Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

It's pretty easy to use if you read the manual. Otherwise, what the heck to top and body mean?

As has been pointed out many times below, the quality of this thing depends on your setup. I use a Gibson Les Paul through a Boss noise gate through a Boss compressor to the Accoustic simulator...then to a Behringer 2X12 combo amp I bought for practice. The Behringer amp is one of the best I've ever bought. The pedal sounds cruddy with it. I was so bummed. Then I hooked the pedal to my JCM 2000 through a 1960AV (greenback loaded) half-stack and WHAM I was blown away. The simulation just kicked the heck out of my Ovation and I was jammin' Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges sounding fingerstyle out of my Les Paul instantly!!! I was floored. So the combo fails, but the half-stack was AWESOME. I even played it in both configs for my wife and brother (both non-musicians) and they agreed with my assessment. Marshall half-stack was good, Behringer was yucky. So there you go. Better buy a half-stack with the pedal ;-)

Buy it if you have a PA or a good, loud, wide dynamic range amp such as a half stack. Notice all the guys below with half or full stacks love it, and all the POD fiends hate it. I doubt you can get a good accoustic sound from a Fender Champ using a Parker Fly, so why expect this pedal to be able to do it? P.S. I've seen a lot of accoustic sets where the guys use JCM 900s or other Marshall heads with 1960A type cabs with very nice results...with Martins mainly...

Not hard to get interesting sounds out of it. 4 modes: Standard (regular acoustic tones), Jumbo (deep acoustic tones), Enhance (adds overtones and presence), and Piezo (compressed acoustic). "Top" knob works like a treble knob, and body changes mids.

It doesn't get you all the way to "Martin/Taylor with a professional mic'ing it" from an electric, but it certainly does a good job of enriching the tone of an electric to give it a very decent hollowbody dimension, or to REALLY enhance an acoustic-electric. With heavy strings, my electric can sound like an Ovation, and my Ovation can sound like a Taylor. Heavy strings are a must on electric, and they help ont he acoustic.

I use a Gibson Blueshawk (semi-hollowbody) and get much richer tone with this on...a lot of overtones. On my Ovation, it helps me shape the sound so that I can pull a decent Martin/Taylor imitation.

I often have it on "Enhance" with my electrics, because the overtones are nice, and my amp can do nifty things with them.

At an outdoor gig, I can kick it on and get enough of an acoustic simulation that the audience will ehar it as an acoustic.

It's a BOSS pedal.

For $14, it works for me! I play various Hawk-series Gibsons into a BadCat combo amp, with an ART tube compressor and occasionally another effect or two: jazz-rock and roadhouse-style blues-rock mostly. Very nice for adding tonal coloring and variation.

It's a boss. 4 knobs and a switch. Level, Body, Top, and then the four different types of sound (Standard, Jumbo, Enhance, Piezo.) I agree that the Piezo is probably the least of my favorites, but it's still nice. To be brutally honest, I think all you'd need it the enhance. I can't tell much of a difference, but it's there.

Sounds just like a high quality acoustic guitar. I'm using it with a Gibson Les Paul Classic 1960 and a Carlsbro GLX-100 valvestate amplifier. It sounds just like an awesome acoustic. I simply fell in love with the tones. The only reason i'm not giving it a 10 is because most of the different settings sound very similar (but all very nice and satisfying.) For me, it buzzes a little bit if you let go of the strings, but it kinda makes the sound authentic.

It's a boss. Enough said.

Haven't delt with Boss.

I've been playing a lot of electric guitar for a few years and I wanted to get into the acoustic style without emptying my wallet. I luckily got this for free from a friend, but i'd gladly buy another if this broke. If you love the sound of a good acoustic guitar and all you have is an electric, you'll love this product. I play blues, jazz, and some rock. It suits acoustic blues and jazz great, along with classical when i'm in that sort of mood. It's one of the

Could not be easier. Choose a mode and set the level, bass response (body) and treble (top). With all the knobs pointing to '12-noon' the thing pretty much sounds great. This is by far the MAJOR advantage of this pedal - ease of use and CONVENIENCE.

Mainly Telecaster through Fender HRD or Traynor YCV20.

This device appears to knock out the mids and provides a reasonable simulated acoustic guitar sound. The 'standard' mode has less bass resonse than the 'jumbo' mode. The 'piezo' mode sounds the weakest to me. I mostly use the 'enhance' mode which has the most boost and articulation.

When I use the neck PU on my Tele and adjust for some dark bass response, I can actually get the approximate sound of a big box jazz guitar. The sound is somewhat thin but very articulate and useable.

When I use either the neck or both neck and bridge PUs with less treble rolloff, I can get a very good acoustic guitar sound for rhythm or finger-style guitar.

