Chasing the impossible: distortion on an acoustic without howl

[Snags]

I'm currently bandless and lazy, so tend to write on acoustic and never get round to working up full songs (drums, bass, keys etc.) which means when performing live I usually just stick to the acoustic. Occasionally I'll Billy Bragg it with just me and an electric, but the more electric focused songs are a bit empty without a full band.

Some of them, however, do work on an acoustic, solo, but could do with just a wee bit of grit to give them the right colour. So for the ultimate lazy git approach I'm wondering about stuffing some kind of dirt pedal on the acoustic board.

However, previous experiments have just resulted in an inevitable screaming howl of feedback, often even with the strings muted. And yet I've seen people do this successfully.

So what's the secret? I'm developing a theory that going for fuzz or distortion rather than overdrive might help, but only have a limited number of pedals to play with, most of which are essentially various flavours of overdrive.

Or is the secret to just not care about the feedback and go for it anyway? It's all rock and roll, right?

 

[TJontheRoad]

soundhole cover

 

[Cirrus]

Depends on the nature of the pickup in the guitar - if it's a mic, will be very hard to avoid feedback because even if you totally braced every part of the body and stop the strings moving, it's just a mic and it can hear the speakers. Feedback. If it's a piezo, that basically turns the bridge into a mic.

You want a magnetic pickup that just detects the movement of the metal strings, then you can avoid feedback inasmuch as you can keep the strings from moving.

 

[Snags]

One of them is a mic/piezo combo, that can be blended (Matrix Blend, in fact) but I normally have it almost entirely piezo with just a hint of the mic for warmth as otherwise it's a bastard plugged in full stop. The other is piezo only.

Would a soundhole cover make a difference for a piezo-based beastie? I can feel some DIY bodge experimentation coming on.

 

[FuzzyAce]

In a pinch, stuffing some fabric or towel in there can help. just watch out for wiring.

 

[DrewJD82]

I dunno how he did it, but Zakk Wylde managed to plug into his damn pedalboard and then proceeded to bore the shit out of me by wailing on his acoustic as if it were an electric until I got so sick of it I left.

 

[Cirrus]

Soundhole plug fixing piezo feedback? It depends where the feedback's coming from. If it's the strings, yeah. If it's the guitar's top, maybe. If it's the bridge itself, probably not. The issue is that the Piezo is still, essentially, an acoustic microphone; it generates signal based on the vibrations coming through the bridge, so if the bridge can resonate it'll feed back.

But it could be fine - you just need to work out where the problem is. But it'd probably be easier just to get a magnetic pickup and have the most gain before feedback you can get.

 

[Snags]

@DrewJD82 I could bore the shit out of you and make you leave much more quickly than that. Even without the distortion.

 

[0XI0]

mechanical distortion on the instrument