Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

Tkes a little bit of tweaking to get a good sound out of it. I use mine with a Ibanez SZ320. The humbuckers sound good with this pedal and the set neck adds good resonance to the simulated acoustic guitar sound.

There are no patches. just turn the knobs until you like what you hear.

No manual with mine. I bought it used. No giggy. Pretty straight forward to use

Sounds good using a hi-Z input on a powered mixer. Also works well in the effects loop of my guitar amp. I haven't tried it with a DI into our Allen and Heath board but I am sure it would sound pretty good. The channel strip preamps in Allen and Heath mixers are very nice sounding.

This is a really good alternative to lugging around an acoustic guitar to shows. I've used mine in a few unplugged shows and it did the job just fine.

It's a Boss. Enough said.

N/A

I own several Boss pedals. I have been playing guitar for over 20 years and I keep going back to Boss pedals every time I rebuild my pedal board. The are predictable and sound pretty darn good. Roland is a reputable company in the music world and they've done a great job with the Boss line of pedals over the years.

I would definitely buy another if lost or stolen. I wouldn't get mad or kill anyone over it since Boss made thousands and thousands of these. Not a big deal to replace.

the knobs are simple... but gettin THE tone can be hard... and the changes in the knobs are that bog in your sound...

ive used it in different ways...
-into a PA
the best sound you can get... if you get a good eq in the mixer... its more than awesome to take it to a gig and not carrying your acoustics
-into a regular amp
ive got the worst sounds you can imagine... and the most awesome ones... i own an ibanez tb100... and you can get really clean tones with just the amp... but this pedal can give that little extra
-into the fx loop of my digitech 21 gsp legend (google it) its an old (1992 i guess).. i made a patch just for it... a good graphic eq... some little compression... very little reverb and there you go.. awesome
- into my amp before any other pedals
and here ive use it with the "a/b integreated system" thats my name for it... but i really think it does change your tone... and this way... guitar - ns2 - (loop - wah - ac2 - ds1 - zoom hl01 - cs3) - dd5 - amp... depending ont he settings it could sound awesome.. but with the sustainer thing it sounded way too muddy and i also used it as a thing to change my distortion.. and i got a rare sound cool for slow solos... but nothing too great...

i'm always changing the settings on the pedal... and i really dont use it that much... but you can get great tones.. but it does take time... and it wont work for all i guess... that why an 8... it works for me... but imo lots of you guys wont like it.. especially traditional electric guitarrists.. but give it a try!!

hey.. its a BOSS!!
but theres no real need for it.. so 9

a 7 because its good.. real good for me.. but not the best investment ive done in my life..
get first a bbe sonic stomp or a ns2... or why not... an acoustic guitar haha

It's pretty easy to dial in the correct settings if you have the manual or get it off the internet. I have some problems because I like to use m y neck pickup mostly which is a humbucker (1972 tele custom original) but the AC-2 works much better with my bridge single coil. If I want to switch between sounds in one song I need to make sure to flip my pickup switch too, unless that is. . . I'll get to that next.

Here's my setup:

72 Tele Custom -> tuner ->Volume pedal -> AC-2 -> BBE Sonic Stomp


I split my signal at the AC-2 and only ever send it directly into a sound board. I would put it into my amp but I don't have to regular inputs on my Bassman head.

When I first got the pedal I considered it okay, I paid about 30 dollars for it used. It was okay but not something I would make a habit of using. Then I tried throwing in a Sonic Stomp after it going into a sound board. It was incredible! No longer did it matter what pickup I used, the AC-2 was almost indistinguishable from a run of the mill acoustic going into a system. I didn't really use the Sonic Stomp anyways (got it for 10 bucks broken and fixed it) so no loss on the rest of my chain.

I love sending this to a separate output because a soundboard is much better for adjusting the acoustic sounds than my Bassman.

its boss

never dealt with them. Its pretty beat up so I don't know if they'd take it or not

I give it a six because I have to rate the pedal on its own. With the BBE sonic stomp after it I'd give it straight tens, but that isn't fair.

If you get this put some sort of tone shaping pedal after it. Otherwise it'll end up in the closet. I imagine even a cheap eq would do the trick.

pretty easy to use. i didn't have a manual but i've never really needed a manual for boss's compact pedal line. there are 4 knobs and all the controls are right there for you to tweak - no hidden programing or anything like that.

i guess this is the part of the review people's eyes go to first. i have to say that i'm very satisfied with the sounds coming out of this pedal. i wasn't really expecting too much at first because of the mixed reviews here. some people hate it - but i really like it.

let me first say that i think the sound you get out of this pedal has a lot to do with your set up.

i'm using a reverend flatroc...going through about a dozen pedals and into a peavey classic 30. the AC-2 is connected through an A/B/Y switch from my guitar and straight into an SWR strawberry blonde (excellent acoustic amp!). the sound i got out of this set up was a very convincing acoustic sound. as i was rehearsing with it today (first time w/AC-2) i kept thinking to myself "wow, this pedal is actually doing a pretty good job at sounding like an acoustic!" my bandmates thought so too, and we've all got pretty critical ears. i have the level turned up pretty much all the way. the "body" knob turned down almost all the way. the "top" knob is set at a little past the 1/2 way mark. and i have the mode knob set to "enhanced." this seems to work pretty well for me. there's still more experimentation to do, as i have one more other guitar to test it out with. it's a les paul and i've heard that this pedal doesn't really mix too well with the humbuckers that are on it. but i'm hopeful, so i guess i'll see very soon how it all works out.