When I run my amp 'send' out to the PA, I have noticed some pronounced hiss through the PA. Not terribly annoying and it is not a problem when playing as it is hardly noticable. This might be a problem if you wish to record with it. But why would you use it for recording? I don't think this was the intended use anyway.

It is hard to rate the sound quality because it is relative to the user and purpose. I would say if you play live and you want the approximation of an acoustic guitar sound, this is the way to go. the typical 'excited' user would probably give it a '10'; a real audiophile might give it a '7' or worse. I will give it a '9' because it sounds enough like a real acoustic when I play live.

I have a Boss Phaser PH-1E that has been in use since 1985. They last forever.

Never contacted

I have been playing bass and then guitar since the mid-60s - first professionally and then semi. I play with several singers/groups on a regular basis and I do a wide variety of music - James Taylor finger-style covers, country balads, old standards (40s-50s), cajun, bluegrass, rockabilly, rock, blues - you name it. What makes this pedal great is you don't have to lug around an acoustic guitar.

If you are a true acoustic guitar player used to Martins, Gibsons, etc., this simulated sound may not thrill you all that much. Perhaps you can borrow one to try before you buy.

If you are recording, you will want a REAL acoustic guitar.

But if you are a working musician and convenience, simplicity and ease of use is a factor, you can't beat this pedal. If lost or stolen I would definately replace it.

It is very easy to get my Strat to sound like an accoustic. No patches just tweak the knobs, the manual gives some great tips on using it at certain settings.

I use a Fender Strat into the unit, then through a BBE Sonic Maximizer and the sound is like a good Martin !

I rely heavily on this - better than lugging an extra guitar to gigs. I would use this & abuse this without a backup because it's made by Boss - the BEST !!!

Never had to use.

I play accoustic rock and it is perfect for my needs. I have been playing for 40 years and this pedal is GREAT ! It saves me from lugging around another (accoustic) guitar.

I'm as technologically impaired as anyone but nothing about this pedal confused me. It's pretty easy to figure out what the knobs do and what the selector does.

I gave it a 7 regarding sound quality, and I have mixed feelings about it. To make a long story short, it made my cheap accoustic sound terrific. After fine tuning everything, my very crappy Montana sounded like a well mic'ed $800 guitar without the eq problems that come with micing. On the downside, it didn't give my Squire a very believeable accoustic sound, and it introduced a good bit of noise in both instances. I run my Montana to my POD set on Brit Classic to my AC sim then to a PA. I doesn't sound as good going direct into the PA without some kind of preamp in between, particularly with my electric guitar.

I wouldn't be afraid to use it without a backup. I've been playing out for 26 years and I'm sure this pedal will outlast what's left of my career.

I gave it an 8 overall because I have a use for it. I've been playing electric music all my life but am just starting to gig solo. I'm doing some accoustic stuff and some electric stuff with a loop station. In both cases, I will get plenty of use out of it. It warms up my accoustic guitar sound considerably, and it allows me to play songs like "Blue On Black" by KWSheppard on my electric guitar where I can loop the accoustic sounding rythmn and jump straight into the overdriven lead when the time comes because of the extra output on the pedal. As long as I'm gigging solo, I would probably replace it if something were to happen to it.

Feature- wise, let's just say that it's so easy to use, you don't need the manual at all. But again, it never hurts to read every now and then. Put them reading skills into good use you know? I especially like the feature where you can change sounds from piezo to enhanced, to jumbo, to standard because it gives you a lot of tonal varities. My only grudge with this pedal is that i wish it came with a chorus effect because i strongly believe that an acoustic sound is incomplete without a lil pinch of chorus.

After watching this amateur guitar show, i was totally blown away by this guy who made his electric guitar sound exactly like an acoustic. I didn't know about parker flys and piezos back then. I thought he was simply using an acoustic simulator pedal of some sort so I bought the ac- 2- hoping that it would make my guitar sound exactly acoustic. Boy how I was disaapointed! As good as the pedal is, it just didn't sound quite acoustic at all. It's no where near close to an acoustic. If you plug it in a PA system or an acoustic amp, the tone improves, but it's still not an acoustic. Infact, at best, it sounds more of an electric acoustic than a real acoustic guitar- more of like a nice jazz tone rather than a box tone- very warm and mellow. But when I learned about piezos- particularly, graphtech's GHOST system and had it installed in my guitar- I learned that this pedal is best used in combination with an electric guitar equipped with a piezo system of some sort. I don't know about the other pizeos out there but for me, the combination of my GHOST acoustaphonic (graphtech piezo) and the ac- 2 gives me that very convincing, very real and very accurate acoustic- box tone sound. All the better too if you change your strings to something thick like 11's. The graphtech is reputedly the best piezo system out there- better than the fishman and the l.r. baggs. it has this nice box tone-this nice bottom end that's missing from the other piezos i've tried.
it doesn't have the quack associated with other piezos out there either. by itself, the graptech piezo and the acoustaphonic preamp will make your guitar sound an acoustic. Add to that the ac- 2, which further improves the acoustic sound by trimming the highs (even with real acoustic guitars!) and you get an even more beautiful acoustic sound. I actually did an experiment where i recorded different guitar parts with my takamine acoustic and with my epiphone les paul es guitar equipped with a gibson classic 57,' a gibson classic' 57 plus and the ghost acoustaphonic system plugged straight into the ac 2, then to an amp and my les paul produced far more beautiful acoustic sounds than my takamine. My electric guitar totally blows a real acoustic guitar away!

