Tim Reede Librada – Acoustic Electric Hybrid

Tim Reede Custom Guitars introduces the Librada, an acoustic-electric that has both a piezo and a magnetic neck pickup.

 Tim Reede Librada

It starts off with traditional acoustic guitar materials and design, and mixes in electric guitar design elements, resulting in a guitar that can sound acoustic or electric when plugged in.

While conventional acoustic-electric guitars are simply acoustics that come with a piezo pickup and preamp for plugging in, the Librada takes the acoustic-electric label to literally mean what it says. It sacrifices some acoustic guitar elements, to give way for electric guitar features including a magnetic pickup, improved feedback resistance and better playability.

A quick glance at the instrument shows that it looks much like your average acoustic, but with some glaring differences. The most obvious difference is the soundhole, which is moved to the side to give way for a magnetic pickup on the neck position and to reduce feedback.

The top is made of Adirondack spruce while the back and sides are made from Bubinga. This combination of wood works in conjunction with the K&K soundboard transducer to reproduce amplified acoustic tones. This system features three separate piezo pads that attach to the top and goes into the onboard active preamp. The preamp then pumps out the acoustic sound to an independent output that can be plugged into a PA or an acoustic friendly amp.

 Tim Reede Librada

To recreate the electric guitar’s comfortable body, the Librada is designed to have a thinner body, measured to be 3″ deep. Since the soundhole is moved to the side, Tim Reede was able to equip this guitar with a neck pickup at the ideal position, right at the fourth harmonic. The Kent Armstrong made electromagnet pickup looks like a single-coil Telecaster style pickup and it produces electric guitar sounds. It can be tweaked via a volume and tone knob and also comes with its own separate output, which you can plug into your pedalboard going to an electric guitar amplifier.

With the two independent outputs, you can seamlessly switch between electric and acoustic guitar sounds, or even mix them both to your taste. There are push buttons to engage or disengage the outputs, located comfortably on the upper side of the guitar, beside the soundhole.

The neck of the guitar is made from laminated Maple, Mahogany and Walnut topped with a 22-fret rosewood fingerboard. The bridge and headcap are also made from Indian rosewood to give the guitar its woody acoustic aesthetics. A curly maple binding adds more visual flavor, while a set of Gotoh 510 mini tuners keep the guitar in tune.

Gigging musicians will appreciate the advantage that this guitar brings – an instrument that can take the place of two different guitars. For more information and to inquire about the pricing, you can visit Tim Reede Custom Guitars.

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