i wasn't sure what to expect...but i guess what i was going for was something that would give me the flexibility of switching from an acoustic to an electric in live situations. this pedal could never totally replace my acoustic - it doesn't sound THAT good. but for what it claims to do, it does well, and the sound is very usable. so this pedal was a pleasant surprise and i'm satisfied.

great. what you'd expect from boss.

a little story. i had a candle lit and placed up on a shelf in my room. it started to melt and created a pretty steady stream of wax, dripping off my shelf. luck would have it that my AC-2 was DIRECTLY under that steady stream of wax. so i came back into my room a little while later and saw it. at first i was like "WTF?!" but the next second, i wasn't really worried at all that it wouldn't work...i was just sorta annoyed that i was going to have to clean off the huge cake of wax that was clumped up on top of my pedal.

have never dealt with them.

i like it a lot. i don't wanna type anymore.

Simple. Tweak knobs to suit your prefered sound. YOu can download the manual at Roland/Boss's website if you really need it.

I bought this pedal ahead of time knowing full well that it wouldn't make my Hamer Studio sound like a pre-war Martin. I was interested in the AC-2 becouse I didn't want to lug a seperate acoustic to a gig. It passes for an acoustic sound when you're playing at a club. It sounds alright through my Marshall VS-65R combo, but sound quality improves dramatically when you send it out through the p.a. (or my bass amp, which I used.)

As long as your battery is good, you are good to go.

Never had to deal with Boss. Bought it off ebay for about $40.

It does the job I bought it for. It's not perfect by any means, but it's more compact than my Takamine, it was cheaper than adding a piezo pickup to my Hamer (and I don't like putting 9v's in my guitar anyway.)

No problem to figure out how to operate it...

I use it with my 1W practice tube-amp, a Strat copy with EMGs: SA, SA, 81, and before BOSS CE-3 chorus. You know... active pickups give quite high output so while picking harder it may distort and then sounds badly... But if you can use your pick or fingers with feel or turn your volume a little down it is going to produce beautiful sounds. However, there is one problem... I mean noise... (Some people may say it is guitar's or amp's fault, but the noise disapears when I turn AC-2 off.) What is more, make no mistake - you are not going to sound as if you were playing acoustic guitar with AC-2. I knew it before I bought it. It is just a tool for making your sound more interesting and if you have a good noise gate it really does.

I think it is a solid device like other BOSS pedals ...but nothing is perfect so I give 9.

N/A

It is an interesting device and it can improve your sound but is not going to change your electric guitar into acoustic. Moreover I strongly recommend to use it with a good noise gate....

This is quite easy to use: a volume, two tone (body and top) controls and a mode switch which has subtle but useful differences.

I agree with a lot that's been written here: the mode controls are less critical than the kinds of pickups used. Humbuckers sound a little too muddy thru the AC-2 but P90s and Fender single coils, though sounding quite different from one another, can get good tones out of this pedal. The best tone, however is more of a archtop sound than a flat-top acoustic sound. I can get a real jazz-box sound out of a Tele: so that's pretty amazing in and of itself. The switch function can route the "acoustic" sound to a different amp or channel (say, a clean channel) of your amp if you want to route your "electric" sound to the lead or distortion channel. Kind of neat, I think. Am really enjoying this pedal.

Build quality good: typical Boss

Never dealt with them.

I play a lot of different kinds of music and find this a very useful tool. Would buy another one, sure...

Very easy to use

Sound is O.K. it does make my custom strat copy sound a bit like an acoustic but use an acoustic guitar instead if you can.

Yes Very Reliable. I play without a backup all the time

dunno - never needed it

Overall it is alright but it IS EXCELLENT FOR MAKING A LOWER QUALITY ACOUSTIC SOUND LIKE A HIGHER QUALITY ACOUSTIC!!!

I found the levels a bit touchy and the settings to be very much similar in nature.

It's like micro-managing your sound. Funny enough I use this pedal to take an already nice sounding acoustic/electric guitar and make it sound more live for recording.

As with all Boss pedals they are built like a tank.

Never dealt with them

Decent pedal if you would like to play around with a more acoustic sound...try hooking it up to an actual acoustic, you'll be surprised at what kind of sounds you can make it produce.

This pedal is like every other pedal. Stomp on it and adjust the settings to your liking. It's not rocket science!

I'm playing on an Epiphone Les Paul Custom with Gibson '57 pickups through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. Pedal chain is as follows: LP->Crybaby w/ feasel->AC-2->DOD Chorus->DOD Phaser->Digitech Synth Wha->Digitech Grunge->Dyna Comp.
This pedal does have a hiss when on and not touching the strings, but the volume level is light. If you're a tone freak, you may not like it, but if your playing, you will not hear it. Some of the settings are not as different from the next(I.E. Jumbo to Standard), but there are little differences.
Keep in mind this pedal will not make your electric guitar sound like a Taylor, Martin or Gibson acoustic, but it will give your tone that acoustic quality. I give it an 8 because there's really not that much difference in tone for the different settings.

Built like a tank

Haven't had to deal with them, but from what I've heard, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I've been a guitar player for 20 years. I play everything from Blues, Rock, Funk to Acoustic Folk. I like that I can get an acoustic sound from my electric without having to pack my acoustic guitar and amp around along with all my electric setup. I have a couple Alverez Yari acoustic guitars, one 6 string and one 12 string. This pedal helps simplify my setup. I like the acoustic tone this pedal gives my tone. Whereas it's not a dead-on acoustic Taylor, it does give you an acoustic quality to your tone. There is a volume difference when this pedal is on, but the level knob setting takes care of that problem. For the price, I think this is one of my better pedals. If I were to lose this pedal, or it got stolen, I would replace it in a heartbeat.

