School me on Piezo equipped guitars!

[Axe Chemist]

I need to know if this is how you get the best "acoustic" sound from an electric...and if so, who makes an affordable one?

[thetruthguy]

A bandmate of mine played a Parker with a Piezo. He ran a Y-cord out of his guitar, one end to his amp and the other to a direct box and into the PA. The acoustic sounded okay. He used to blend distortion and acoustic, though, which made for an interesting tone. I know at www.carvin.com you can get the Fishman bridge. Not sure if that's the same thing.

[Robert Burns]

I was hoping to learn from other experts...but i'll pipe in with my
6 days of experience!
Its a pretty good acoustic tone..(mines a Carvin neck thru Walnut)
but its NOT a Martin by any means. Very cool, though (Fishman)
with about 20 different "flavors" of tones available. Ive messed with
my Brothers PRS Private stock, which is great for some fine eq'ing.
But this Fishman system is about twice what a push/pull 5 way
selector can give you with Hum/single/Hum setup. So definately try
one out...trouble is, you almost need to own one, as im discovering
new combinations daily. I dont think a 1 hour trial will tell you much?
Given this...expect a Wilkinson/Fishman system to be about 3 times
better than you first experience, with some time. Excellent tones.
Now im going about as far as an axe can be taken with adding the
Roland GK synth pickup on top of the Fishman! Now thats a 100 sounds
out of one guitar!

[Bengal65]

Well, I can speak of my EBMM Petrucci JP6 with piezo's. It gets a great steel string acoustic guitar sound. I run a stereo cable Y out to two amps for electric and acoustic at the same time or just the acoustic. I'm real happy with it, plus it has a Whammy at the same time! Reasonable cost, I don't know? You can get them new for around $1700 for the 6 string and slightly more if you want a 7 string.

Edit: Here's some pics:

[roodyrocker]

I have the EBMM Petrucci as well. As Bengal65 said, its a great acoustic tone. I run mine into a Radial Engineering Switchbone which allows me to run into one amp or the other or both at the same time. The piezo sounds good through my regualr amp but it sounds great through my California Blonde acoustic amp. Running the electric amp on clean at the same time as the acoustic amp/piezo sounds incredible.
Another interesting guitar would be the new VG Strat. That has acoustic sounds in it in 6 string as well as 12 string plus alternate tunings and regular Start sounds.

Rudy

https://www.wickedrocks.com

[Seventh Avenged]

ohhh man.

those were my First suggestions, the Ernie Ball Music man JPs.

And, their other model's come piezo equipped too.

most people, other than Ball fans never see them, i guess.

But you can pick up a: Luke, Axis Super Sport, Silhouette, Albert Lee, and I think thats it, piezo equipped.

Fantastic instruments, those Balls.

[max]

I had a 7-string Ibanez wth a piezo equipped floyd.
Since you asked for an affordable one: I believe Ibanez has at least one RG model with piezos and then theres the Fender Mexican HSS strat with piezos that Im gonna buy soon. The Fender should be the cheapest at about 750 bucks (IIRC) and it has a genuine Fishman Powerbridge.

Also Boss makes this acoustic simulator pedal, which is decent by itself, but I found you can get even more authentic tones when using it with piezos. Kinda more difficult to dial in the tones but the result is better. Same with amp modelers that offer acoustic sims. These are easier to use with piezos than the boss pedal and still sound very good.

[Newc]

Most piezo setups will not sound as full as a real unamplified acoustic, though most will sound similar to a piezo-equipped acoustic through an amp - kinda thin IMO.

What I've found is that if you use piezo disc transducers as opposed to saddles, and apply the faintest pressure to the back of the transducer, you get a much fuller acoustic tone that comes very close to how an acoustic really sounds.

However, trying to rig a mounting system on the top of a guitar that will apply the correct amount of pressure has ben nearly impossible for me, and would probably look hideous if it was done.

[Shawn Lutz]

if I wanted to do this I'd just replace the saddles or a trem on an std trem guitar that has the piezo in the saddles instead of just getting a different guitar.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickups:_Guitar,_electric/Graph_Tech_Ghost_Pickup_System_for_Guitar.html

[Wayniac]

I run my Brian Moore through a SansAmp acoustic DI (via "y" cable),which allows me to tweak the sound, to make it sound fuller like a "real" acoustic