BOSSes are built like a tank but it would never hurt to have a back up because you never know what will happen when you're in that stage. Lucky for me, i have the korg ax1500g.

Don't know- haven't dealt with them yet. the pedal is still working so i dont see why i need to call these guys as of yet.

I play anything. See my other reviews on the epi viola bass and hte les paul es under the name of florence. Right now, i'm in this mood/ stage where i like playing acoustic based music- particularly country stuff like england dan, john ford colley, stephen bishop, stephen speaks etc. and other nice acoustic based love songs, so I recently upgraded my guitar by adding the graphtech GHOST/ acoustaphonic system to make it sound acoustic. I must say that the ac 2 and the GHOST piezos are a perfect match! So with the piezo, I give the ac 2 a 10 over all.

I glanced at the booklet that came in the box and used the suggested settings as a starting point. The knobs are pretty straight forward, even I didn't have trouble tweaking a good sound out of it.

At first I set it up with a single amp and a Les Paul. The sound was okay. Then I set it up with two amps and the same Les Paul. Better sound. I get a lot of line noise if I try to use any effects while using this pedal. No biggie, unplug the boxes and set them in the FX loop on the amp. Problem solved.

Built like a tank. Stomp on it all night long with no worries.

Never had to contact Boss on any of my pedals.

I bought mine because it was cheaper than buying an acoustic with electronics, etc. It works great for what I ask of it. Getting an acoustic sound out of an electric guitar.

Just read the manual and if possible, snag the free sampler cd from boss (just call them). self explanatory knobs.

If you listen to the Boss effects sampler cd, the AC-2 samples sound great, and if you look at the booklet that comes with it you can imitate the settings to achieve similar sounds. It does acoustify a nice thick electric tone. However, if your guitar doesn't sound that great in the first place, i'd think again before getting it.
Your guitar better have a good eq to go with it. Then what you'll have will be incredibly useful. I've used it in the mix at both large and small venues. Now, I wouldn't solo acoustic with it, but it the mix it's amazing.

Furthermore, I use it to further acoustify my acoustic electric. The AC-2 seems to have the same acoustifying chip that is in the AD-3 and AD-5, Boss's acoustic instrument processors. As described of both the Ad-3 and ad-5, the ac-2 also gives an smooth airy warmth of a mic'ed guitar. no joke. it sounds great in pa and even through a un-eq'ed input of an electric amp. everyone has been amazed at the sounds i get for my acoustic electric through the ac-2.

go to the guitar store and try it.


bad stuff: turn the "top" notch too hot (past 10 o'clock) and it'll rattle. Have your highs boosted too high on the eq, and it'll rattle. spend some time to tweak and you'll be fine.

takes a licking and keeps on ticking

NA, though they did send me the boss effects guidebook and cd for free!

Usuable for both the electric and acoustic. With good equipment, you can use it in different ways forever. Some have even used it to acoustify other instruments in a PA situations like violin.

In general, this is a pretty easy box to use. Three of the four knobs work logically. Took some time to notice, though, that the "body" knob doesn't really add bass as I thought, but works as a sort of reverse "mid scoop" knob: fully clockwise you've removed most of the midrange from your signal. And fully counter-clockwise, your signal's much hotter and distorts much easier.

I have got pretty useful sounds from the pedal. Won't change a Strat to a Martin, but there are several pretty useful sounds that make a Strat sound like a jazz box, approximately. So a pretty good selection of semi-acoustic tones. At least, for rhythm parts.

Dobro with a piezo transducer lost most of its character, though, thru the AC-2.

As the others have noted, this unit works very nicely with a bass guitar, adding some nice oomph for recording.

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No problems so far, the Boss effects have generally a pretty good rep.

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This is a nice addition to my home studio, where there are no great selection of different guitar and bass models and different sounds are needed.