Very easy to use. No problems here, just see what happens and a few good things start falling out of it

I use an Sheraton with SD signature pickups or a custom start bodied piece with alnico iis in it. They go through a VOX AC30, with BOSS compressor, Enhancer and chorus on a Boss pedal board. Sounds are there to be found on this pedal but you need to be gentle with the settings, keep the top down sometimes to get rid of the noise, but you can compensate with the compressor and amp settings. When I had a less than perfect cable in first off I was going to bin this pedal, clean up your sound first
Not going to sound like an acoustic, not mine anyhow, but it is a good sound

I assume it will survive like the other BOSS pedals I have (outlive me that's for sure!)

N/A

Good pedal but subtle, I like general sound of guitars and it is the tiny changes that do it for me.

It is very easy to use and can get a variety of acoustic sounds

I found that that the acousric sound quality to vary greatly by gear and set up - from reall bad to incredibly good. Try this - use an A/B box with twa amps. Put the acoustic simulator on one side clean or with chorus. Use your regular set up with overdrive/ distortion on the other side. You can go back and forth in the same song or use both at the same time. A huge and authentic sound.

I have many boss pedal and never had a problem.

never needed support.

I don't know of another product like this but ot probably exists. I don't think it would be esay to use in line with other pedals unless you were going from acoustic to clean electric. Don't use humbickers and try the A/B two amp route.

4 knobs: Volume, Body, Top, Mode (standard, jumbo, enhance, piezo)
You can get some nice tones out of it, but you got to take some time to find a real nice tone. The knobs are pretty much self-explanating.

my setup: SG-Copy or Fender Strat -> CryBaby -> AC-2 -> SD-1 -> DOD Volume Pedal -> Marshall TSL 100 (Loop: CE-2 -> PS-3)
Positive: you can get some nice sounds out of it, depending on the pickups. If you use single-coils it's sounds really nice, humbuckers don't really make it in my opinion. It doesn't sound like a real acustic and never will! Remember it's a simulation, BUT it can come close and it can give you a lot of tonal variety!
Negative: this pedal is just too silent! I cranked the volume all the way up and I still have to turn the volume on my amp at at least another quarter up in order to have the same volume as I have when the pedal is off!!!
As I have read in other reviews, people are complaining about noise! Can't say that, ALTHOUGH I cranked it all the way up! (You guys must have shitty equipment!)
Would give it a 9, but the silence of this pedal is a big concern in my eys so I have to give it a 6, unfortunately! This pedal is really great and I love it, but this error makes me hate it. I always have to go to my amp and turn it up when I use the pedal!

Haven't had it for long! Have many other Boss pedals though and as you should all know, you'll never have much problems with Boss pedals. At least I had never problems with it, just minor things like losing a plastic knob and then Boss will replace it for a small change!

As I said before never had problems. Just lost a plastic knob of my PS-3. I wrote an email and they answered within a couple of days how much the cost of the knob would be. Very fast and easy!

I play in a cover band with music from german folk songs, oldies, rock classics to new stuff. You can guess I need a great tonal variety. We play like 20-30 gigs a year. Bought this pedal so I wouldn't need to bring an acustic and another amp with me for just a couple of songs! Used it this weekend for the first time live and was quite satisfied with it. As I said before the only negative thing about it is it's volume! It's just darn to silent!!!
Might buy it again if it were stolen.
Favorite feature is the piezo mode. Have never tried a similar product of another company but as much as I have heard it's supposed to better anyways than the others.
If anybody can tell me how to solve the volume problem please tell me! This would make me give the pedal a 10!!!

Well at first when I tried it, I didn't like it because I just wasn't impressed using this with normal guitar speakers. You have to spend sometime tweaking it. It sounds the best going to fullrange speakers but, I know how to make it sound like it is full range using my gear with 4 x 12 cabs.

I use rack gear ADA MP-1 Tubeworks Realtube II and Rocktron Replifex, Intellifex and a Boss SE-50. My secret is how I use the parametric eq and the full range simulation in the Replifex and my Mulitvalve in my other RIG. I have two clone set ups. My Rig is very clean. The ADA has a great solid state clean channel that has compression. It gets complex but the sound is excellent. I don't like this pedal with just plugging into a clean channel on an amp, because it greatly depends on how clean your amp gets. It gets a little noisey if you aren't careful. I notice the sound qualtiy varies alot from guitar to guitar. My seven strings sound the best with it so far. I have never tried to play my acoustic seven string through it.

I can't really say I have any worries about this pedal. I don't have a back up. This is a backup for my acoustic seven string. I don't have to bring it unless, I really want to.

Never had any issues. Once Roland/ Boss helped me locate a PN-2 after learning they were dropping it from their line. That was before the internet was common and EBAY was ingraved in our hearts.

I love this thing. I'm glad I ended up rediscovering it. I would hunt down the thief and beat them up with the BOSS pedal!
I hear Behringer makes a clone of this and I heard a little about the yamaha has a acoustic magic stomp now for acoustic. BOSS was first! NA NA NA NA NA NA! maybe they will have a talent simulator for pop stars. Called the BS-2

VERY EASY TO USE JUST NEED 30 MINUTES TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THE TONE(S) YOU LIKE.

