Acoustic simulators -- any good?

[JakeK]

Reading (and listening) about Pete Townshend having either a Boss AC-3 on his pedal board or one put into his Clapton Strats, I was curious on how good acoustic simulators are. What can they do? Is the Boss any good?

I've also heard a couple people making a solid body sound like a hollowbody with an acoustic simulator.

[ken_j]

I can't speak for acoustic simulators but I do have a Fishman Powerbridge in my home built guitar. The first thing I will say is they sound much better split off (stereo) and sent to either a PA or an acoustic amp. Although you get the tone through an electric guitar amp it is nowhere as close to an acoustic guitar as through the PA or acoustic amp. I think it has to do with the tone stack and the fact that they sound better through a tuned speaker cabinet. I would assume that you may find the same thing with the acoustic simulator.

[weemac]

Acoustic simulators work well enough in some situations, I remember using my Behringer one once through an amp (Pa is better) via a epiphone sg custom, Another bloke I knew was using a fairly decent Yamaha AE and we both agreed that the simulator pedal sounded much like the yamaha.
If you are just going to strum the guitar the simulators work well, however if you try to finger pick or do something like a lead, the fact that its a simulation really starts to show.
They sound great strumming but horrid on anything else...

Eden.

[jingle_jangle]

Depends upon how demanding you are regarding the simulation.

My VOX Tonelab has a nice-sounding simulator that sounds to me quite lush with lovely overtones, when used with any of my Rick 12 string electrics. But I've spoken with guys whose "ear" I respect (including a few recording engineers) who are not complimentary in their comments.

To me, this is one of those "how long is a piece of string" discussions.

[longhouse]

Acoustic simulators...

1. They won't fool anyone

2. They can add a nice dimension to an electric guitar in the mix

3. Use the money to buy a Sparkledrive instead -and bring your acoustic to the gig

[whojamfan]

Acoustic simulators sound more like what an acoustic with a pickup played through a pa sounds like, rather than what an acoustic played without a pickup sounds like. Most that I've heard, and own, aren't the best by themselves, but sound percussively like the attack an acoustic would have when played with a band. As far as the tone, you can manipulate it to a certain degree, but the bottom line is Pauls comment on the length of a string.

I bought a Variax when I was playing in a bar band a while back to hopefully address the main issue of how many guitars can I NOT have to take to a gig and still sound good. It did some cool things, but didn't really do it for me. Granted, I got the bottom of the line instrument, but the electronics are the same as the more expensive ones. Some things sounded pretty good, others were off the chart bad, IMHO. After a couple of weeks, I sent it back and got my 330FG, which I'm quite happy with, despite it's 24 frets and big headstock(haha).

I would like to add that some folks have used the Variax system with a great deal of success. Once again, different strokes.

If you are looking for something that will change your sound and feel from straight electric to straight acoustic, please let me know if you ever find that. Untill then, there are many devices out there to give you varying levels of compromises, or will give you different sounds you were'nt expecting.

Sparkledrive is a great little pedal, my 360/12FGVP sounds great through it, one of the few overdrives that works well with it.