Suggestions to fatten up acoustic git lead lines?

    What effects and/or Eq would you guys suggest to fatten up busy, high on the neck, acoustic guitar lead lines? We're doing a few acoustic shows with our bass player playing a second acoustic guitar to fill the sound out and I'm having a problem in one particular guitar lead.

    The first half has lots of open string ringing and sounds great, the second half is lots of single notes high up the neck (15th fret and above). The lead guitar just seems to dissapear during that section, getting engulfed by the lightly strummed second guitars open chords, and the song just slumps.


    Would it be EQ and volume only? or is there some kind of delay tricks I could do to beef it up? I'm thinking I'll make a new profile and activate that half way through the solo, but I'm not sure how to beef that new profile up.


    I'm using one of the KPA factory Acoustic profiles ("Acoustic B" I believe) and love the sound, right up until the "widdly" parts. :huh:


    Thanks!

    Hard to say without hearing. It may just need a volume boost, and eq if you don't like the boosted sound. Some midrange helps notes come through. The pitches up there are around 1 kHz, but you may add further down for a warmer sound. Or remove top end. Maybe compression. Some reverb, and maybe delay, to give length to the notes.

    Quote from greenblob

    The first half has lots of open string ringing and sounds great, the second half is lots of single notes high up the neck (15th fret and above).


    I can imagine that the tone becomes thin in that position.
    What string thickness do you use.
    If they are thicker the tone has more power also in higher position, but playing becomes more uncomfortable. ( I use 0.12 , but do not play normally in this high position)


    Compressor helps . Mids helps but the tone can become unnatural, if there are too much. Increase also Treble in a certain range if you have more Mids.
    Overtones makes the acoustic sounding - maybe it is not so good cut to much high frequencies .
    One plan for my acoustic is to try with the formant function, but till now I have not done. Maybe it helps.
    It could be, that the Settings do not fit for the Guitar in the deep as well in the high position.
    Hope it helps more than it confuses :whistling:

    Thanks for the suggestions.


    Had a tinker lastnight and made a new profile just for the secod half of the lead.


    A combination of boosting the mids and highs helped for sure (did lose a bit of its "acoustic" character though), but the biggest improvement was the compression parameter in the amplifier section. Greatly improved the thin sounding notes without losing the snap. Added a touch of delay to make the tone/profile change sound more intentional for the second half of the lead. You know, If you can't hide it, emphasize it. Lol.


    I like it!


    Honestly, I'd never touched that setting in any profile, but it helped a great deal for what I was trying to do here.


    All good info. I'm sure it will come in handy again.


    Thanks!

    Good stuff - I will have to check those out. FWIW, I just test drove the acoustic preamp profiles in M. Britt's BoC pack and they sound great through my Tech 21 - all the way up the neck.

    Quote from flyingheelhook

    FWIW, I just test drove the acoustic preamp profiles in M. Britt's BoC pack and they sound great through my Tech 21 - all the way up the neck.


    Yeah, I was going to pick that pack up mostly to check out the acoustic preamp profiles. Lots of other good stuff in there too obviously :)


    I think I know how I'm spending my Saturday morning.

    I've recently been trying to find a good acoustic profile, too. I haven't had much luck with the Acoustic profiles that come with the KPA - for use with my pickup; they either sound like too much piezo, or muddied, no matter how much I dial in the crossover function.


    I've been trying out the clean channel profiles and even Bass rigs with my acoustic. If someone has a great acoustic profile recommendation, I would really appreciate it.

    Kemper Powerhead w/remote & Kabinet
    Focusrite 18i8 (2nd Gen) - Windows 10 - Ableton Live - Yamaha HS-8's - DT770 80 ohms

    Already searched the RE? I came across a few as of lately.
    Also, Soundside has profiled some acoustic guitar bodies in one of his packs.
    The latest acoustic pack I remember is by Rigbusters (a few months ago?)


    :)

    Quote from JSB

    If someone has a great acoustic profile recommendation, I would really appreciate it.


    Well the highest Influence for a good acoustic sound has the Guitar itself.
    Here a some Rigs I have collected in my RM.
    Non of them can make a Guit with Piezzo sound like a Guitar with a mic. But there are are good ones wich are very usefull. Rigbuster and Soundside are commercial.