PLAYING LIVE

Playing an acoustic guitar in a live setting was once a precarious business. In the very beginning you were lucky to get heard in any venue that was bigger than your living room, and, even when microphones came to the rescue, it meant players had to remain static for fear of fading away completely.

Jump forward to the late 60s and members of the singer-songwriter boom were either content to stay put in front of mics or try taping electric guitar pickups into their guitar’s soundholes – ironically turning their dreadnoughts into would-be electric guitars. But at least they could move around a little.

Later on saw the dawn of the transducer ‘bug’, which affixed to the guitar with a putty-like substance that resembled Blu Tack. At the time, they were welcomed as being cutting edge, but the sonic results were a long way from anything resembling high fidelity.

Now, of course, we take under-saddle piezo pickups for granted. In fact, as we’ll see when we hear from four of the best acoustic players out there (page 15), some performers employ space-age technology to deliver their guitar sound to a concert audience. But first, we’ll hear from the companies that took the acoustic player’s plight to heart and offered an all-in-one solution to the problem of getting heard…

THE MAKERS

OVATION

While acoustic performers of yore continued to teeter on the brink of sonic mayhem on stage, one company was quietly innovating. When Ovation brought out its first roundback plug-and-play acoustics in the early 70s, it was a huge leap forward for solo balladeers and band performers alike. Players such as Cat Stevens, Glen Campbell, Paul McCartney, Alex Lifeson and David Gilmour were quick to see the newcomer’s potential. Instead of endless faff with gaffer tape and feedback-friendly soundhole pickups, suddenly you had an