Hi, I have a 96 fender american standard strat. i play rhythm for my church, the problem is we have only 2 guitarists so i have to play both acoustic and overdrive rhythm parts. i feel like the acoustic sound i get is too 'thin'. i own a tonelab st connected to the PA system. what do you guys think? thanks in advance!

I have a Telecaster that I replaced the tone knob with a pot that when turned one way scoops out the mid-range. I then turn down the volume and I get a very clean “chimey” acoustic like sound. I also added the After Burner volume boost circuit. It gives me a 20db boost so I don't lose volume, but still have that acoustic sound.

I hope this helps.

There are a couple products out there. One is a piezo /saddle tranduce like you find on electriceh acoustics, I don't know how good they sound onlythough. The other is a bar pickup gthat is installed between the bridge and the bridge pickup. The. Time I heard one of them was on VH1 Rock Honors the Who. Pete Townsend was playing a Clapton strat with it. They were playing Pinball Wizard, and I have to admit, it was such a convincing acoustic tone that I kept scanning the stage for the guy playing the acoustic part. It wasn't until I saw the second volume knob that I realized it was coming from the strat. I I think he ran 2 cables, 1 to a regular amp and the other to an acoustic amp. Its a pretty invasive mod though but it will give you what you want. I believe its a Roland product.

I'm wondering if something like the Boss AC-3: Acoustic Simulator stomp box might meet your needs?

http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=752

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"I don't trust nobody, not even myself" - Willie Dixon

Possibly worth trying out at a store.

I have a Digitech RP250 that has an acoustic simulator. Does pretty well.
Not as good as a real acoustic but this or a pedal like mentioned above may be your best bet.

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

I havent played one, but there seem to be an abundance of them on craigslist, and used at guitar shops. Not usually an indicator of something great. Though, they may sound better if you run them through an acoustic amp.

I've tried a number of acoustic simulators and have never been very impressed by any of them. You can make them sound ever so slightly teeny bit better by careful pickup position selection and tweaking the volume and tone controls but you still usually end up with a tone that sounds like an acoustic simulator. IMO they're pretty much all the same. Thay can't be faulted really. You're trying to get acoustic tone from a solid body guitar instead of a hollow body strung with nickel strings instead of bronze using a magnetic pickup instead of a mic. It's a daunting task and it's actually a small miracle they do as well as they do.

All I'm saying is try not to expect too much out of them. You will not get an acoustic tone out of them.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Ugh! I've tried the Boss Acoustic Simulator with a couple of guitars with different amps. Not impressed at all. I get a better acoustic sound going through a Digitech multieffects pedal. Even then, nothing matches using an acoustic/electric.

Bottom line here should be, I think, that you can only simulate an acoustic sound with a Strat, or any other electric guitar. You can, by various means (stomp box, pickup selection, tone control experimentation, etc.), come up with a sound that resembles an acoustic, but if you're looking for an truly authentic sound nothing will take the place of a real acoustic/electric guitar. There are just way too many tonal nuances involved in the acoustic sound that no electric guitar can reproduce -- harmonic overtones (mainly produced by the vibrating top of an acoustic) that solidbody electric guitars aren't capable of.

If you and the other performers are satisfied with a simulation, then obtain a good acoustic sim pedal. But if you're "missing something" and want an authentic sound, then you'll need to invest in a good acoustic/electric guitar.

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

I dont know about not being able to get a passible acoustic sound live. Check out the video from the Who Rock Honors, and listen to Townsend playing the acoustic part of Pinball Wizard on the strat, it sounds pretty convincing to me. Remember; the guy asked about getting an acoustic tone in a live setting, not recording. Youcan get away with a lot more live. Im sure you can find the clip on youtube. BUt, like I said, is guitar tech said there were two outputs on the strat, one for the regular pickups, and one for the Roland pickup(you could do a roland synth to your guitar, you can even make it sound like a drum set or piano, but its expensive). One went to his Marshall's, the other to an acoustic amp.

Fender used to make -- and still may make (not sure) -- a "Roland-ready" Strat model. That sounds like what Townshend was using live. It's a guitar synthesizer, actually, and, yes, it's probably as close to an acoustic sound as you will get with an electric guitar. BUT, those things are expensive, priced out of the range of many players. In most cases, simply buying a good acoustic/electric guitar would be cheaper. And a stomp box is cheaper still, if you're happy with the effect it gives you.

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

Try putting your strat on neck and middle pickups, backing the tone off the middle pickup to 5, then get one of those plastic markers for identifying plants (the type you stick in the ground) , cut it where the red arrow points, use it like a normal pick, play rythm with that and, it's so thin, it'll make your strat sound like it's not plugged in (but LOUD).

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Trade it for an acoustic.

I've gotten good results by plugging into an acoustic guitar amp.

I get excellent results using an acoustic guitar.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.