Best DI Box / Preamp Pedals for Acoustic Guitars – Sound Pro!

The brief for the Para is simple: it makes my acoustic guitar sound better through pretty much any PA. I play a pretty wide range of shows, and particularly at fly dates I don’t always have access to my own PA. House gear at venues can be inconsistent, so it’s great to have a piece of gear that functions to make sure my guitar sounds as good as possible no matter where I’m playing.

I will concede that, if the application for the Para Acoustic is simple, the operation of this little unit is anything but. It took a full afternoon of twiddling with knobs and consulting the manual to really get the most out of this unit.

The EQ in particular, for seasoned guitar players, feels inconsistent. There are two knobs with cut or boost for midrange, for example, one with kHz values and the other with note values. The other familiarly labeled EQ knobs, that is, “Low” and “Treble,” don’t so much add or remove low or high end as they do enhance the aspects of tone that are felt rather than heard.

The “Low” knob really just adds the familiar warm thud of an unamplified acoustic guitar. The “Treble” knob does this to the other end: it’s not an EQ array as much as it is a “make your tone more pleasant for the listener” array.

However, having mastered the controls, and used this unit two to four nights a week and sometimes more for years now, I can safely say that it may as well be welded to my pedalboard.

The capacity for phantom power conveniently reduces my 9 volt battery budget, and I can eliminate squealing feedback with surgical precision on every PA I’ve tried so far.

An amplified acoustic guitar will never really sound like an unplugged acoustic, but the best my workhorse Takamine has ever sounded is through the LR Baggs.

You can also read my full review of the Para Acoustic DI.

Out of the box, the Radial is reassuringly weighty. It feels well-built despite its diminutive size. It fits happily into the neck compartment of my guitar case, with room in there for my capo, string winder, and guitar picks.

I did notice, however, that with hotter guitar outputs, the Radial can become too loud and spiky. It doesn’t provide much by way of tone conditioning: it’s a simple plug-and-play approach that lets you run your acoustic guitar into a speaker. I had to use my EQ pedal and the onboard controls on my guitar to really shape my acoustic tone going into the Radial.

There are obvious benefits to this approach, chief among them being how reliable this unit is. It just works! No twiddling necessary. The major downside, of course, is that without the ability to “notch” problem frequencies, it’s hard to eliminate feedback, especially when playing at higher volumes. Some rooms just incur feedback more than others, especially harder concrete-walled venues.

To counteract this, the box has a handy -15dB Pad switch to enable me to simply cut back in the event that the guitar is coming out too hot. It’s a relatively blunt instrument to wield in that sense, but it works.

Fortunately, I found the box itself to be relatively quiet, with no noticeable hiss, so I can’t imagine this being a major ongoing issue for anyone.

Overall, an effective, durable, easy to use DI.

The reason for this staggering array of controls is that the ALiX is an attempt to offer an amount of tonal control to rival that of a recording studio.

The ALiX is a great preamp first and foremost. The EQ offers more control over more frequencies than I’ve ever seen before. It took quite a while to understand the function of each knob, and I repeatedly consulted the manual to make sure I was doing things properly.

By far the most useful feature of this unit is the variable impedance, which can be switched depending on the output of an acoustic pickup. If I was switching between my Takamine, with a palathetic pickup, and my backup acoustic, which has a combination of piezo and microphone pickups, I could simply adjust the impedance to ensure consistent volume.

The Boost switch was a handy inclusion, too, as I often loop chord sections to solo over. The Boost is a simple, controllable, clean volume boost ideal for retaining tonal clarity without conceding sonic space to the chords in the loop.

The ALiX’s price range puts it firmly in the realm of pro gear aimed at guitarists who will use it consistently for years on end, but for this use case, it’s hard to argue against. It’s an awesome piece of gear.

I’d say this ubiquity comes from the devastating one-two punch of the Whirlwind’s price and reliability.

It’s a very simple approach: you plug in at one end, and the IMP-2 turns the unbalanced signal at line or instrument level into a balanced mic level signal. That’s it.

It’s built like a tank. I’d know, I’ve stubbed my toe on one on stage before, back when I used to wear sneakers on stage. I know one sound tech who left an IMP-2 in the back of his terribly insulated trailer for a weeks on end, and it worked just as well when he finally pulled it out as the day it came off the assembly line.

The ground lift also helps reduce a little bit of hiss and hum from the signal, which is never a bad thing.

The sound coming out of this little unit is clear and clean. It doesn’t really condition or shape the tone of an acoustic guitar at all. The closest it comes is evening out the sound somewhat. It’s not quite compressing it, just taming the most extreme peaks and troughs.

I don’t hear it peaking or fizzing out. Honestly, I’d argue that it’s worth picking up an IMP-2 and keeping it in your guitar case as a backup option. At this price point, it’s a tempting proposition!

Fishman’s pickups are awesome, and so is their foray into the world of DI, the Aura Spectrum.

First things first: it’s a Boss pedal, so it’s built to withstand a nuclear blast, and it’s noticeably heavy.

The most useful application here is that the controls are easy to use and understand. It’s very straightforward to use this at soundcheck to get the most out of my acoustic guitar in any room. I’ve tried it in intimate cafes as well as outdoor gigs, and it worked a treat in both scenarios and everywhere in between.

The inbuilt looper circuit reminds me of the rest of Boss’ looping range. It’s pretty bare-bones: for how I like to loop, laying chords down and then soloing over them or adding inversions on top, it’s enough. It won’t allow for the Jedi-level looping and sampling some guitarists prefer, with countless layers and variations.

The built in delay and chorus are similarly basic, but they’re very usable, familiar Boss sounds. You can’t tailor them quite as much as with a dedicated delay or chorus unit, but for subtle, acoustic-friendly application all the way up to “Purple Rain” levels, it’s great.

I strongly prefer the use of knobs and switches to countless menus and LED screens. More time for playing, less time for scrolling, can only be a good thing!

The tone-tailoring on offer here is very good, too. I find that it allows me to consistently deliver approximately the same acoustic tone regardless of what I’m plugging into with minimal twiddling of knobs or fiddling with feedback reduction.

As usual, a slam dunk from Boss, although at this price point I would only recommend this unit to those playing live acoustic guitar before an audience very regularly.

It balances out the fizz and hiss of a Piezo, offering a fuller, richer sound than you’d typically get from that style of pickup.

The modeled tones here aren’t the most convincing I’ve ever heard. It won’t magically turn the sound of $200 guitar into that of a pre-war Martin dreadnought.

However, the modeling sounds on offer here are good enough that, when blended into the signal, they do significantly improve the sound of that $200 guitar.

The main benefit here is the functional elimination of that characteristic Piezo harshness. Some players like that sound. I don’t. I want a warmer, more welcoming acoustic tone, and that’s what the Behringer DI does.

The EQ works well as a feedback reducer, and I was able to effectively notch out any problem frequencies.

As with many DI/preamps of this nature, my favorite feature of this unit is the blend feature. Being able to mix the modeled sound with my guitar’s pickup sound is very useful in ensuring that the resulting tone isn’t overly Piezo-y or digitized.

I found this unit best for playing acoustic guitar in a country ensemble with other instruments. I blended the sound enough that it cut through the mix appropriately, without taking up too much room thanks to the onboard EQ.

I let the banjo player try it out, too, and he was immediately impressed with the ability to highlight the natural sound of the banjo. Perhaps the twang of that instrument complements the sizzle of a Piezo-equipped guitar!