guitarboy2828 wrote:
Hmm.. Rack gear is super expensive. So, unless you get cheap gear, not sure you will find what you're after. Generally cheap rack gear doesn't sound super either.
+1 and +1. I've been looking at this kind of thing for a couple of months now and for a rack system it would mean getting a good channel strip for the frontend and a good rack unit for FX, plus a MIDI floor controller to change patches. Depending on what you go for, that all puts you squarely in the tens of thousand price range. Don't go rack unless you are going to do it properly.
What about a TC electronics G-natural?
Also +1. Retailing locally at R8,8K last I looked, means an approximate "street" price of R6,600. Full range response, high quality FX, optimised for acoustic guitar and road-rugged. You gain the usual floor multiFX bonus' - patch saving/recall and an integrated floorboard. Lets you add a mic into the setup via a very good mic preamp, which has a built-in limiter, 20dB pad and can even supply phantom power for condensers - the only thing missing from a pro mic pre is a phase reverse switch. On the downside, the effects routing matrix doesn't allow for complex chains and there is no FX loop - neither of which would affect most acoustic players (but sadly are dealbreakers for me).
On a more budget approach, look at getting a Boss GT-8 or -10 and keep the amp and speaker simulations (and the whackier FX) turned off. I used a GT-Pro (rackmount GT-8) as an acoustic/piezo preamp/FX for years and it works fine for acoustic when you keep the chain simple. Not the same kind of quality as a TC, but still good, and is both affordable and portable.
I want to try a GT-10 soon as a possible option for the same application, but lately am seriously considering a Muse Receptor2 instead, as that can host any of my VST plugins (including multiple instances of Guitar Rig) as well as all my favourite VST instruments for guitarsynth (plus offload processing from my studio PC). That's a different ballpark though...
