Advice for solos in an acoustic set

pharmd07

pharmd07

Experienced
Hi all. I'm hoping to draw on the collected experience here for some advice.

So I recently starting playing with a phenomenal singer who plays for another band. She does a bunch of shows, and I'm kind of her backup guitarist for when the band can't play a show. So when we play, it's just me on acoustic guitar and her on vocals...that's it.

So a lot of the songs she wants to play are songs that she plays with her band. These are songs that have a ton of guitar solos in them, ya know, the long Lynyrd Skynyrd kind of stuff, or songs that have well known solos in them that are almost always played on an electric guitar with a full band in the original recording. I'm finding this quite awkward for our setup. In these songs I'm playing chords, then suddenly I'm having to stop playing chords and then start playing solos...long solos. If it was just a couple bars, it wouldn't be that big of a problem, but I feel like this is just totally losing the momentum of the song. In my experience, I don't see acoustic guitarists doing this when they are the only guitarist.

Am I alone in this or do you guys have to do this too?

Thanks!
 
Instead of pauses between your solo runs, you can try to work in some reference chords/intervals at just the right spots. :p

That will give the audience (and your singer) the reference framework they need to understand where you are in the tune. :pride:

Jazz, blues and fusion guitarists do this a lot and it can work just as well for other genres as well (doesn't sound like you have much of a choice anyway). :|

Whatever you decide to do just comfortably work it into your current playing ability so you do not, as you say, lose the momentum of the song. :encouragement:
 
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I do some sets like that and I just nuke the solos, or do a short edited version. Works.
 
Use the Axe-Fx looper for long solos. Might want to start with a quick "kick/snare" loop, loop the chords and then bang away on the solo. Kill the loop when she comes back in, and the audience will love it...opposite of a downer.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I'd like to edit the solos out of the songs, but for some of the songs, this would mean cutting out about 80% of the song. I think we just need to remove those songs from the setlist and choose songs that don't rely on guitar solos.

I've never used my Axe Fx live with my acoustic. I need to try the looper, and maybe it would solve some of my problems.

I'm hoping I can come up with some viable options. I've been out of the music scene for quite some time now and this is my opportunity to get out and play again. It's very different being the only guitarist and instrumentalist on stage. I'm used to playing with a full band. I want to make sure my playing serves the songs.
 
if you're soloing over a chord sequence that's happening earlier in the song, then you can record the chords you'll be soloing over with a looper and kick on the loop when it's time to solo. it should give you a fairly seamless transition. if the axe looper is too fiddly to do this with, or it doesn't have enough loop time to capture the whole sequence, then just buy one of those little boss rc-2's and you'll be good to go. keep the solos down to 8 or 16 bars...maybe just learn the first few notes of the written solo and improvise the rest, so you're making a nod to the original and the audience won't expect to hear the whole thing, if they're familiar with the material.
 
What I do is, try to play riffs off of big block chords. Figure out how to play the main solo riffs while you are holding a big barre chord.

That way I strum the lower strings to get a kind of chord thing going and then riff on the high strings and let everything ring.

A big fat delay can also help for single notes. With a big delay ringing out, it helps keep the energy going.

Also, if she can play shaker or tambourine, it really helps too.
 
Thanks again for the suggestions. I was hoping I could just do these shows with just my guitar in hand, but it looks like I'll need the trusty Axe Fx to get me through. Since I'm working for free, I'm not going to buy more equipment.

Do you guys know if I can control the looper ok with a Ground Control Pro? I've never tried the looper before.
 
pharmd07 said:
Thanks again for the suggestions. I was hoping I could just do these shows with just my guitar in hand...
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I'm very surprised you haven't considered the axe-fx for this gig. Your acoustic will sound better and be more versatile using the axe-fx than anything else out there -- better signal chain and effects, more control over acoustic feedback, more tools to shape a killer tone, and then you have the looper and tuner. Now that I wrote that, I'm even more surprised you didn't consider the axe-fx!

Read the manual for your footswitch and see if it sends CCs. If so, you're good to go, just go to i/o on axe-fx > ctrl tab > and scroll down to see the CC numbers for controlling the looper. Assign CCs for rec, play/stop and stack(overdub) to the switches you want to use, and you're up and running with basic looper controls (undo is a good one to add). Once you have chords backing up your solos, the ability to change your tone/volume for a solo, and all the other axe-fx goodies for your acoustic, you'll be wondering why you didn't think of it from day one.
 
solo-act said:
I'm very surprised you haven't considered the axe-fx for this gig. Your acoustic will sound better and be more versatile using the axe-fx than anything else out there -- better signal chain and effects, more control over acoustic feedback, more tools to shape a killer tone, and then you have the looper and tuner. Now that I wrote that, I'm even more surprised you didn't consider the axe-fx!

Read the manual for your footswitch and see if it sends CCs. If so, you're good to go, just go to i/o on axe-fx > ctrl tab > and scroll down to see the CC numbers for controlling the looper. Assign CCs for rec, play/stop and stack(overdub) to the switches you want to use, and you're up and running with basic looper controls (undo is a good one to add). Once you have chords backing up your solos, the ability to change your tone/volume for a solo, and all the other axe-fx goodies for your acoustic, you'll be wondering why you didn't think of it from day one.
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I have considered it, but I don't have a FRFR system yet. I was on the CLR list, but then I realized that I just can't justify $1000 purchase for a speaker, no matter how good it sounds (and my wife will murder me if I buy one). I'm hoping to get a Xitone setup here soon, but I have some other musical purchases that I need to pay off first.

As much as I want to use the Axe Fx at the show, I have no way to rehearse with it since I don't currently have a FRFR setup. Kind of a bummer.

Anyway, it looks like I shouldn't have any problems setting up the looper with my Ground Control Pro.

Guys, I really appreciate all your advice. It's immensely helpful!
 
pharmd07 said:
I have considered it, but I don't have a FRFR system yet...As much as I want to use the Axe Fx at the show, I have no way to rehearse with it since I don't currently have a FRFR setup. Kind of a bummer.
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OK I'll bite...you're performing with a vocalist in a duo without an FRFR system?
 
The Axe might be overkill for this gig.

I kinda dig small acoustic gigs where you just bring a guitar and no rig.

But the Axe can work just like a DI (with obviously so much more available in the DI signal). So you don't need an FRFR rig to use the Axe on an acoustic gig.
 
barhrecords said:
The Axe might be overkill for this gig.

I kinda dig small acoustic gigs where you just bring a guitar and no rig.

But the Axe can work just like a DI (with obviously so much more available in the DI signal). So you don't need an FRFR rig to use the Axe on an acoustic gig.
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Yeah, I kinda enjoy just walking in with my guitar. I have a DI box that I use. But I may have no choice but to use the Axe Fx.
 
pharmd07 said:
Yeah, I kinda enjoy just walking in with my guitar. I have a DI box that I use. But I may have no choice but to use the Axe Fx.
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You can setup the AxeFx with just a single preset to be more or less like a DI and then kick in a delay or chorus and keep it dirt simple.
 
So I have 8 IA buttons I can use with the ground control pro. I was thinking about assigning 3 or 4 to the looper, one for delay, one for chorus, one for a volume boost for solos.

The possibilities seem endless. I can't wait to get home from work and try setting this up.
 
pharmd07 said:
We borrow a little PA for the shows. Rehearsals are completely acoustic, no amps.
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You may have all you need already to use the Axe - just plug it into the PA for the shows.

A little PA should be able to handle one Axe and her vocals - just set the levels properly.

As for rehearsals, all you need is a cheap pair of monitors set to match acoustic volume levels.
 
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