Actually, if you plug a GOOD acoustic with a GOOD pick-up into a GOOD equalizer, and you go to the trouble of finding exactly where the settings need to be, it is quite possible to get a GREAT amplified acoustic sound, without the noise and feed-back of microphones...it just takes doing your homework!

I use the Baggs Para-coustic DI/EQ, but there are other good brands, too...check out MXR, Boss and Alesis