34 Responses to “Acoustic + Electric = One Guitar”

1. jerry Says:
   March 12th, 2007 at 6:49 am

   Hey, great idea guys…one question? How beefy is the acoustic sound with the thin body? Will it sound as good as my Alvarez Yairi?

2. brent Says:
   March 12th, 2007 at 7:45 am

   Jerry: Good question. The house gets a great acoustic sound. Very few people will be able to tell the difference. If you are a purest and analyze tones, then you will hear a small difference… mostly that it sounds a little compressed. The biggest difference I have faced is that when I play an acoustic I am use to hearing a lot of the instrument naturally. With this rig, you hear most of it via monitors and not naturally coming off the instrument. It messes with your head a little until you are use to it

3. Frank Says:
   March 13th, 2007 at 7:04 am

   Just a couple of quick questions on the POD.. Are you using the POD for something other than a preamp/amp modeling? I play for the kids over in the Celebration Zone and a setup like this would come in pretty handy. I have a Digitech GNX4 that is pretty similar to the POD, I am wondering if I could use that instead of a POD? Also I am just curious as to which model of amp you are using for the electric guitar on the video above?

4. brent Says:
   March 13th, 2007 at 11:55 am

   Frank: I am using it mainly for the amp modeling it eliminates stage volume. A bonus feature of the POD XT Live is the stomp box modeling (distortion, Delay, Phase, etc…). I use the Vox AC-30 model and love it. I see no reason at all that you could not use the Digitech GNX4 since it looks like it is an amp modeler as well.

5. Derrick Says:
   March 15th, 2007 at 8:03 pm

   Brent, great to see you doing what you love! I opened this video and thought, this guy looks really familiar…and then sure enough, there you are. The same guy that put peanut butter under his pits for a stupid youth video! Looks like you’re doing really well. Come by and holla sometime!

   Derrick Henslee

6. Jay Sellers Says:
   May 10th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

   Good job with the demo, Brent. It’s worth noting that most Strat and Les Paul style guitars can be retrofitted with piezo saddle bridges. The sound is certainly not comparable to your hollow body or my favorite Martin HD-28, but it’s a decent compromise.

   My first worship leader that I served with and learned from used a Hamer semi-hollow that even had a traditional acoustic bridge and saddle. The downside was that it used two cables. It was always crazy to see him whip out a mind-bending Van Halen style solo and then go straight into a smooth ballad without changing guitars. At the time (late 90’s), he used a Fender Twin Reverb with the electric and a Crate acoustic amp for the piezo.

7. Mike D Says:
   July 17th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

   That’s pretty nice. I just use a Carvin AE 185. It’s a semi hollow body electric, but the bridge is an actual acoustic bridge. It has two outputs. One for electric, the other for acoustic. I just electric into an amp, then the acoustic through an acoustic pre-amp. You can check it out on carvin.com. It actually doesn’t sound that great online, but going to the system I doubt anyone can tell the difference.

8. Matthew Says:
   August 30th, 2007 at 9:03 am

   Very interesting video, I have not seen that particular setup like that. I pretty much though the only way to get close was the newish Taylor T5. I would like to check one of those out. Have you managed to test one? Love the videos please keep them up!

9. Temo Says:
   September 8th, 2007 at 11:31 am

   Great job on the video, and it is a awsome idea, since our youth worship team only has 1 electric guitar and the slow songs need an acoustic guitar, this would let us have 2 electrics in praise and an acoustic during worship!! I just have a question about the y cable, where did you buy it and what is the brand name? I can seem to find a cable like the one you are using! if you could let me know what website or store i can buy from it would be really great!!! Thanks for the blessing!!

10. brent Says:
    September 9th, 2007 at 10:57 am

    Here is a link:
    http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Horizon-HYSP-14-Inch-Insert-Cable?sku=336120

    Make sure you have more than one on hand because if you loose it, or if it gets a short you do not have a backup.

    Since then, I have had a custom box built that takes a stereo (TRS… tip ring sleeve ) 1/4 and splits the signal in the box. This box only cost me $40. The reason is because it is difficult to find a y cable like this without special order, but everyplace has a TRS cable. So I just split the signal at the box.

11. Rob Says:
    September 17th, 2007 at 12:17 am

    Nice guitar!

    Another option worth checking out is the Godin LGX which i’ve been using for a few years now which is a solid body guitar of a simlar setup except it has a blend control & EQ on the guitar and 3 outputs (Acousitc, Blend, Electric) so you can do the switching on guitar, or use a Y lead to do the switching elsewhere. The other defining diference is that it has 6 Piezo pickups (one for each string in the saddles) which results in a very nice acoustic sound.

12. Duncan Says:
    September 18th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

    Hey guys, love the video, great idea and as I need to get a new guitar I think I’m going to go down this route. One thing though, I live in New Zealand and none of my local guitar shops have a Schecter. How would it compare to the Godin Solidac or the Godin xtsa?

    I would use the acoustic tone probably 70% of the time so that is the most important for me (but the 30% of electric is so important which is why I don’t want to go for a straight acoustic).

    Thanks, Duncan

13. brent Says:
    September 19th, 2007 at 6:56 am

    I am not familiar with Godin Guitars but I went to the website and it looks like the Solidac would work very similar to the Schecter. The only difference I see is that you would use two 1/4″ cables instead of a y cable

    In one of the above comments Rob says that the Godin LGX works well and has a great acoustic tone.

