Acoustic Simulators?

HoraceB

I'm looking for something to give an acoustic effect for a few songs in our set, I've had an AC-3 before but was wondering if anyone has experience of a pedal that can get closer? 

Cheers. 

ScreamingDave

I used to use a Mooer Acoustikar.  It was Ok and gave a sound a bit more like an acoustic, but it wouldn’t fool anyone in the know.  I just always figured it got close enough, especially as most punters don’t even realise there’s any difference between an acoustic and an electric guitar, or to be more precise they just don’t know that there are different types of guitar. 

To paraphrase Douglas Adams, it made a sound almost, but not quite, entirely unlike an acoustic guitar 

jackio

Love that Douglas Adams quote.

I use the one on the Helix and it matches @ScreamingDave's assessment

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

ScreamingDave said:

I used to use a Mooer Acoustikar.  It was Ok and gave a sound a bit more like an acoustic, but it wouldn’t fool anyone in the know.  I just always figured it got close enough, especially as most punters don’t even realise there’s any difference between an acoustic and an electric guitar, or to be more precise they just don’t know that there are different types of guitar. 

To paraphrase Douglas Adams, it made a sound almost, but not quite, entirely unlike an acoustic guitar 

Yeah I had one of those Mooers too. Was decent enough for the 1 or 2 songs we had in the set at the time that needed an acoustic sound. Don't know how well it compares with the AC-3 other than that it'll be a bit cheaper. 

Sporky

VG-88, though it's a bit overkill. And needs the hex pickup. 

ICBM

You can get away with an EQ pedal if you cut the mids and boost the top end - especially if you switch to going through the PA (or an acoustic amp if you can be bothered taking one) - but that’s easier done with something like the AC-3 anyway.

To be honest, as long as your amp has a truly clean sound then just setting that for a bright tone and playing the guitar in an ‘acoustic style’ is going to be close enough for most purposes. The neck pickup is usually better.

Musicwolf

Live, I use 'acoustic sims' a lot.

My current setup is a PRS with a piezo bridge (I have an SE Semi-Hollow and a Hollow body with piezo bridges) into a Helix Stadium XL (previously I used a Helix Floor but also a Kemper).  The piezo signal is sent to a separate input to that of the mag pickup and the signal chain includes an acoustic IR from 3 Sigma Audio.

I have an AC-3 pedal tucked away in the loft and I've used the Helix and Kemper AC-3-a-likes with mag pickups in the past.

Whichever way you go, the key is to send the result either direct to the PA or an FRFR cab.  If you send it to a conventional cab the results will be poor.

Open_G

I tried the cheap behringer one a few years back. I couldn’t appreciably work out whether it was on or off. 

ScreamingDave

I started using the Mooer because I got fed up with lugging a separate acoustic rig to gigs with me, but I realised that if I just used the neck pickup
on a clean sound, nobody cared.  Even the rest of the band!

but now I have a lively nylon strung electro acoustic so I’ll be back to an acoustic rig - until I tire of that!

Gulliver

Nux Pulse has some great built-in acoustic IRs - I own 2 of them, 1 lives on my acoustic board to make a piezo sound better, the other does faux-acoustic sounds on the big board for one of the bands.

It works best with a neck single coil - although you can plug-in the pedal and probably tinker with a bunch of settings to make it better with humbuckers - I figured it was easier to just swap 2 songs in the set so I can use it with my tele

HoraceB

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll investigate some of the IR options but for the sake of a few songs that we sometimes do I think @ICBM ; maybe right with  "To be honest, as long as your amp has a truly clean sound then just setting that for a bright tone and playing the guitar in an ‘acoustic style’ is going to be close enough for most purposes. The neck pickup is usually better."