing it and including a mostly narrated Ps.51. The cool thing about the Sunrise pickup is that IT WILL pickup really low tuned strings unlike some other pickups. Thanks Jeepenstein and if you have any tunes by your Martin player send one my way.