Nylon strings Live! Compression ideas anyone?

[strat80hm]

Always looking to improve the acoustic guitar live experience within a full band on a loud stage, i m realizing that my main issue is precisely the most desirable feature of the nylon-string guitar: its super-wide dynamic range.

Imagine a very loud situation (with banging drums, electric bass, keys, horns and vocal monitors) and you in the middle with a nylon string guitar (piezo) and your fingers: you might wanna freely switch from arpeggios to hard strumming (rasgueados) to percussions (golpe) to tremolo (spanish guitar style) to fierce solo (thumb/ staccato) and more: Although the main issue is going to be the volume: even while constantly adjusting my own volume to suit my playing technique, it always feel like i m "fighting", which is not the best idea. I m not having too much feedback issues (i covered the soundhole)

So i m thinking a compression could help "minimize" a tad that wide dynamic range.

I tried a couple of classic pedals (Boss, Mxr, Guyatone) but even at the lowest setting, they seem to be working too hard on the sound - and when i try to compress the less, then the output signal becomes weak (weaker than bypassed signal).

I ve read about these following models though havent tried them yet:

- Mooer Optical Compression
- Fishman ToneDEQ Preamp EQ
- Fishman platinum pro
- TC BodyRez or PlayAcoustic (bodyrez inside, plus vocal harm)

Has anyone any suggestion that could help my situation?

[JohnH]

Hi strat89hm
I havent any direct experience, but my hunch would be that a compressor designed for vocals would do the best job. Ie, not intended as an overt guitar 'effect' but more about subtle corrections to the sound. You might already find this on the mixer board, or could be part of a small dedicated mixer.

[strat80hm]

Hey JohnH! Thanks for helping out.

Vocal compression pedal huh? never thought about that, should most definitely give it a try.
I ve found a couple of pedals for vocalist like the VoiceTone T1 from TC Helicon.

I m wondering if that recent (and affordable) SpectaComp from TC Electronic - via it s toneprint application - could be a solution too..

[strat80hm]

Update: that Mooer Optical is doing the job quite nicely!

[cynical1]

I appear to have shown up too late to contribute anything in a timely manner, but for posterity, I've found the BBE OptoStomp to be the most effective compressor for bass.



While it's normally in the signal chain for the electric solid body instruments, I've used it with an Ibanez acoustic\electric bass and it did make a noticeable improvement and tightening up of the low end.  Not sure what it'd do with piezos...

They pop up on eBay for around $50.00 to $65.00 on a regular basis.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[strat80hm]

Hey Cyn - thanks for popping in!
That BBE seems like a good optical compression too - probably quite similar to what the Mooer does.
Bulkier though - bigger boards not very NYC friendly..