Acoustic into PA?

[Bach-n-Roll]

First, let me say hello to all the members here. I have been browsing the site and am impressed with the collective knowledge here. Rock-on.

 

My question:

 

I want to run my acoustic (Carvin w/ Fishman PU) into a PA, is it advisable to run it through some kind of pedal/preamp first?

 

I am just recently getting into taking my acoustic into the electric realm, and am getting a great deal on a Carvin 8ch 200W PA system. I have never ran an acoustic through a PA before so any help, suggestions, or general information would be much appreciated.

 

Also, do electric guitar effect pedals work with acoustic, or are there dedicated pedals?

 

My goal is to have the cleanest, non-distorted sound possible.

 

Thanks.

[daklander]

You will do fine with what you have, running direct and adjusting EQ as needed on the channel you input the guitar feed into. An outboard pre-amp can, and usually does, make things better but not always.

Run what you brung and if you like it, stay with it. If not, add a good outboard pre-amp.

I run a Fishman Rare Earth into my old Carvin CX630 with very nice results. The sound is not as good with the guitar I have a Sweet Spot installed in. That is helped by a pre-amp.

[CA1977]

It'll sound great through a PA. In college I plugged my C980MW into the school pub's PA system during open mic night and it was really cool

[steve_man]

I run my Carvin Cobalt C850T into my Carvin PA1200 all the time with no preamp other than the one on the guitar. I used to use an acoustic pre-amp pedal with my old guitar, but the Cobalt does not need it. The Fishman does a great job.

[GrandStation76]

First, let me say hello to all the members here. I have been browsing the site and am impressed with the collective knowledge here. Rock-on.

 

My question:

 

I want to run my acoustic (Carvin w/ Fishman PU) into a PA, is it advisable to run it through some kind of pedal/preamp first?

 

QUOTE]

Welcome Bach:wave: P.A. will sound great, you could always use the added flexibility of something like the L.R. Baggs para D.I. or even the less expensive Gig Pro(or something similar,if you don't have on board controls) when your playing and want easy access to a ton of tone shaping featuresvolume adjustment, without having to go back to the P.A. in the middle of a song to adjust such things.

[ToBeAnnounced]

I've run my Yamaha APX directly into a Mackie powered PA with no problems. When I use that guitar with my Yamaha powered PA head using the 'line level' input and setting, I found that I had to really crank the gain on the PA to get a decent volume level.

I tried using the 'mic' level PA setting, and the volume increased greatly, but with slight distortion no matter how I adjusted the guitar or PA settings.

Yamaha support suggested using a DI box - and that fixed everything. (Mine is an old Whirlwind model.) It's all about matching the impedence.

[Terry Allan Hall]

I'd get an active DI, as a hi-Z cable causes signal degradation once you get one over about 15 feet...not a problem in small gigs, but if you ever play larger places/festivals/etc., you'll need one then, as a DI allows you to connect to the mixer via a lo-Z cable.

The Baggs PADI is great, but as your Cobalt has a pre-amp already, you can get by fine w/ a Countryman or similar...just make sure it's active, as many passive DIs suck tone.