Acoustic 150 head (great vintage tone), daily rental $25.

Acoustic 164 100w tube combo (beautiful warm OD), daily rental $35.

 

Not very long ago, acoustic musicians had few choices when it came to amplifying their instruments. Those who performed in large venues with high-quality PA systems got by, but players who simply wanted to jam along with louder instruments (and let’s face it, almost every instrument is louder than even the punchiest dreadnought), play in small coffeehouses, or use an amp as a simple on-stage monitor were stuck with units designed with Strats and Les Pauls in mind, not D-28s or J-200s. Although some amps, such as Roland’s classic JC-120, are clean enough to reasonably reflect an acoustic sound, the vast majority of electric amps color the sound too much, feature too much midrange, and offer little headroom once they’re slammed with the large frequency spectrum of a fine acoustic-electric guitar. The acoustic guitarist needs an amp that’s more closely related to a hi-fi system than a Marshall stack.

The first successful attempt at producing acoustic amps came when Trace Elliot introduced its line of Trace Acoustic combos in the late ’80s. Designed as full-range systems, these units were essentially enhanced miniature PAs, designed to reproduce the source signal as faithfully and transparently as possible. The first models were quite pricey, often breaking the $1,000 barrier, but it didn’t take long before more affordable models became available. Today, the choices are mind-boggling; practically every amp manufacturer offers an acoustic model.

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