vulture2600 said:
the expression system is AWESOME. its truly revolutionary. for those of you who dont know, it contains a piezo in the bridge combined with two sensors located on the bottom of the top of the guitar that literally pick up vibrations coming right off the top. the top is what primarily moves air to create sound vibrations. also, the positions of the two sensors is just awesome. one is under the high frets of the neck to give nice mids and highs, and the other is located right under where your strumming arm hits the top, picking up bass and percussiveness of your strumming!
try the thing out with the Bose system at a GC and wear a diaper.
I thought the same thing when it first came out. I thought ****, it's so dynamic, and it sounds real. Great concepts, and the dynamic range and feedback rejection are second to none. But after playing an ES equipped guitar at volume, I'm over my initial excitement. It sounds more like a jazzbox than a real acoustic. Those pickups are essentiall magnetic pickups. Sure, it's probably one of the smoothest mags going, but I hate magnetic pickups on an acoustic guitar. The low end sounds great, G, A, and D strings sound great. The higher end blows. The B and E sound like if you were to pick over the neck. I tend to pick just behind or over the soundhole, and that tone in a lot different. With the ES, it doesn't matter. It still sounds like that. Cowboy chords sound OK, but when you move up past the third fret on the unwound strings, only poo is available. Also, the noise is incredible. It picks up more stray interference than a crappy wireless.
I think it's a great concept, but requires some serious tweaking. For instance, maybe a different type of transducer in the neck may take away some of the bulbousness on the unwound strings, or perhaps if they were to work in some type of EQ on that particular sensor to make that go away. I have pretty extensive EQ's on my mixer, and I can't dial it out.
Not trying to start fights, but I have some strong feelings about acoustic amplification.
I know it's not a true acoustic tone, but I far prefer the dual source, and blender systems.
I tried the Aura standalone version, again, wanting to love it, but from the beginning, I hated it. No matter what setting, I dialed in, it always sounded thinner/crappier with the Aura engaged. I have heard the Martins with the Aura onboard, and in my opinion they were good sounding systems.
One system I'd like to try is the K&K system. Clips sounded promising, and I have a 412 that has a piezo only system, and has taken a beating. I think it may be at least worth a try.
The Bose stick! OMG Another thing I was just ultra impressed with till I heard it at a gig. I heard my friend play it for a set or 2, and he let me play a couple tunes, and I just really didn't enjoy it as much as 2 good old speaker cabs. But for ease of setup/teardown, and carrying, it's phenomenal.
To address the original topic, I think if you are bringing an acoustic guitar(and I would because I love acoustics. Hell, my only gigs right now are solo acoustic.) you are just bringing it for you. Very few people in the crowd will appreciate or notice the fact that you are using a Piezo bridge in a band scenario. Hell, I've seen guys just use the clean channel, and still get roaring applause for the song they were playing, just because they played great tunes, and played the hell out of them.
