Acoustic Image Focus 2R

Underdeveloped product. Gets overheated, the starts distorting & shots down. Works OK with a fan. Sent back for repair, received with the same problem. Cheap China components used. Another wanna be half bred product. Not recommended. Save your money and get either Epifani or MarkBass, both are fine Italian manufactured products.

Pretty straight-forward and easy. A well-constructed, small amp with a convenient gig bag. It is laughably light. Reverb effects are surprisingly good. If a second input/channel is useful to you, you'll appreciate that feature.

I play a '62 Reissue Fender Jazz Bass. The Focus 2R provides an even, natural tone that matches the bass's characteristics well. It's warm and inviting and unpretentious. If you want an amp to push into distortion, this is NOT for you. But if you want a simple, honest bass sound, you'll probably fall in love with this thing, as I did until...

I played this amp at three practices and fortunately no gigs. The fourth practice, I come in, turn it on, and...nothing. No sound. Nothing. I've had it three weeks and now have to send it in to get fixed.

As I now see from the other reviews, this is the standard experience.

I played in a band in which the drummer was one of the finest musicians I'd ever worked with. He was brilliant. Problem was, he wouldn't show up to rehearsals. It then occurred to me that a mediocre musician who shows up is worth infinitely more than the best musician in the world who doesn't. So we kicked him out and were better for it.

The same wisdom applies to this amp. It doesn't matter how much you love the tone or portability of an amp if it will fail you when you need it most. Poor reliability is an absolutely deal breaker.

I took it out for the first gig and it shut down after only a few songs. Luckily I had my Walter Woods with me just in case something happened. I sent it back to the factory for repair. They said it was that darn thermostat or whatever. I just play bass. What do I know? Read one of the other reveiws - it happened before to that guy too. So, I get it back and it seems to work. I take it on another gig. I have my WW just in case. Then, it shuts down again. Wow. What a great amp this is! I plug in my Walter Woods and finish the gig. I then return the amp for a full refund. I think I'll just buy another Walter Woods. Yeah, they cost twice as much, but they never break down. You get what you pay for as they say.

Customer service was fine, but they couldn't get the amp to work properly. They should have sent me a new amp.

Bought this amp two years ago. I play all styles of music on both upright and electric bass. There are many ways you can use this amp. The high impedence jacks are great for piezo pickups - no external preamp needed. And they are clean and quiet. EQ section is simple and effective. The mic imput is useful for miking an upright but I've used it for a vocal mic many a time when there wasn't a good PA available. I've never run out of power and volume with this unit. Get a 4ohm load going and you're rockin'. The effect loop is adjustable and quiet. The high pass filter switch is my favorite feature. It allows me to roll off the low frequencies of my upright in a musical way so it sounds rich and full without taxing the speaker cab. This is very important to getting a realistic tone from the upright.

Oh yeah - it weighs about 5 pounds! A working musicians dream!

What you put in is what you get out. No BS here. If you want coloration (distortion, overdrive, ect) you need to provide that with a preamp or effect of your choice. Passive basses could use some treatment.

Warm and musical.

A tank! I use the crap out of this unit.

I made a mistake a couple of weeks ago and messed it up - see below.

I wanted to give a shout out to the amazing Acoustic Image staff for fixing my Focus amp for free though it was not waranted.

My amp suffered a blow because I accidentally hooked up the Focus and an Ampeg V4B to the same speaker cab.

I'm a lost ball in high weeds without that amp. While it was gone I suffered with all sorts of borrowed or b-team equipment I had. It's scary to think how important the AI is to my living. I should have a second one.

For those in the amp market - no one tops Acoustic Image.

I became interested in this amp because of its size/weight/power. It runs 600W on a 4Ohm load. It is a little bigger than a cigar box and weighs about 6lbs. I've researched it heavily and decided it was worth the price to try one (AI offers a 2 week trial period).

I bought it from Bob Gollihur. It shipped very fast. It comes with a speaker(speakon to 1/4") and power cable and a cool carrying case to hang the amp over your shoulder as you walk down 25 steps to the gig.

During my first gig, the amp sounded great. It was competing with a guitarist, keyboardist and drummer at a "loud" classic rock gig. Unfortunately, after one set, the amp shut itself down. I had to use a backup.

I contacted Bob and he sent me to Rick Jones at Acoustic Image. I talked to him over the phone and he knew exactly what the problem was. I sent the amp to him - at his expense - to repair. I recieved it two days later, in time for my next gig the upcoming weekend. The amp needed a thermostat adjustment(or something like that).

Onto my next gig...the amp performed like it's supposed to. I used my 75J with Lindy Fralins through two Avatar cabs(2x10 and 1x15 4Ohms). I set the master volume at 12 noon and had the gain turned to about 12 noon as well...plenty of volume for that gig.



The amp is feature rich. I've used the 4 band eq and two types of high pass filters, one notch and the other, sweepable. Soundmen have commented the DI is "hot", but had no problems. It has a built in ground lift and an effect level control. It has built in reverb and had an XLR input/preamp section. There are two instrument inputs. Did I sy this amp is very lightweight?

Rick Jones built the amp. He knew the fix of the amp and did it in about 2 days. I had the amp it time for my next gig. One thing that stands out to me is the power cord input/switch. It seems flimsy to me. I get the feeling the cord doesn't fit as snugly as it should(judging by how the cord fits on other amps). I do worry that the cord could pull out easier than other amps I've played. That's why I gave it a 9.

Rick Jones was very helpful. The amp has a five year warranty. I alos want to say that Bob Gollihur's service is excellent too. Two quality guys here.

I've been playing for 25 years. My other rig has a QSC RMX1450, a Sans amp RBI witha Korg DTR-1 tuner and a power conditioner. It weighs a lot. I love the lightweight of this amp. It makes setting up so much easier. After 5 gigs with it, I'm confident it will perform well. Did I tell you it weighs about 6lbs!