I AM USING A FENDER STRATOCASTER DELUXE ALL SINGLE COILS. I RUN THE AC2 THROUGH MY GT6 (NO PRE-AMP/EQ ADJUSTED/PATCH AT 100 AND OUTPUT AT 11:00. THE SELECTOR ON THE STRAT IS SET TO THE BRIDGE PICK-UP. AC VOLUME IS AT 4:00, BODY 12:00, Top @ 12:00, ENHANCE IS SET TO STANDARD. I RUN THIS SET-UP THROUGH A P.A. AND IT SOUNDS VERY GOOD FOR A ACOUSTIC SIMULATOR. MY PARKER WITH THE PIEZO IN IT WITH THE SAME AC2 & GT6 SETTNGS SOUNDS EVEN BETTER THAN THE STRAT ACOUSTICALLY. YOU WOULD SWEAR I WAS PLAYING A REAL ELECTRIC ACOUSTIC. THOSE OF YOU WHO SAY THE AC2 IS NOT A GOOD SIMULATOR NEED TO REVISE YOUR SET-UP THROUGH P.A. SYSTEM. YOU NEED THE HORN OR TWEETER TO GET THE REAL ACOUSTIC TONE. MOST PROFESSIONALS USE A ACOUSTIC GUITAR THROUGH A P.A. SYSTEM.

BOSS WHAT MORE CAN YOU SAY!

I HAVE USED BOSS FOR YEARS, GREAT SOUND AND VERY DEPENDABLE. NO SERVICE REQUIRED TO DATE.

I PLAY WEDDINGS AND THIS GIVES ME THE VERSATILITY FOR ACOUSTIC SONGS THAT I NEED. I WOULD DEFINITELY BUY ONE AGAIN IF LOST. GREAT VALUE FOR THE MONEY.

It has 4 settings on it and it's kind of hard to decide which one to use, since they all sound pretty much the same but slightly different. After that though the controls are pretty easy to figure out.

I play this through my home stereo which is pretty much the equivalent of a keyboard amp, and the acoustic sound is very believable. I record onto my computer and when I do acoustic I often like to use this pedal instead of my actual acoustic. It doesnt sound as good through the clean channel of an electric amp. It would sound great if you put it through an acoustic amp. A really nice feature is the E.G. out. You can connect it to an electric amp and connect the actual output to an acoustic amp and when you hit the pedal, it will only play through the acoustic amp for that nice, undistorted sound. (Basiclly, the E.G. out stops sending a signal once the pedal is activated)

Virtually unbreakable, decent battery life.

All boss products come with a 5 year factory warranty. I've never seen one break down after 5 years though.

If I lost this I would replace it right away. Its a valuble peice of my armada of effect pedals.

This Pedal is incrediable easy to use. You won't need the manual for this effect.

I am using a Mesa Boogie Caliber 50 head and Mesa Boogie 4x12 speaker cab loaded with Black Shadows. The guitar I was using is a 2004 Gibson SG Standard. The acoustic guitar sounds I am getting from this pedal are incredible. I have owned some really nice Acoustic guitars in the past my most recent was a Martin 000r, and I have to say I can get a pretty close acoustic sound from my SG using the AC-2

It ia a boss pedal, and they are very dependable

Never had to use them..

I play Alternative Rock. This pedal absolutely suits my style. I have been playing for 22yrs. If this pedal were stolen I would buy another one.

Ease of use. I agree with most posters, including simon. Frankly there is very little difference in the Standard, Jumbo settings. The enhance and piezo sounds are a bit different but not to my liking.

Manual is okay.

Out of the box I was not real impressed. Made my dual humbucker guitar sound like an ES-335. Not a bad thing, but not what I was looking for.

I found that the pedal sound quality greatly depends on the guitar you are using. I have discovered that it sounds best with my Tele in the bridge position.

I disagree with posters regarding DI usage. I ran it directly into my Behringer and Mackie boards and it sounds just fine.

Now for the best part. If you have an enhancer it will make all the difference in the world. I run the AC-2 through the mixer and setup the aux send/return to the Behringer DSP with the Enhancer effect. Dial in the EQ and you have a light string acoustic, nashville sound, or twelve string. Still have not acheived the Martin Jumbo sound, but it certainly makes the pedal worth having.

I get best results with the Jumbo setting, level set to "5", body set to "8".

I disagree with the posters regarding noise. Unless you crank the level past "6" there is no noise, no hiss.

It will last forever. I have a zillion year old Boss chorus, same design, same lifetime reliability.

Have not tried them

The first 30 minutes with the pedal I was looking for the box, instructions, etc. to pack it up and return it. Like Simon says, it made chords sound a little better, but was no where near an acoustic guitar sound.

I ran it through a PA, Crate combo, and was not very satisfied.

Then I tried it DI into the mixer and with a little help from the Behringer Enhancer effect, got some really great acoustic sounds, though on the trebly light string side.

I also found that strumming chords with a large light pic makes a difference.

This sound affected my clean sound in a good way immediately, it doesn't make my set up sound like an acoustic guitar, but it changes the characteristics of the sound in that kind of direction, it wasn't hard to quickly set it up exactly how I wanted.

I play a fender jag-stang through a carlsbro cobra, the noise of the amp on clean channel is not particularly bad, just a little plain. The pedal makes the notes sparkle a bit more, with enhancement of the noise of the strings being plucked / strummed. The four preset guitar sounds are all suspiciously similar, i use jumbo, mostly because i like the idea of a big bodied acoustic, not because I notice it sounding any better than the others. It certainly doesn't suddenly make me sound like Neil Young or someone, but I don't think that can realistically be expected.
I have tried running this pedal with distortion too, (sometimes accidentally), the results depend on the distortion but you can get some weird noises that way.
One other good thing is that if necessary it could easily be used just to quieten the guitar.

