FX pedal for acoustic

hello there!

sorry if this allready being asked.

but what is a good FX pedal for acoustic guitar?

thank you!

I pack a delay and chorus pedals for those times I have to cover a Saturday night with just me on acoustic. (A tuner, too, though these days I've switched to the Snark and leave the pedal in the bag. Plus, a lot of new A/E guitars have them built in.)

Don't do it!!! :)

This is all IMHO but you would be better off investing in the best pick up possible for your acoustic than effects. I use a K&K trinity dual source for my Martin, but the LR Baggs one, and the fishman are good too.

Listen to a record and you'll hear a clean acoustic signal 9 out of 10 times. And NO ONE uses Chorus any more outside of church and heavy metal ;)

That being said, if you are going to then reverb, delay or tremolo. Neil Young's LeNoise record has so great ideas for reverb on acoustic.

Let your sound guy put in effects - that's why sound guys have effects.

if you really have to, maybe a compressor and/or EQ

Not to sound - snobbish...

But acoustics have such a beautiful sound, full of primary and harmonic content that pedals generally cannot do justice with, especially if your guitar is a mid-higher end instrument.

Compressors can cost $50...decent compressors that don't mess with an acoustic's sonic characteristics are far more expensive! Same with EQ. These items in a stage amp cost a several hundred, in a good PA mixer many hundreds per channel, and in a hi end stage set up a thousand per channel - in a hardware based recording setup, several thousand PER CHANNEL!

For a reason.

Just my opinion, but unless you can add these things in a manner that actually improves on the fundamental characteristic of the guitar's natural tone, then one should not put these things in. Otherwise, you are just damaging the acoustic part of acoustic and might as well be playing an electric...

Just my opinion

Not to sound - snobbish... not sure if this was directed at me since I suggested a comp/eq. if so, I guess I have some explaining to do on why I suggested those.

like you said, acoustic guitar has a beautiful sound so why bother with effects. well, first, the OP asked and second, to achieve a different sound/tone that the beautiful acoustic may not be able to produce. surely, an acoustic guitar is not just for strumming open-chords. it has many different applications that sometimes needs a different tone/feel. in a recording studio or a big production, sure, no need for pedals since you got professionals manning the consoles. but I think in a small setting, you need to be able to control that yourself.

for example, if I'm strumming heavily, I can run an EQ to cut some mids and maybe push more "jangle". and when it's time to finger-pick, I can add a compressor. yeah, some of these can be somewhat remedied by different hand techniques. but where's the fun in that ... much like this post, it may seem useless to some but, where's the fun in not asking :razz:

oh, and just to add, by running a pick-up or putting a mic in front, that beautiful acoustic sound is already altered. funny thing is when David Gilmour ran his acoustic thru an OD, he was applauded for being a genius.

Wasn't directed at anyone...sorry for any misunderstanding.

I just was suggesting that an acoustic is what it is, and IMO should be maximized as such. I've used some comp and EQ live on acoustic, but it was some pretty esoteric stuff (highly modified Mindprint channel strip, or API 512 pre/550A EQ/Urei LA4 limiter)...

Best pickups do their darnedest to sound like a good mic, again my opinion. Some can get pretty close. I don't know anyone who applauded Gilmore for that (that I know of), but hey - it's all about different ways to swing a cat, so...

The OP asked for an opinion and I gave him mine

For years I used a Boss CE5, then realised I preferred the natural sound of my guitar as much as possible so now I use... a tuner pedal!

There was one occasion last year when I used my DD20 delay - that was a week when we were doing an acoustic set with just two guitars and piano, and I played something closer to lead guitar than my normal style just to separate the sound from the other acoustic.