Newbie Question: Mic Setup and Acoustic Amps

[Loofah]

I am new to this forum and am pretty excited as I have a brand new LV-03R on order which should arrive next week from Jason at Notable Guitars.

I went with a non-pickup model in that I intend to mainly use this guitar around the house and for home recording but may want to play i out some. I am not really interested in installing new electronics, but the K & K pure western looks good.

I currently play a ton on electric and plug my Heritage H-150 (Les Paul) directly into my presonus firebox interface into my Mac iBook for recording. I also have a couple of mics: a beyer M88TG  and an Audio Technica AT 3035 which I mainly use for vocals and in front of my Fender Princeton amp.

My question is about a setup for acoustic guitar. Obviouly I can mic it at home into the firebox for recording, but what are my options for playing out amplified?

Can I setup the mic into a mixer or a preamp and then into an acoustic amp? Do any acoustic amps accept mics directly (with phantom power)? I see some acoustic amps are capable of handling both vocals and guitars, but does that mean one mic for vocals and then direct in (through on-board electronics?) with the guitar? Basically I want to know if there are acoustic amps that can handle two miced inputs? I am pretty sure I could use a mixer with preamps to send a signl to a PA, but I want an all-in-one acoustic amp. I was looking at something like the SWR Strawberry Blond, but they don't mention their inputs. The AT3035 is pretty sensitive, should I worry about feedback? The wattage on the acoustic amps I see seem pretty high--I guess that is so they have a ton of headroom.

Sorry for the length of my first post, but thanks for any input. 

[expatCanuck]

> Do any acoustic amps accept mics directly (with phantom power)?

My Ultrasound DS-4 provides phantom power to the mics.  Two inputs.  I've alternately fed it two mic signals (XLR) or one mic and my iMix-equipped guitar (whatever the jack is called -- the 2.5" monophonic thing, about 1/4" thick).

It's ability to handle two mics, as well as its relatively accurate sound reproduction, is why I purchased it.

- Richard

[parsky1]

Acoustic amps... usually have to be higher wattage because they aren't nearly as loud as electric amps.  Especially if you are comparing it to a tube amp.  My electric amp even at 50 watts  totally drowns out a 60watt acoustic amp.

[maxferry]

About the only thing you can predict about using an open mic on stage for live playing is that it will feed back, especially considering that anything sensitive enough to do justice to an acoustic guitar is also going to be sensitive enough to pick up all kinds of reflections and stray frequencies. Internally mounted consensers are marginally better in this regard, but still problematic.

Most dual source set-ups have some type of preamp designed for blending the signals prior to seeing any input. I have a external Fishman Pocket Blender for my Taylor 412K, which blends the UST with an intenally mounted Crown lavalier condenser; I set the level with the UST and then blend in just enough condenser to add some air to the sound...any more than that and it feeds back.

The good news is that there are some great pickups out there that are very easy to control and sound fantastic; the K&K PWM is one the best and simplest; it's a passive pup, but generates a very high output and sometimes doesn't even need a preamp. If the K&K PWM had been available 7 years ago I would have installed it on my Taylor instead of the $400 Prefix system; the K&K sounds better, cost only 89 bucks and was easy to install with no modifications to the guitar or the saddle.

I use a small Behringer mixer as a submixer for the 2 axes I use on stage; these have very clean and quiet mic preamps on their mono channels. I run the K&K equpped L03 into one channel with a nominal amount of gain from the preamp, run the output of the Fishman Pocket Blender/Taylor through another channel. This also allows me to blend in FX, compression, or whatever through the 2 Aux buses, and then the outputs can be routed...a stereo output into the mains through a stage box and the stereo monitor signal to an onstage amp/speakers for monitoring.

[expatCanuck]

A lot of folks here swear by K&K pickups, and I have no doubt it works for them.
My experience was not good - quacky & feedback prone.
I'm very happy with my iMix (as are the open mic sound guys).

- Richard