Piezo Fishman Powerbridge success?

[Dove 37]

I have gotten a Fender Deluxe Power Strat that has the Fishman
Powerbridge in it. Any body here have any experience in make if these sound
warm and resonant?

Thanks

Larry

[jonfields45]

I played Tommy in a pit band at a local college covering the acoustic parts with a Power Bridge. I used an Aura pedal to improve the tone. It took some hunting to find an image that I liked.

[HHP]

Its a decent replica of an acoustic sound but not all that close. I use mine with the Fishman outboard blender. Best to think of it as another electric sound option that resembles an acoustic.

[emmsone]

I was looking at these a few years back while I was considering including one into a solidbody I was going to build myself.
I picked up one of these same Strats with this system built in and tested it in a shop. I was never totally convinced by it, but I was surprised how reasonable you could make it sound if you did some tweaking.
It didn't really do the job on its own, so first I put it through a TC Bodyrez pedal, definitely helped but wasn't there yet, then I added a 10 band eq pedal and a reverb pedal. One thing that really stood out was how dry the signal will be, much drier even than a UST pickup.
In the 1-person sized test room it was decent but its still clearly not a real acoustic, in the much bigger PA test room when you could actually add some volume and a room big enough where the sound could go somewhere, it was definitely better.

Before I had gone to do that test I had done some internet homework and the general internet consensus was it its downfall was mostly a string issue.
Sadly the shop would not let me restring the guitar with acoustic strings, nor an electric set with a wound G, but I agree this is part of the issue, especially with the warmth which is something you also seem to be missing.
If I was you, and you wanted to use it more frequently as an 'acoustic', try to change the strings over, or at least get a wound G and see if that helps you out. The wound G would affect the way it plays less than entirely changing to acoustic strings but hopefully should add a bit more body to the sound, maybe thats enough, maybe its not.

In the end I never made that solidbody guitar with piezo bridge, my conclusion was that for a 1 song or 'parts of a song' if you have the right pedal/eq setup, its good enough to get you by, but i didn't think you could play a whole sets worth, or replace an acoustic with it, and I have stuck with the "if I need 2 different guitars, take 2 guitars" option, i started building acoustics instead and got addicted to that, oh well.

[doublescale1]

Get a dedicated Acoustic guitar amp and an AB/Y box to send the Piezo output of your Power Strat to the acoustic amp - that will allow you a chance at the best acoustic tone you can get - using a pre-amp pedal like the Aura will also get you much closer to good acoustic tone.
I have a Rivera Sedona 55 which is all tube, ch1 is Marshall voiced for electric guitar, ch2 has a tweeter and is able to become the acoustic guitar amp - that one amp is one of the best options for a dual tone guitar, they also make a Sedona 25 now. Some solid state amps are providing an acoustic setting, my little Super Champ XD has one and in a pinch it really helps a Piezo on an electric guitar. I have a Graphtec Ghost Piezo in a Tele Partscaster and have a Line6 JTV Variax that has acoustic modeled guitars and electrics - that has been the best solution I have come up with. In a live band mix, you'll get very good acoustic tone to FOH that way. Good Hunting.

[hat]

there are some good vid's on youtube showing folks playing those through the Fishman Aura / Spectrum boxes with good results.