I have used it in live situations for over 6 months now, im not sure anyone will ever say "your lean guitar sound is amazing" but little things like this can add up to a band sounding good overall. I don't have a backup, if it broke i woul just use the unadulterated clean channel.

For the quiet bits in my alt rock band (c.f, smashing pumkins, the smiths, pavement) this pedal fits in nicely, it makes strumming chords sound a little prettier but would be no great loss if i didn't have one.

Learning or figuring out how to use a pedal (stomp box) is pointless to comment on. Just play with the thing untill you find a decent setting.

Technically speaking, it doesn't produce a quality acoustic sound.
However, you can play the knobs and come up with an average acoustic sound. You may even have to change the settings on your amp to get a desired sound.

All Boss pedals are built like a tank, so yes, you can depend on it.

Again, Boss pedals are built like a tank and because of this, I've never had to contact customer support. There are exceptions (Ibanez tube screamer and etc.), but I mainly use Boss pedals and never have had any problems.

This pedal produced effect is average at best.
Still with some tweaking you can get an acceptable sound from it.
For my setup, the pedal will get used. For one, I don't like lugging around any more gear/equipment than necessary. The pedal does help me in that area, the acoustic guitar can stay home now. With that in mind, to you acoustic players that already have a decent to a very nice acoustic guitar, stick with that you will be better off.

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.

.

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

.

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.

This unit is not "plug and play". It's easy to got horrible sounds unless you use it with the right setup. They key is to use both outputs and send the acoustic simulation to a full-range rig, just as if you were plugging in an acoustic guitar. Have you ever plugged your favourite acoustic into a Marshall valve amp? It'll sound dire, and so will this if you stick it through your stack. But through an acoustic instrument combo or a PA it does a simulation that most listeners will think is a real acoustic guitar. It doesn't sound like my Taylor, but...

The AC-2 gives excellent sounds when used properly, although perhaps tending too much to the bottom end and needing additional eq. The setup I'm using is to have the AC-2 before my pedalboard and split the output so the "wet" acoustic simulation goes straight to the instrument input of my Torque acoustic full-range combo. The "dry" signal goes through the pedalboard then out to my Univalve, which in turn goes through a speaker simulator and into the other channel on the Torque. This covers all the sounds I need playing with the function bands I work with, through a single amp. I can use the AC-2 to toggle between acoustic rhythm and electric lead with a single push of the foot - perfect! I use it with a Gibson 335 and a Gibson Spirit II - it can be very boomy with the 335 hence the need for extra eq.

It's a Boss stomp box - I've never had one fail in 25+ years of using them.

Very helpful here in the UK. No idea on repairs as they're all still working!

This is a great bit of kit for a lot of the live work I do, and I'd buy another tomorrow if I lost this one.

This unit is very easy to use. You'll have it mastered in 5 min.

I use this unit as one of 2 stomp boxes I use ( The rest of my effects are controlled thru midi) with a Jackson KV-2 And ESP MH-301. I use it thru a rack system with a Mosvalve 1160 power amp and Rocktron Pirhana pre-amp. This unit sounds great for those acoustic into's and such that we play in our set. It does the job very well. Beats getting an acoustic guitar and stand that you have to kick out of the way (unless you can afford your roadies to do that for you). Sounds great for what we play...METAL.

I've found that I can always rely on Boss products. If it failed during a gig, I would just play thru the amp clean.

Never had to deal with them.

We play 80's metal, and this unit is just right for what we play. Been playing for just over 20 years and if it were lost I would get another one.

too easy. self explanatory

It depends on the stuff you use, but with the right combo, you can pass of some good simulated tone. I think it is best to use single coil neck pickups for this pedal as they are warmer and mellower.

Second, it appears that the cure to the "crackling" or "scratchy" noise when strumming, is two fold:

1. use a compressor before the pedal. that crackling is the ac-2 acoustifying the peaks in the signal paths, making it "clip" (though it's not a speaker)

2. if you don't have a compressor, don't turn the "top" knob up past 9 o'clock, and you should be fine.

the "top" knob is what can kill everything. keep it low, or use a compressor, and you shouldn't experience those strumming crackles.

also, the thing with using the ac-2 with an acoustic set up really works. i compared the sound of my acoustic-electric on an amp with the ac-2 versus a carvin acoustic amp, and switched off between the two with a footswitch. the ac-2 thing actually sounded better. really. that's why boss uses acoustic simulation in the ad-3,5, and 8.

tank solid.

boss is actually pretty cool to call. they'll help you out.

it's a great pedal, but it's no substitute for an acoustic by any means. it's a great sound novelty if you want to try some cool clean sounds. but for acoustic users, this thing might be a new gigging pedal.

This pedal is very easy to use out of the box. The manual is brief and offers some sample settings. You probably won't even need it.

