Anyone using a piezo in their electric for an acoustic sound

Pullmanite

I've been looking at the possibility of installing a piezo saddle pickup system in my PRS Custom SE, something along the lines of http://www.graphtech.com/ghost_info.php. I'm not sure I could get this particular one to work well with my guitar, but I'm curious if anyone has installed something along those lines to create a decent acoustic sound.

My biggest caveat is that I have a tremolo and not sure if any piezo system will work well.

Alex Lifeson gets a really nice sound from his PRS when he plays The Trees, Closer to the Heart, and other songs that switch acoustic/electric quickly... not sure what he's using, but I'm pretty impressed.

Youtube clip of Nobody' Hero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc-UzFDYQNE

shredd

The boy sho can play, ain't he?
Anyway...I don't know every little detail about his setup...I used to, before I started spending my time pining for women. But I used to know which direction he tied his shoes!!! :roll:

Anyway...He's used his electrics for acoustic parts for quite a few tours now, and I don't recall reading about any special pickups. And he's used several of his PRS's for this use...I'd suspect it's in his modeling setup/pedals.
For what it's worth, I've gotten KILLER acoustic sounds out of my trusty ol' Jackson Performer/Dinky with my GNX4...they all required tweaking, but if you're into it, it works. You can also get mike's SuperModels (imagine my disappointment when I opened the box and Cindy Crawford didn't pop out!!!); he also posted a really good one, made to simulate a Laravee, which you can use as a starting point.
Good luck n have fun!

iliace

Petrucci Ernie Ball model has one. It sounds awesome... except I've only heard him using it live, not actually tried it myself.

Maybe AC will contribute, I think he scored one of these recently.

philflood

There are a range of guitars that use these to produce reallly nice acoustic sounds. I don't know that they are totally convincing as an acoustic, but they have an acoustic quality to them that you don't get out of an electric. The ones I've played are the Godin LGX-SA - one of my main axes, the Brian Moore iGuitars - real nice value for a real palyable guitar. Parkers - liked them but never owned one, and then there are the straight up piezo guitars, that sound quite acoustic - Godin LR Baggs Model, Gibson Chet Atkins SST, a had Dean one time, too - can't remember what model it was - oh yeah, Stage Acoustic - very cool. So, yeah, I think you can use the Graph-tech sytem as get a decent sound. It think they make a whammy bar version, now, too. I had a Brain Moore with the Graph-Tech system in it, but I liked my Godin more.

shredd

The new strat VG has some wicked kewl tone options built in, including a pretty decent acoustic model. Lists for $1700 tho. :shock:

0Dannyboy

I have a Line 6 Variax and I can get some pretty convincing 12 and 6 string acoustics tones, banjos, dobro,sitar etc... too. Its uses a piezo saddle pickup system. bought it \"used\" for a buck fiddy and did a bit of work. Its my favorite second guitar 8)

http://www.guitarcenter.com/shop/home/navigation?q=variax

agelessrocker

Some of the Carvin guitars come stock with them, and they sound very good.

Pullmanite

Thanks for the replies. I'm looking to add a pickup system to my current guitar, not get a new guitar.

Looks like Graph Tech does make saddles for a PRS tremolo, so I will give that a try.