14. Stephen Canfield Says:
    October 24th, 2007 at 2:45 pm

    What strings are you using? Does that affect the acoustic sound?

15. dan Says:
    October 24th, 2007 at 7:41 pm

    hey, is it possible for you to send me your podxtl patchess??

    -thanks

16. WorshipCity Says:
    October 25th, 2007 at 9:19 pm

    Have ya’ll checked out any of the Anderson guitars?!?!?!
    I’m also curious to the strings. I’m assuming they’re electric.

17. brent Says:
    October 26th, 2007 at 6:05 am

    @stephen: I do use use electric strings. I am currently using D’Addario 11s. The reason I choose to use the higher gauge string is that it makes the touch a hybrid between the easy touch electric and the harder touch of an acoustic. Also, my hypothesis was that if I had really slinky electric strings that I would get a sub-par acoustic sound….. I have never put lighter gauge than 11s on it so I don’t know if that is true in reality.

    @Dan: I don’t know how to send the patches, but I can tell you that I use the Vox-AC30 patch, and If you want, I would be happy to send you how I have that amp dialed in. Let me know.

    @WOrship City: I have not checked out the Anderson guitar. Has anybody else?

18. dan Says:
    October 26th, 2007 at 11:57 am

    hey, im interested

    thanks

19. dan Says:
    November 5th, 2007 at 3:11 pm

    hey thanks for the patch!

20. Edmund Says:
    November 13th, 2007 at 2:23 am

    hey i am quite new here….not very experience …. here’s my question
    i wonder if i could use other hollow body on market to replace the guitar u use on the video??
    sorry if its a lame question

21. worship trench » Blog Archive » Top 10 Popular Posts on the Trench Says:
    November 25th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

    [...] 1. Acoustic + Electric = 1 Guitar (w/ youtube video) [...]

22. brent Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 6:40 am

    @Edmund: Not a lame question. The reason that this system works is because it has the regular electric pickups and also a piezo pickup in it. The piezo pickup is what makes it sound like an acoustic guitar. So if you could find another hollow body with a piezo it would work.

23. David Says:
    January 17th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

    I have a Yamaha SA500. I also have a couple of nice accoustic guitars and about 15 sets of accoustic strings, bought in a closing down sale. Can i use accoustic strings on my SA 500?

24. Brent Says:
    January 18th, 2008 at 6:32 am

    David: I would not use the acoustic strings on the SA500. If you are desperate I guess you could, but it certainly would not be my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th choice.

25. Emann Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    For the PODxt owners….just so you know you can go to this web site:

    http://www.line6.com/customtone/

    and select the PODxt model you have and download or upload patches for your POD.

    @brent - so if you wanted to share your patches or test out some new ones, that is a great way to do it. It really is a great help for those who are not too familiar with all the things that the POD can emulate.

    Just thought you would like to know.

26. Javier Says:
    May 2nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    hey could you list the ALL the items that was on the video?

27. Javier Says:
    May 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm

    oh and do i have to get that guitar specifically? Because I was thinking of a cheaper different guitar.

28. Brent Says:
    May 5th, 2008 at 5:31 am

    Javier, all the items I use are in the pdf file that is in the post. However, now instead of using the ernie ball 6165 into the POD XT Live into the 2 DIs, I now use the new POD X3 Live. It can take two inputs and has two XLR outputs. I just switch patches. It takes up a lot less room and everything is in one pedal. Plus it has preamps that you can run your acoustic through.

    As Far as the guitar, As long it is a hybrid and has electric and acoustic pickups and has a TRS out that runs one signal down the tip and the other down the ring, you should be fine. There are several guitars that do this, some are mentioned in the previous comments. I know the schecter works

29. temo Says:
    June 9th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    Hey, i read how you were able to just use the POD X3L instead of 2 input boxes can that be done with a POD XT Live?
    and 1 more thing what about an AB switch instead of the 2 inout boxes, would that work still using a y cable?

30. worship trench » Blog Archive » Our Top 10 WT Posts of “All Time” Says:
    June 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 am

    [...] 2. Acoustic + Electric = One Guitar [...]

31. Javier Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    Hey me again so where did u buy the schcter c-1 e/a guitar because i want to see the guitar in real life not buy it off ebay or online. If u know any stores by chicago can u tell me? If not is it ok if i use the “Michael Kelly Hybrid Special” and still get the acoustic and electric?

32. brent Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    Apparently Schecter stopped making the guitar. The only place you will find it is on ebay or if you get lucky used at a guitar shop… Sorry

    It looks like the “Michael Kelly Hybrid Special” will work. But I would call them and just make sure that when the selector switch in the middle “blend” that it is sending two signals. That way you can use a TRS and isolate the acoustic and the electric.

33. Dennis Rockhill USA Says:
    September 20th, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    I have this guitar, except it has 2 inputs, one for the electric, one for the acoustic. I think it’s an older year, but the same model number. Would I use the same cable, but in reverse? Another words the “Y” of the cable would go into my guitar?

    Thanks,
    Dennis

34. Brent Minter Says:
    September 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am

    Dennis. You are correct the schecter with 2 plugs is the previous model to my guitar. And you are also correct that if you reverse the cable it should work for you.

    Good luck