Jimi Ray Halen

[jjpistols]

I noticed in your sig you have a Wechter Pathmaker - can you tell me about it?

 

(it has a pickup, so this is on topic;) )

[Jimi Ray Halen]

Glad to.
If you need an acoustic for live use then this is the one.
Three pickups:
under saddle piezo
sc pickup
mic in the soundhole
You can use any combo of the three or just one. So you can get a decent sc tone out of it by pushing a slider. Or go all piezo for true acoustic. I use just a little bit of the mic to add a little bass.
I have the Lacewood model which is beautiful and lightweight.
The double cutaway gets people's attention because they've never seen one before. I've had everyone from a soundman to a bar owner to a bar patron come up to see it up close.
The tone is outstanding unplugged also. Very distinctive from other acoustics.
The neck is slim tapered and easy to play (for an acoustic) with easy access all the way up. Body joins the neck at the 19th fret.
It has tortoise shell and abalone binding all the way around the body.
The neck is bound.
I've used it to record with and I like it better than my bass player's expensive Takamine. (Don't tell him )
It stays in tune very well. All in all it's a great bargain.
This is the one I have.
3135 Lacewood
I play it all the time and it's holding up very well so far. I'm one of those guys who practices a lot on acoustic to make me better on electric.

[Sparky6string]

Wow...

[jjpistols]

Yeah - I've been kinda interested in one for awhile - I don't have an acoustic right now. The last one I had was an amazing 1949 Gretsch with DeArmond-Rowe pickup. I'm sure I'll have trouble replacing that with another vintage peice, so I started looking for something different. This seems different. Since I'm mostly an electric player, this seems a wise choice. Of course, I can't find them anywhere, but I wouldn't have the $$ if I did, anyway.

With the SC, does it get a decent "electric" sound, maybe somewhat like an old hollowbody? That old Gretsch was an electric blues dream.

[Jimi Ray Halen]

Yeah, the sc is designed to sound like a jazzbox. I've even starting to use it on acoustic gigs to get a slightly dirty electric tone for leads as I get used to switching back and forth while changing the channel on my Zoom 502. Shocked the {censored} out of the lead singer first time I did that.

They ship it with .12-.56s. I went up a gage to .14-.58s. More tone and I downtune a lot.

[jjpistols]

So how do you run your stage rig? Is feedback any more/less of an issue than with any acoustic?

[Sparky6string]

I'm definitely going to check one of these out. They seem really versatile, like a Turner. Those acoustics with a tube in them are pretty cool too though.

[Jimi Ray Halen]

If I play with the full band I back off the sc and mic and mostly use the piezo.

If I am doing an acoustic gig I use all three. At lower volume it's easier to mix the three together without getting feedback.

Either way I run it thru my Zoom 502 and a Presonus Tubepre which is a tube preamp and into the PA. Sounds sweet!

Incidentily, I use a Tubepre in front of my Flextone III also. I know, blasphemy! A tube preamp with a digital modeller! What will they think of next?