My band are an alt rock band, and my guitar playing is mostly about single notes, double stops, whole swathes of playing nothing at all (I'm lazy) and the usual trope of electric guitar related shenanigans - feedback, echo etc. Our singer mostly runs around screaming and shouting and hanging off the ceiling.
As such, what I do doesn't really translate to acoustic guitar, and what the band does naturally doesn't, either. It's basically a different thing altogether that requires a different approach.
So when it comes to acoustic gigs, I think of them as something else and come at them from a different perspective. Sometimes they're great fun - the intimacy, and re-working songs in a different light.
I think the one coming up this weekend might not be. It's on a big stage, and there's a full drum kit, bass rig... and an acoustic amp for me to plug into. So the bassist, drummer and vocalist are going to be working on the exact stuff they usually use, and will perform in exactly the same way. And I'll be standing there trying to translate my parts for a different, much weedier instrument. It's going to feel like I've brought a packet of microwave noodles to a gun fight.
And the absolute crowning glory of the whole thing is that we were supposed to get an early afternoon time to avoid a clash with a pre-existing plan, the band member liaising with the gig organisers didn't bother to say that, then after a month of cajoling he finally got in touch with them and said we need to have an earlier time... because I'm flying to Italy that night.
I'm not fucking flying to Italy. We've got a gig the next day. Absolutely retarded. And I'm gonna be the one being asked by the organiser where I'm flying from, what I'm doing out there... what a crock.
Comments
Just take an electric, some effects and a DI with speaker emulation. The whack a bit of treble off the acoustic amp and it should sound kind of palatable
Doing it in the ahem planned circumstances will make you look bad.
This has holes in it. Maybe something like this
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
And you need to put a Ferrari sticker on the acoustic
Look Yngwie in Denmark Street up on YouTube. I'm the one to his right and was close enough to see both scalloped frets and Ferrari sticker at the same time.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
On a personal note - gigging once in a band with me and another guitarist. He broke a string two songs from the end. I hand him my Strat - we had no back up electrics for some reason - and I'm playing an electro acoustic playing into a Marshall. Sounded fine overdriven (and some great feedback if I turned around!)
Use some sort of multi-FX or pedal with amp simulation into the acoustic amp, but be careful - a lot of them don't like sustained electric-guitar type sounds even with that. If you don't have anything like that, just play clean and hope for the best… it will still be a lot easier than playing an acoustic, for that sort of style.
If anyone asks about Italy, just say "I'm not going to Italy. Who told you that?"
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
No particular issue with additional T&S costs, mind.
The reasons why I had to do it was:
1. All monetary requirements were meant, no reason not to..
2. When the f_ck will I ever again get the chance to gig in Cali all expenses paid for?
3. It's not one you can dep out easily; Many would take it but you'd need the rest of the band to be ok spending days away with a diff. person.
I didn't want to do it because it was the day I'm getting married..
For good or bad, my wish came through and I won't do it..