randythoades

This may sound a bit strange, but I was also suffering with the same problem. Although I play electric too, sometimes I just want to pick up and strum for 5 mins rather than getting out cables and extension leads. I ended up changing the strings from the loud, bright bronze strings to heavyish electric strings and putting a jumper inside the cavity. Didn't change the feel as much as I thought, but really brought the volume down by quite a bit. I ended up keeping one acoustic strung this way as I play mostly through a preamp into the PA where I have almost unlimited volume, and it cuts the feeback down. But I suppose, acoustic guitar is one of those instruments that you learn the dynamics of playing both quietly and loudly purely with changes in technique and how hard you hit the strings. I haven't worked out this part yet though!!

Back in the day when I was learning, I struggled with a similar problem. I couldn't understand how my heroes could play things so perfectly. But then my guitar teacher at the time pointed out that the recordings I was listening to were just a snapshot, a capture at that time and that they had played the same part 20 times and just chosen the best version. They weren't perfect at all, they were mostly improvised and just happened to be what the fingers played. When I went to watch some of those players do it live I realised that he was right, they rarely played it like the record, they hadn't listened to it in the same detail I had, they just played it with the same 'feel'. Sounded just as good. Sometimes those 'mistakes' are what defines us as players, otherwise everyone would play in exactly the same way.

I also have a Marshall AS 50 which I like for both guitar and ukulele. It has a decent rather than stellar sound. I don't like the chorus to be honest, but the reverb is pretty good. I have tended to use mine with a floor preamp as I prefer the sound of my soundhole pickup through the preamp rather than straight in, but piezo pickup sounds good just into the amp. I have tried a couple of others too in a fit of GAS, nothing wrong with any of them (the Roland street cube, Ashdown Radiator, Laney AH80, Carlsbro Sherwood), but the reason I keep coming back to the Marshall (this is the third one I have bought) is that, to my ears, the DI output sounds close to the sound when sat in front of the speaker, so i can use it for monitoring and know that the adjustments I make sound similar out front. I am sure some of the AER etc combos are better overall sound quality, but my Marshall was only £150 and it has a more than acceptable sound.