Question from an amateur about acoustic guitar during live performance

[daryle]

Good day to everyone from soft

I played a show yesterday at some cafe. It was the typical acoustic guitar and one singer lineup.



But i faced some problems:

When i used my guitar's pickup, it didn't sound good at all. It was passable for the duration of the performance, but i really hoped for the audience to be able to hear more than just the sound of six strings being blandly amplified.

When i tried micing it using the mics provided to us, i was unable to get useable volume out of it without feedback. I think it was an SM58. The highest i could go on the mixer without feedback was 75% of the total possible volume.

I was also forced to point the mic at around the 15th fret because everytime i pointed it closer to the soundhole, i could hear feedback creeping in too.

When miced, the audience could not hear me clearly. When plugged in, i didn't like the sound at all.



Here are my questions:

Does the problem lie with the mic? Or is it just that the venue is too small for me to carry out micing the acoustic without getting feedback?

If i use a different mic, say a condenser, would it go louder with lesser chances of feedback?

Apart from moving further away or behind the speakers and monitors, what are the other ways i can mic an acoustic guitar, amplify it enough so that the audience can hear clearly, and reduce the chances of getting feedback?

 

[lester_music]

get a sound hole cover...

 

[kongwee]

For live, usually through pickup and EQ it.Of cos, must get DI box.

 

[Forlon]

get a sound hole cover...

Exactly, that really helps a lot

 

[exin]

Feedback is caused by the sound of the room. This simple goes to show that either

1. The live sound engineer didn't ring out the room thus causing feedback to happen

2. There's not enough juice going into the system (meaning gain structure) thus causing you to crank up the gain too high, thus resulting in feedback.

3. Your playing technique. Either you are playing too softly or your guitar isn't producing enough volume

4. Bad microphone technique/placement.

Putting the microphone at the sound hole and getting feedback sounds like a feedback at the lower registers. I can almost imagine the sound of the room now from that.

Anyway, I hope that helps. If the engineer didn't ring out the room, you just have to deal with it cos he didn't do his job properly. Either get a D.I. into the system or like what the other says, sound hole cover.