I tried this box out in the store at low volume and it was very easy to get a good SIMULATED accoustic sound. I was careful to pick out my exact guitar and amp also. It was great. Then when I got it home and actually turned up the volume, I wasn't as happy with it. It produced a pretty noticeable hissing noise when I turned it on. Also as I have read in other reviews, this thing will really accentuate any fret buzz that you might have. I have a little bit of a buzz on my second fret and this amplified it about a hundred times. If I strummed hard at all, I got a loud crackling noise. If I strummed soft it cleaned up a bit. Also if I strummed a chord once very hard you can hear the effect trail off. It almost sounded like chorus pedal with every knob set to max. Here is the rig I use: Gibson Les Paul Studio- Boss Tuner - CryBaby Wah - Boss DS-1 - Ibanez SD-9 - DOD EQ - Boss CH-1 - MXR 90 - Boss DD-3 - Marshall 250 DFX Needless to say, I returned the pedal the day after I bought it. It seemed to be a little bit better on my Ibanez which has singe coil pickups but that is not my main guitar. I am basing this rating on what happened to me. I am sure with the right equipment and settings this thing can sound good.

I own many Boss pedals and they all seem to be reliable. I always gig without backups and haven't had a problem yet.

N/A

Overall I think this is a good pedal if you have equipment that works well with it. I suppose if I get my guitar setup and get rid of the buzz it might be a little better. I don't know if I could deal with the hiss though. I play in a top 40 cover band and am still looking for an alternative to carrying an accoustic guitar to all my shows as we do a limited amount of songs that could use an accoustic. I tried to get out of this dilemma cheap but that didn't seem to work. My one peice of advice is to bring your own guitar to the store when you try it and make sure to turn it up loud and give it a good strum to make sure it does what you want it to do. I did tend to favor the enhanced setting when I played it at low volumes. It sounded close to an electric accoustic.

"Plug and play" , switch between the 4 settings and dial in the other controls to taste, very simple.

if you use both outputs from this unit so that the EG output goes to your guitar amp and the other out goes to PA, then you will get a very effective acoustic sound. If you only use one output to your guitar amp then as other revues have suggested, you will get a very noisy un-acoustic din.In no way is it as nice sounding as an acoustic or quality guitar like the Parker fly, but it is very usable.

A 1000 years after the next nuclear holocaust, surviving musicians will dig through the rubble of music shops, wrestle with the only other living survivors(woodlice,scorpions and crocodiles)find a battered and bruised Boss stomp box and find it still works perfectly. BAck-up, yeah right, there goes a flying pig!

Although i've only had it a few weeks I can't imagine ever having to call on customer services regarding a Boss Stomp Box. I do however know that in the UK many Music stores are unhappy with BOss (Roland UK) who are quite unhelpfull, and Full of it!

I play in a rock pop and cheese cover band,(Sweet Child/Teen Spirit to Walking on Sunshine/BrownEyed Girl)and what i was looking for was a usable sound with easy switching. The AC2 gives me exactly that. This pedal allows me to use my weapon of choice (Les Paul) for the rock songs and still have a convincing acoustic sound on tap, whenever i need it. Before this, i used to use a parker fly deluxe which has the best acoustic sound you are ever gonna get from an electric guitar, and is an absolute joy to play. But the rock sounds are just too weak, and lets face it all guitarists wanna rock. Also switching was done by hand(very fiddly). The Ac2 gives you instant, silent foot control, especially good for a front-man.I have also recently bought the Line6 Variax, which also has fantastic sounds but again requires hand switching with simultaneous foot-switching, (even more fiddly) and i still prefer the compromise in sound that the AC2 gives me, because it is so easy to use.
As A front-man/rhythm guitarist I dont have time to check on what settings i have selected,and sometimes the monitoring is so bad that i can't even hear what settings i am on, so the simplicity of looking at the pedal to see wether i am electric or acoustic is just perfect for me.
Prior to buying the AC2 I did email Zoom to see if they had a simple pedal that could switch outputs between electric and acoustic simulator but they don't. If only Boss would give us a pedal that switched outputs and gave us all the effects that are handy for electric and acoustic sounds separateley, with on-board tuner(aaaahhhh shangri-La, for a front-man/Rhythm guitarist).
If my AC2 goes missing I will order another immediately.
I am still happy with my Line6 Variax purchase, a really nice gig guitar(it really rocks) and i Still love the weight/feel/playability and tuning dependability of my ParkerFlyDeluxe. The AC2 really has opened my options to which guitar set-up I take in the road. However the tuning stabilty of the ParkerFlyDeluxe was exeptional.so I have had to buy A stage tuner for use with my LesPaul,Variax and Ibanez Blazer.

Too easy. just tweak and turn.....

ok, now here's the kicker! unless you have good equipment (guitar and amp) already, the ac-2 won't be of much use, since it will just "acoustify" the input from your guitar. make sure you have good tone in your guitar in the first place and great tone from your amp with hopefully a 12" speaker. then you'll be pleased with the simulation.


I had been using this AC-2 with my Carvin dc127. It sounded great.


BUT HERE'S A COOL TIP!

I randomly put the AC-2 into my signal path from my ACOUSTIC (yamaha cpx7- nice guitar) to an elctric amp, and it sounded AWESOME! as you may know, piezo pick ups in acoustic eletric guitars are very brash sounded with the signature "quacking" feel of the sound. however, the ac-2 really tightens the sound and makes it sound as if it were a MIC'ed guitar! I'm serious, go to your local guitar store and try it!

after some research, I and others determined that the "ACOUSTIC" function on the AD-5, Boss's processor for acoustic guitars, may very well be the ac-2's effects chip in disguise. therefore, the idea of using an acoustic simulator is not new with boss. check it out. it makes a huge difference.


I brought this particular rig to some musicians and they were shocked an the results as well. If you go

guitar> compressor> ac-2> chorus> to amp, you'll find a nice surprise!

never broke

na.

it's a good pedal, unless your gear isn't that good.

