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Aer compact classic professional1/13/2024 ![]() ![]() It enhanced my gig experience in a big way and that’s saying a lot for any piece of gear. I’m thrilled with the purchase and have no regrets. I’ve yet to plug in my Shure Beta 87 to see how vocals sound, but my guess is that it will be every bit as effective as my experience with guitar. as a personal monitor/feed to the PA for medium to large gigs and can easily handle all you need for a small coffee house or pub gig. The bottom line, for me, is that this very small, very light amp is perfect for exactly what it’s designed for, i.e. I used the amp’s reverb set to Reverb 1 and left my verb pedal on the shimmer effect for songs like “A Day In The Life,” “Rocket Man,” etc, negating the need to bend down to fiddle with settings which was a nice change of scenery. I was running the Gain at about 2 o’clock and the Master at the same so I had plenty of clear headroom. Plus, it helped fill out the general sound in the room just a bit. I was able to lay back on verses, hit harder on choruses and be more adventurous throwing in licks. No feedback issues and for the first time in this duo, I could hear everything I played. The sound from the FOH was pretty much exactly what I was hearing from the AER, which was handy, as I was able to make whatever changes I needed to tailor for the room right from the amp and my pedalboard. I set it up behind my drummer, pointing directly at me and took the line level out and sent that to the PA. On Saturday I had the chance to complete my test by gigging with the amp. I do plan on getting an Origin Effects Cali 76 Compact Deluxe Compressor to take over compression as it’s such an amazing pedal, but in the meanwhile, the compression the Baggs pedal provides is decent. Dialing in a bit of compression from the LR Baggs Compression/Saturation pedal tamed the dynamics a touch and all was good. It was thick, articulate, woody and punchy and quite touch sensitive. It only took about 5 minutes to dial in a perfect tone. The tone controls on the ARE are just Bass, Mids and Highs, with no sweepable mids as found on other amps, so the ability to do this with the Venue DI proved useful. ![]() ![]() Upon plugging in and playing, I’m glad I left it in there. I was unsure whether or not to include my LR Baggs Venue DI as I was concerned over having too much EQ at work. Next step was to go through my pedalboard. I don’t use chorus on acoustic unless I’m intentionally trying to re-create a given tone for a certain song, but I didn't mind the AER’s chorus and it doesn’t thin out the tone. The Chorus is an acoustic-centric one and the used in a subtle way is okay. Not a huge deal as I’m using my own delay, but if it had tap-tempo it would be a big deal. ![]() The delay is nice but tap tempo would be awesome. It sounds good, but I view it more as a special effect as opposed to a set and forget thing. Reverb 2 is more of a large hall and sounds great for fingerpicking or single note playing but is a bit too much for heaving strumming. At about 9-10 o’clock it is noticeable but doesn’t overwhelm the sound. The first reverb is very nice and, depending in how much you dial in, gives you a sweet room sound. I ended up moving the bass and mid controls to noon and cutting the highs to about 10 o’clock. BAM! Glassy highs, a very slightly scoop in the mids and a much more defined and non-boomy bass. I did have to play around with cutting a bit of bass and raising the highs a bit UNTIL I pressed the “Colour” button. The low end was much more natural than any of the Fishman amps, in particular. The sound was very full, and more true to the guitar/pickup than the other acoustic amps I’ve tried. This is the standard model and not the TE model.įirst step was to plug my Martin 000-42 with an LR Baggs Anthem pickup directly into the amp. My AER Compact 60/3 arrived and I immediately put it through its paces. ![]()
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