How does an Aura pedal react with non-dobro piezo.

[Paul Seager]

At a recent Dobro workshop, talk inevitably turned to gear. Specific to my question here, was a shared opinion that the Fishman Reso Spider pickup, whilst providing a clear and balanced signal, is somewhat characterless without an Aura pedal.

My Reso doesn't have a pick-up, I prefer a mic. But I also own an old, battered, f-hole guitar with a twist in the neck that now does duty as an early morning lap-steel, played as far away in my house from my late-sleeping wife so as not to wake her.

Now the guitar looks cool but tonally, it's neutral. Way-back-when it was still half-way playable as a guitar, I mounted a piezo on it's floating bridge and I'm wondering how that might sound through an Aura.

I understand the Aura reproduces the nuances of different mics & positioning as "acoustic images". But do the images add anything of the instrument from which they were made. Will my battered f-hole become slightly more Dobro if played through the e.g., JD Aura?

[Paolo Conti]

Hello Paul,
For a new show, I’m using the Aura pedal with an inexpensive Weissenborn copy equipped with a piezo pickup. Acoustically, the guitar sounds pretty good, but it lacks volume in the high frequencies, and when plugged in, the piezo pickup doesn't produce an interesting sound. With the Aura pedal, the sound is much better, with a good balance between bass and treble. It produces a resonator guitar tone, which doesn't bother me in the context in which I use this instrument.
Hope that helps you.

[Howard Parker]

The Douglas Aura images were recorded for Fishman by Douglas himself on his guitar so, there will be elements of a dobro in the output. How much with your guitars is tough to predict.

If you're buying a pedal to experiment it'll be an expensive experiment (New at $400+)

hp

[Eric Dahlhoff]

Fishman also makes Aura pedals for acoustic guitars.
I bought a used "Aura Sixteen" ($100) and loaded some resonator and acoustic guitar images from their web site.

I've used it with both my resonator and a weissenborn copy with a piezo in the saddle.
Works fine and dandy for me.

Much cheaper option to experiment with.

[Howard Parker]

Fishman also makes Aura pedals for acoustic guitars.
I bought a used "Aura Sixteen" ($100) and loaded some resonator and acoustic guitar images from their web site.

I've used it with both my resonator and a weissenborn copy with a piezo in the saddle.
Works fine and dandy for me.

Much cheaper option to experiment with.

Agree completely. For Paul's purpose it'll be six of one vs half dozen of the other.

h

[Eric Dahlhoff]

Howard,
I really appreciated the viddies you posted about the Aura pedal a couple years ago!
Very very useful.

[Howard Parker]

Howard,
I really appreciated the viddies you posted about the Aura pedal a couple years ago!
Very very useful.

You are more than welcome. My Covid era projects.

Glad you found them useful!!

Many thanks,

h

[Fred Treece]

I use the Aura Imaging Blender, which I believe was the first product of its kind that Fishman made, with one of the much-maligned donut pickups mounted inside the cone of my Dobro round neck somewhere. It’s been a while and I don’t remember the installation details. It works great blended with a Scheerhorn L-body image loaded into the unit.

Anyway, the trick with Fishman Aura pedals is to load an image into the pedal that closely resembles the instrument you’re working with. The images do indeed add a lot of the character of the instrument being emulated.

I think the Fishman Aura pedals products all work pretty much the same as my original Blender - you blend the sound of your instrument with the image to get a realistic sounding result.

I don’t think you will be successful in trying to find a resonator sound image that will make your f-hole guitar sound like a dobro. You might find an image on the Fishman website that will do a believable job of recreating the sound of your guitar though, which might be kinda cool as a slide guitar. Just load it into whatever unit you buy and tweak away.

Those original Image Blenders can be found on Reverb in the $150 range. You would need a midi-to-usb adapter to connect it to your computer and load image files from the website.

[Paul Seager]

Thanks to you all for your replies. You've all pretty much confirmed what I thought.

Howard has summed my decision process up with his "six of one ..." comment:

• I have a $600 reso;

• I could buy a pick up and, adding installation cost and a used Aura, it would equal what I paid for the reso! extendable to other piezo equipped instruments;

• Buy a quality clamp-on mic, DPA or Neumann; Used they go for 350 - 450. Portable to other instruments and I already own an acoustic pre-amp. Probably my preference;

• Leverage the non-reso "train-wreck" and a used Aura. Lowest price entry, extendable to other piezo equipped instruments.

I monitor the used market and the non-JD models do come up and sell for as low as 200 €, an acceptable investment. I read up on the Fishman library and, given that I also strum an acoustic when I sing, a used Aura Spectrum looks a good match.

I'm very patient when it comes to used gear and seldom jump at the first listing. I also consider the gigs::cost ratio, how many gigs do I have coming to justify the cost. Sadly looks quite depressing at present. But really, thanks for your valuable input.

[Brooks Montgomery]

Your question also makes me wonder what would happen if you recorded a $12,000 Scheerhorn dobro on a L.R. Baggs Voiceprint DI Acoustic Guitar Impulse Response Effects Pedal,
would it make a $600 dobro sound awesome when plugged into the pedal?

[Fred Treece]

This is all in the name of making a dobro louder without feedback and still have it sound like a dobro. Your $600 dobro is probably worth it. My $350 one (in 1980) was. I throw in a little Roland AC60 amp in on it for stage monitoring too, putting the whole deal at well over $1000. For that sound

[Paul Seager]

This is all in the name of making a dobro louder without feedback and still have it sound like a dobro.

It is but at reasonable cost!

Your $600 dobro is probably worth it.

It is and I'm very happy with it! On two separate workshops, Sheerhorn and Beard owners asked to try mine out. Both of these respectable players, told me not to rush into buying a next level instrument as tonally, I have what I need. However, having tried their instruments, I know I don't have the acoustic volume!

I throw in a little Roland AC60 amp in on it for stage monitoring ...

Right and you wrote you have an Aura so you went the pickup route. For me that would be the more expensive option.

As I re-read all of your useful comments I am definitely leaning more to the "good mic" option.