Accoustic Simulator (Boss AC-2) For Use With An ACCOUSTIC?

[stevieb]

I am not impressed with piezo pickups. More quack than an entire flock of ducks all playing Strats, INO. Oh, sure, you can tame a piezo (and probably a duck,) with the application of $500 worth of gear in the form of a purpose-built upper-end pre-amp/processor, but I don't have $500 to spend on this.

There is a Boss AC-2 on Craigslist right now. $20. Hard to go wrong at that price, but has anybody had experience using an acoustic simulator with an honest-to-gosh acoustic guitar?

Thanks.

 

[mixsit]

I have the Korg AX-10 version of this stuff- simulates all these body styles' etc.
You know at first it seems like it works, but bottom line as sppn as my ear tuned in to it a bit, it starts to sound exactly like they are- heavy eq's - and the 'quack and and all the hard piezo stuff we're trying to get around still alive and well sorry to say.
There's even this Yamaha 'S.R.T. (Studio Response Technology') built into their guitar I heard at a live music store demo.. It did sound pretty real through the PA. If you check it out they sell' it as mic modeled' built right in.
Their setup (guitar and tone) was not the sound I want ('bright shiny rather than the richer wood tone side of things), so I inquired-- thinking 'maybe A/D, convolution' etc therefor other tones available... Yama'Tech said nope, it's on board eq.

Right now I'm going with an Audix M44 mounted four or five inches off the guitar.
Not go'na be for live/loud, but mic'd tone that beats the hell out of the p/u.

Happy hunting

 

[Xdrummer]

I've tried the Boss simulator, a Behringer simulator and the Zoom A2.
I've had the most satisfactory results from the Zoom (but I really had to work with it to get the right tweaks for various guitars). It can help reduce the quack - and you can get a lot of tone variations - which may or may not be a good thing.

I would never use a simulator in a studio (where there are normally enough mic'ing options, etc) - but a simulator can have a place in a live rig.


I don't beleive any simulator is better than a good sounding guitar captured with a decent mic, through a relatively decent pre - but in a live setting, the ability to feed a processed signal diirectly to the board is simply so much preferrable to trying to mic a guitar on stage.

As you indicated, getting the Boss for $20 is not a significant risk - if you like the sound you get ..... it's a steal ..... and at $20 I suspect you'll find some use to justify the $20