Acoustic instruments are all about nuance. When you strum a chord on your D-35, you want to experience that Pennsylvania brand of freedom characteristic of your ‘number one’ guitar. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to go direct-in to the house PA at Open Mic Night, and that can make your dreadnought sound dreadful.
Your guitar sounds great acoustically, so it should sound just as good plugged in. A rock solid preamp can make all the difference in bringing out the true tone of your guitar in a live setting or in the studio. That’s why Dave’s Guitar Shop is proud to announce that we are now a Grace Design Pro Audio dealer, and one of only two dealers in the Midwest to carry their products in store!
Who is Grace Design Pro Audio?
Family owned and operated, Grace Design was started by Michael and Eben Grace in 1994. Grace Design produces some of the highest quality pro audio equipment available on the market today. Some notable musicians who use Grace Design products include Jacob Colier, Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton, and many more.
Michael Grace got his start building made-to-order custom audio parts for sound engineers and performers in the early nineties. Eventually, people started to catch wind of Grace’s microphone preamp designs, and he developed a reputation for building the highest quality preamplifiers on the market. 28 years later, people are still raving about the unrivaled sound quality of Grace Design products!
What is a Preamp?
Grace Design offers a lot of high-end pro audio equipment in their product catalog, but their bread and butter are top of the line microphone and instrument preamps. In its simplest form, a preamplifier increases the volume of your guitar before it goes to the monitors. Many guitar preamps also have tone controls and knobs to adjust things like gain, compression, mids, treble, and bass, allowing you to EQ your instrument and shape your tone.
In the studio, acoustics are often recorded externally with various microphones, and put through EQing in post-production. Generally, those mics would be run through a mixer or microphone preamp. Conversely, in a live setting, acoustic musicians tend to use instrument preamps, Like the ALiX pictured to the right.
Instrument preamps can also be used in the recording room in replacement of a microphone. Sometimes, a microphone isn't available and it is done out of convenience, and some acoustics sound better plugged in. If there is a specific sound you’re after, the right preamp can make all the difference.
Why Grace Design Preamps?
No other preamp gives you as much freedom to shape your tone as a Grace Design preamp. They provide switchable frequency bands, parametric EQ, and state of the art studio quality audio processing. These features let you tweak your sound to fit the room, guitar, and pickup that you're using in that moment.
Don’t take our word for it! Listen to Molly Tuttle’s opinion on the Felix2.
What Will Dave’s Guitar Shop Stock?
As a Grace Design dealer, we are able to order anything from their catalog of products. Initially, we’ll only be stocking their instrument preamps: BiX, ALiX, and FELiX. If you’re interested in trying one out, stop in at Dave’s Guitar Shop Madison!
If you’re interested in ordering something else from Grace Designs, and if it’s available, we can get it!
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