Live sound · acoustic guitar, plugged in direct
The Acoustic Chain
Why does your acoustic sound thin, quacky or boomy through the PA — when it sounds perfect in your hands?
One channel, done properly: your acoustic guitar, plugged straight into the desk, coming out the speakers clear and full every night — without a hint of howl. The same step-by-step treatment as The Vocal Chain, for the guitar: gain, EQ, compression and the feedback routine, dialled in on the Allen & Heath CQ12 and built to transfer to any digital mixer with the same features.
By Aaron Norton — independent solo artist, gigging for a living since 2006.
I spent years with my guitar sounding thin and brittle through PAs, with no idea which of the hundred glowing options to touch first — and the hard truth is nobody else was ever going to fix it for me. Not the venue, not the sound guy who didn't turn up. When I finally dialled it in on my own CQ12T I wrote down the whole chain — the gain principle, the EQ moves, the feedback routine, the boring repeatable setup that works every night. This is that book. Boring is good. Boring means your guitar is the one thing on stage you never worry about.
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UK VAT included · instant PDF download · yours to keep
Buy now — instant download →Secure checkout · instant PDF download · UK VAT included · also on Etsy
The sister book to The Vocal Chain — same desk, same method, the other channel. Get both and the whole solo rig is covered.
What's inside
- ◆Gain is not the fader — the preamp principle that fixes most thin, brittle acoustic sounds on its own.
- ◆Kill the quack and the boom — the EQ moves that turn a piezo honk into the guitar you hear in your hands.
- ◆Mix a sound you can't hear — a repeatable, scene-saved setup you trust from behind the desk, plus the windows of truth to check it.
- ◆DI boxes, line vs XLR, cables — the plumbing between guitar and desk, explained once, properly.
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