Definitely easy to use. You can manipulate it even without a manual! As most of the users have commented, there're only four knobs on it, and you should find any difficulty in dealing with them.

This is really a tricky effect --- You need to have a nice amp in order to get the expected sound. I've got the nice acoustic sound in the music store when I was trying on it, but afterwards, when I was using it at home, it sounded terrible!

At first, I thought that it has some problem, but when I tried to used it in my friend's home with the same guitar (my friend has got a better amp), I found that the AC-2 is functioning properly!

Therefore, don't eapect too much from it if you don't have a good amp,but I'm sure that if you've got the right gears, you'll get the lovely acoustic sound.

You can always trust BOSS.

Never contacted them.

No doubt that AC-2 is a great acoustic simulator. If you have a nice amp, the AC-2 should offer you what you've expected; otherwise, better spend the money on a more powerful amp before investing on this effect.

Not too bad, I tend to fiddle quite a lot to get the sound I'm after - it's not a matter of plugging and playing for me.

It does exactly what it's meant to: it simulates an acoustic sound. Obviously it doesn't turn your guitar into an acoustic, but it does a fine job and it's so convenient.
I was initially interested because I saw Stone Gossard using something similar onstage. He'd just get this acoustic sound from no where, so i went looking for a pedal to do that, and this is what i chose.
I love the crisp sound it makes - not totally acoustic sounding but great none the less.
I have had minimal noise from this pedal - nothing to worry about at all.
My setup is Strat -> PSM-5 -> AC-2 -> DM-3 -> NF-1 -> Marshall VS65.

So far nothing to complain about. Although it's second hand, it's in top condition. I would gig with it without a backup, but it's not something I would be too concerned about if it failed. But I've never had a Boss break on me.

Never dealt with them

All round a good pedal, and worth the money. I play a wide range of music and it suits every situation I need it for. It's great for recording with my inexpensive setup - I can get a good recording with this pedal whereas I would not with my acoustic.
Having said all this, if the pedal were stolen, I might be more temped to upgrade my acoustic gear. Nice to have it around though and it's good what what it does.

Very easy to use. 4 knobs. One Level, one bass, one high and the style selector.

This pedal is brilliant. My band plays a style much like that of Hoobastank, hence remember the song Running away. Well use this pedal, in line with a BOSS Ge-7 EQ Pedal and you will get a brilliant Acoustic sound. I've noticed people have said, you get a replacement sound. When used with the correct combination (ie the GE-7) you get a perfect acoustic sound which you can mold. Im using it with a peavey Bandit amp along with a range of Ibanez pedals and the sound is brilliant. I truly recommend this pedal, as long as you buy it along with the GE -7 Eq.

This is a boss. i use all my boss pedals without backup on a gig. i have no hesitation.

Never Dealt.

I would buy this pedal again, if it broke if it got stolen etc. this pedal is brilliant. AS LONG AS IT IS USED WITH THE GE-7
otherwise, its not so good.

A fairly easy piece of gear to use, manual was relatively clear save for a few Japanese/English transliteration problems. The manual also gave some decent starting points in setting the controls.

OK - here we go...out of the 4 main settings, I found that "Enhanced" produced the most noticable effect; the others just seemed weak to me.

Other reviews on this product have noted that the realistic nature of the effect will vary from guitar-to-guitar, pickup-to-pickup. I whole heartedly agree with this assesment. A Duncan Duckbucker sounds pretty good but a Duncan JB sounds "eh". Single coils will vary in effect realism depending on the combination selected, as on a Strat.

Does the AC-2 allow an electric guitar to sound like an acoustic? Mmmmm, well, maybe...a little. There is definitely an affected sound and I found it useful in a limited way. An earlier reviewer remarked that for the amount of acoustic guitar required by his band (meaning little), the AC-2 met his need. I play in my church's worship band and there is the occasional need for acoustic guitar and that's what prompeted me to buy the AC-2. I believe it has a use. And, now...on to what's transpired...

I've sent the unit back. Why? Because, at least on this particular unit, the output volume of the AC-2 has to be set at +3 o'clock before the volume level of the effect matches the volume level of the bypassed guitar signal. Totally unacceptable due to the amount of noise that the AC-2 generates at this setting. It's too bad as I kinda liked the way the thing sounds. BUT, I can't justify $90+ for a noisy effect. This is why I've given it a "2". The sound of the effect is interesting, but too noisy.

My other Boss pedals have held up very well, but can't say how this one will.

Never dealt with Boss/Roland.

As mentioned above, I play in the church worship band and the style of music ranges from light rock to funk, to big band, to Motown, to contemplative. I've been playing for 30+ years and also build tube driven guitar amps.

Guitars: '64 Duo-Sonic, '72 SG Special, '95 Strat, '97 C.B. Perkins Custom Plus, '99 Godin SD, '00 Warmoth SG-O-Caster, '75 Takamine F385, '00 S&P Pro-Flame.

Effects: Dyna-Comp, Tri-AC, CE-5, DD-5, FX-65, Cab Tone (these are currently on the pedal board, there're others stuffed away in the closet...)

logical and simple

it is an excellent simulator, but do not use it if you have a lower end electric guitar costing less that $400. In my years of experience and study of guitars, the TONE on these guitars is generally SIGNIFICANTLY less in quality, as they are built assemly-line style with budget pickups and parts, causing imbalances and noise in the output tone. That's why some guitars are dirt cheap. I can get into the science of why cheap guitars won't have good tone, but not here. But, if you have bad electric tone to start off, you'll have bad acoustic simulation tone at the end. I've tried my AC-2 with other guitars to demonstrate this fact. My Carvin dc-400 plays it like a dream since it has awesome clean tone in the first place with active/passive electronics to really shape the output.

