Ableton Forum

I can play my electric through Guitar Rig no problem, but no(or negligible) input signal shows on GR level meter when I plug in either of my electro acoustics.
Please exceuse me if I'm missing something obvious, this is a new venture for me..

A pre-amp?...

Okay, if that's definitely what I need, can you point me in the right direction ?

Doesn't the Audiophile have a preamp?
I use an electro acoustic with GR through Presonus Firebox with no probs...

Flat batteries in the electro-acoustics pre-amp?

Batteries definitely not flat, in either of two guitars

I use a Presonus Tube Pre. It's cheap and sounds clean, and if I need "air" or extra harmonics, I dial up the tube gain, and get some interesting tones once I start processing. Try this with Voxengo's Boogex or Live's Saturator, and you'll get some pretty bizarre tones. There's also Puremagnetik's Rack Pack and Guitar racks that have some great presets, as well as some bizarre shit from the Covert Ops.

But the critical part here is that the input should be as good as possible. Getting the guitar to be line level is critical, so having a decent clean preamp that converts Hi-Z (guitar output) to line level, and then using a really good chord like a Magami or Monster cable, is just critical. Once you get that phat, clean sound, you can do wonders inside Live.

Right, I shall go shopping. Any more tips are more than welcome !!

malxwal wrote:Right, I shall go shopping. Any more tips are more than welcome !!

You might also look into Pod v.2 or Pocket Pod. Both are fairly cheap and sound pretty good and do bring your guitar up to Line level as well as including a lot of amp emulations.

But the cheapest way to get a nice gain is that Presonus Tube Pre.

Great, cheers. But I'm still wondering why I can use my electric, but my electro acoustics don't; is there a difference in the signal the pickups' output ? Also, the Audiophile only has stereo RCA inputs/outputs, so what's the best solution for connecting from a single jack or XLR out as is on the PreSonus ?

did you check to make sure the volume in your acoustic is turned up? also, perhaps the jack in your acoustic has gone bad

Yeah, done all the basic stuff. I have two electro acoustics, and both only register a minimal signal on GR's input meter, but I have no problem using my electric guitar....

hmm, could be that acoustic guitar pickups are low by nature...not sure...what model guitars are they and what kinds of pickups are built in?

One is a Crafter classical, inexpensive, the other is a Yamaha, which cost me £400, so reasonably good quality. I previously played all my guitars through a Yamaha FX550 FX unit without any problems. My electric is a cheap Yamaha. I'm going to get a DI box now anyway, as the sound is definitely lacking punch and tone, but I can't see why the electric should provide any more signal than an electro acoustic .

hmm interesting issue...could it be that somehow the electric quarter inch to RCA keeps the signal better than an acoustic quarter inch to rca? strange indeed. I know for me, I don't have these issues because I go through the tube pre...you can get a quarter inch to rca out of the tube pre and the signal will be nice and fat.