Bouzouki sound

[drpaneas]

I have bought a Greek bouzouki and I have installed an active EMG B pickup. Any suggestions for presets? I guess something similar to Oriental oud or lute in general should do. Any ideas?

 

[Marrafat]

I would have thought a simple clean amp and speaker would be appropriate, the idea being to preserve the unique sound of the instrument while just increasing volume for listening or recording. Obviously some delay or reverb could also be applied.

 

[drpaneas]

So you would use an amp and a cabinet? I was going through other posts here in the forum and most people plug their acoustic instruments by actually tonematching them.

1. Filter (or compressor for pumping up the level)
2. Tone Match
3. Increase the threshold to elimate the hishing (in my case it doesn't go away when I am playing)
4. Delay
5. Reverb

 

[jefferski]

Tone match is generally used to either get the sound of an amp that's not in the Axe, or to mimic the sound of a different type of guitar - i.e. to make your electric sound like an acoustic, or a nylon-string, etc. Don't really see a need to tone match the instrument you already have.

I'd either go w/out an amp and cab like you said, maybe a touch of clean fx like compression, delay, reverb, etc to taste. If I did use an amp I'd start with the Tube Pre and a null cab.

 

[drpaneas]

Good idea! I will give it a try. I recorded something yesterday using the preset from Nothing Else Matter (Metallica), which makes the sound like a guitar, but not in a bad way.



I will try tomorrow different tones and post them here. Thanks for the feedback and the idea

 

[Marrafat]

At first I assumed the EMG was an acoustic or piezo type pickup but looks like it's not.
Why would you fit a pickup designed for electric guitar then have to use a Tonematch in order to make it sounds like a Bouzouki ?
My opinion is you fitted the wrong type of pickup, it should have been something like a microphone type to capture the true acoustic sound of the instrument.

 

[drpaneas]

At first I assumed the EMG was an acoustic or piezo type pickup but looks like it's not.
Why would you fit a pickup designed for electric guitar then have to use a Tonematch in order to make it sounds like a Bouzouki ?
My opinion is you fitted the wrong type of pickup, it should have been something like a microphone type to capture the true acoustic sound of the instrument.

well, according to their website hxxs://www.emgpickups.com/b.html that is the correct pickup.

PS: I don't know why the forum didn't allow me to post a legit link. Just replace the "xx" with "tt" at the beginning.