You can install a small magnetic pickup inside your guitar or use a guitar pedal to get an electric guitar sound from your acoustic guitar.
Guitar pedals allow you to get the tone you want from your guitar with the effects they offer at different tones and frequencies.
If you want, you can send your guitar to the amp via a microphone and get electric guitar sound from the intonation settings on the amp.
Due to technological advancements, It has been easier to get electric guitar sounds from acoustic guitars. However, the electrical signal coming out of an acoustic guitar will not be as strong as a real electric guitar.
Can You Make An Acoustic Guitar Sound Electric?
To get electric guitar sound from your acoustic guitar, you need to plug your guitar into an electric guitar amp.
In addition, your acoustic guitar must have a TRS cable output to input into the amp. You have to input this output to the input of the amp.
There is usually a volume, equalizer and distortion knob on the amp. Using the distortion knob, you can distort the signal and turn the acoustic guitar sound into an electric guitar sound.
In addition to this, pedals have become very popular and are used frequently. The processor inside the pedals offers you many different electric effects and toning possibilities.
It’s not just a pedal for out-sounding. It also processes and transmits audio. For this reason, you must output your guitar and input the pedal, and enter the amplifier’s input from the output of the pedal. In this way, you can get electric guitar sound from your acoustic guitar.
Do They Need An Amp?
Acoustic-electric guitars may need an external amp. This is because the signal you are going to send must be amplified by an amplifier and travel out.
You can find hundreds of brand amps specially designed for this job. There are many different amp designs produced according to special playing techniques and genres.
If you wish, you can directly enter the audio interface and transfer your acoustic-electric guitar to your DAW. Here you can make the intonation you want by using the third party amp plugins in the DAW.
Can I Get Electric Guitar Sound With Third-party Plugins?
You can convert the signal coming out of your acoustic guitar into an electric guitar sound with a number of specially designed signal processors.
You will need a third-party plugin for this. Third-party plugins are virtual versions of existing analog equipment in DAW.
However, when these virtual versions are combined with the development of today’s technology, they can produce sounds very close to reality.
If you connect your guitar to an audio interface, you must take the signal to an audio channel that you have opened in the DAW, and then open the plugin that will convert your acoustic guitar into an electric guitar sound from the insert section on the channel.
There are dozens of ready-made sounds as presets in these plugins. You can customize your music by choosing the preset you want.
What Pedal Is Used To Do This?
A guitar pedal is the conversion of all the intonation and equalizer settings normally seen on an amp into a footswitch.
With the equalizer settings on the pedal, it helps to cut unwanted frequencies and increase the desired frequencies.
In this way, as the frequency changes, the sound coming out of your guitar also changes. Frequencies are adjusted to the desired intonation by making up with the EQ. It also amplifies the pedal sound, making it louder.
Can I Get A Professional Electric Guitar Sound?
It is possible to get a good electric guitar sound from your acoustic guitar, but you cannot expect the exact same sound as an actual electric guitar.
Because in the signal processors of electric guitars, the guitar itself and its strings are designed completely differently from an acoustic guitar.
When getting an electric sound from an acoustic guitar, you can get the closest possible sound, but at a time this will not give the exact sound of analog equipment.
This is because acoustic guitars are designed and built to give an acoustic sound. Today, you can treat most DAW’s acoustic guitar signals however you want, but the difference can be easily recognized when listened to by a guitar specialist.
Ways To Transform Your Sound
There are many ways to make your guitar sound more electric. The first way is to get a good quality amp.
You can find 3-6 band gap equalizer effects in quality amps. With these equalizer effects, you can distort the sound or turn the frequencies you want up or down.
Another way to make your guitar sound more electric is to use pedals. The pedal acts as a kind of processor and processes the signal coming out of your guitar with multiple toning options.
Today, many well-known guitarists in the market use their own pedals. Today, pedals are an important piece of equipment that guitarists use frequently.
Another way to make your guitar sound more electric is by turning on your guitar signal in a DAW and using signal processors.
These signal processors can be a 4-band EQ or a pedal simulation. In developing music technology, these third party plugins are used quite frequently.
Will An Audio Interface Do The Job?
You cannot get an electric sound from your acoustic guitar through the audio interface. Some advanced professional studio audio interfaces may offer options such as a compressor equalizer, but with these processors, you can only remove some unwanted frequencies.
If you want to do something with the audio interface, you can process your signal in DAW and make the toning you want with the necessary plugins.
There are also a number of signal processors in the DAW. If you want, you can adjust the sound of your guitar with preset processors without downloading a third-party plugin.
