"Anyway, answer me this - is an instrument still acoustic when you put it through a PA? It's a puzzler for sure. And what about when you record it?"

Seems to generally be accepted to be the case. I'm not really interested in the semantics Sean.

"Hmmmm - it was the emphasis "real" I was picking up on there, Paul - as if "real music" can only be played on "real acoustic" instruments which are more "real" than the non-acoustic sort."

........ there's plenty of music force fed to the populace that I definitely wouldn't class as "real". I suppose my very rough and not carefully thought through definition is that "real" music in this context is produced for the joy of the thing rather than an attempt to to be rich or famous.

Not trying to suggest that "real" music can only be played on acoustic instruments. But in the context of what we are doing at BAMfest it would need to be. Rightly or wrongly.