Martyn wrote:I've been casually looking at a possible acoustic purchase simply to record from at home and don't want to spend lots of money on something that will be used purely as a chord strumming instrument for tracks like Apache etc. If I could afford a Gibson J200, I doubt I'd buy one simply because the amount of playing it would get by me would be so out of proportion to its price. Cost per wearing, as my wife claims when justifying expensive shoes . . .
I recently trawled through several cheap to expensive options in a local music shop and most of their acoustic sounds, compared to electrified ones, were quite dramatically different. In my ignorance I think I'd presumed a pickup would simply magnify the acoustic sound resonating around inside this hollow box and transmit it to the amps exactly as I heard it, but just louder. Whilst some had a very pleasant strummed electrified tone, it bore little resemblance to that Apache strumming sound I was chasing.
I also found one or two cheaper guitars had more comfortable to play necks than a couple of the more expensive options -I have quite small hands and playing barre chords on some necks was almost impossible and at best extremely uncomfortable. I concluded that an acoustic with an electric-type neck would be a good combination and I'm still trying others in my quest for sound and comfort. I recall a couple of Yamahas and a Fender acoustic had comfortably low actions but others I tried had higher actions that weren't even adjustable so I ruled these out.
I'm assuming Bruce's recorded Gibson in those early days would have been miked to an amp, rather than having pickups fitted (?) so I wonder if owners of these fine guitars (and others mentioned in this topic) could comment as to whether or not it's possible to reproduce that same early sound using pickups. I discovered yesterday, much to my surprise, that the built-in mike on my Mac actually produces a very acceptable sound from a strummed guitar, albeit I was playing a strat unplugged so it was very thin sounding and the pick strikes were almost as loud as the notes produced(a bit of a Doh! moment and obvious if I'd thought about it) but as long as I recorded wearing headphones and switched off the speakers to stop their output being picked up by the mike, I could get a reasonable sound, albeit not the one I wanted. I recorded some experimental vocal 6 part harmonies, though, and was taken aback by the quality of sound I was achieving using Garageband's reverbs and a bit of EQ, given the built-in mike is presumably not considered of very high quality.
I've digressed a little but maybe I don't need an electro acoustic as such, when a less expensive acoustic-only guitar could be an option, given what I'm trying to do.
As an owner of a Blonde Gibson SJ-200 I will confirm that it gives THE sound when miked up and when not miked up. With the electro acoustic guitars it's a lottery and you need to try them - as well as knowing how to set up it's EQ to achieve somewhere near the desired tone. Basically you get what you pay for, which is why I bought the Gibson - and it makes me happy. I spent many year trying and buying an assortment of acoustic guitars and ended up with the real thing. As soon as you strum that Am chord you hear it !
- looks like I'm going to have to save my pennies, then, unless I stumble across something else that will get me close to the sound I want. 