Also, you can't have a cheap amp either, or one with a speaker with less than a 12" speaker.


If you want good passable acoustic sound, it will do it, but you have to have decent gear first. You can't "cheat" in getting good sound. That's like trying to bake a gourmet cake with only saltine crackers and wheat and milk. Come on, you really can't expect good tone and good acoustic simulation from crappy gear. No offense, but that's the matter of it all.

There is a slight hiss and buzz that is from putting the high end tone TOO HIGH, so don't do that. temper your settings, and don't go extreme.

Super dependable. Never failed.

It's a SIMULATOR, not a replacement. A no, unlike other people, buying a junk acoustic will not sound better than this. Use good gear, and you'll get good sound. That should be, and is, the rule for ALL effects.

People have lost the ability to learn about how to eliminate tone and noise problems. You're dealing with an electronic item, so you have to think in those terms!

A no brainer really.... 4 knobs. The manual does a good job explaining what each one does.

A far cry from a real acoustic guitar. Remember, this ONLY a simulator. It pretty much adds color to straight, no effects guitar sound. The best way to see is, play your guitar with no effects, and step on the pedal. Gives the guitar more of the "jang jang" sound, but not as flat as the bypassed sound.
I use a Peavy Wofgang with a HH cinfiguration, and the Jumbo setting is a bit too boomy for my taste. So I usually stick with the Piezo, or the standard setting with the top around 1 o'clock setting.

My expectation of this pedal was pretty low, but I was pretty impressed with it. For guitar sonic critics, it won't pass your test.
But I think it will do pretty well. A good backup, but I would never do an unplugged set with this.

It's a Boss.

Never dealt with them.

For what it does, it's pretty good. Kinda pricey. I thought about the Rockman Acoustic pedal, but never tried it. I hear good reviews.
Now, for all those people who keep comparing it to the sound to Martin guitars, you should go and play other acoustics. Martin is not the end-all-be-all of acoustic guitars. Every guitar sounds different, and you're just misleading a lot of people with personal biases. Just because "popular" artists use Martins does not qualify it as the best guitar.

Very simple to use. Pulled it out of the box, dialed in the settings and away you go!

While not a 100% acoustic sound, it is very, very good. Running this through my effects loop on my VOX AD60VT amp - it's sounds great! Run it straight throught the guitar and it sounds the same as the acoustic pedal in the modeling section of my amp. I needed a deeper, richer acoustic tone. The "pedal" in my VOX amp did not have the sound I was looking for. I use the AC-2 through the loop, with a little compression (in place of the "acoustic" pedal on the amp), and a little chorus, it sounds great for my purposes. With my VOX amp, I can control the nasty bass or high treble by switching to another amp model (Black 2x12, AC15 and Boutique CL are the best). If I didn't have this VOX amp and its tonal flexibility, I see how you could get trapped into a very narrow tone range with this pedal. Without my amp, I'd give the sound a 6, but with my setup, it gets a 9.

First Boss pedal. Seems as solid as my Marshall Supervibe Chorus.

Try before you buy! This pedal works great for me.

It is very easy to use.

I took a chance and bought this thing without trying it first. I dont have that high of standards when it comes to gear. Im easily satisfied with most gear that i hear. I bought this because i figured it would allow me to switch to acoustic mid way through a song. Also the added convientcy of having an acoustic sound in a stomp box.

Ok on to the sound...This thing is absolutely terrible. I mean i knew all along before i bought it that it wouldnt sound 100% like a real acoustic but i was at least expecting 50% and this thing falls waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy short of even my low expections that i had set for it. It doesnt even come close to an acoustic. If it didnt say acoustic simulater on it, most people who heard it would not even guess that it is supposed to simulate an acoustic. I tried tweaking every which way and it still sounds like ass no matter what. Also when you turn it on there is a drop in the overall balance of tone. The best way to describe is like having someone throw a heavy cover over your amp. The sound is very muffled.

here is my advice. This thing cost $90. take that money and go to the guitar shop and buy some used low end acoustic for the same price. Even the cheapest, crapiest real acoustic will sound 1,000 better than this thing. I promise a used $100 acoustic will absolutely put this thing to shame. Lucky for me i took adavantage of guitar centers return policy and took it back and got a full refund.

come on now, its a boss. it worked for me and it will work for the poor guy who was unfortunate enough to buy it after me.

dont waste your time with this thing. take my advice above and buy a cheap acoustic for the same price and you will having something that will sound a million times better than this thing.

straight forward enough.

All those idiots out there just plugging it into your Marshall amps et all expecting it to sound just like an ovation, martin etc. are very dissulusioned beings. Have this pedal at the front end i.e your guitar THEN plug your amp, effects etc. into the e.g out and have the direct signal going to your desk and it sounds fantastic!! Darn useful when wanting to change from acoustic to full on overdriven filth. I use a Gibson Les Paul with the bridge pick up to get the best sound capable. Sounds better than my Yamaha electro acoustic!!! Can also be used to beef up the sound of your tinny acoustic to boot. When playing through a guitar amp, the unit may sound a little harsh and distort, but this is more due to the colour of your amp than the effect unit itself.

built like a brick outhouse

I dont know how i suvived without it before. Very useful if you need to change sounds quickly without the need for guitar changes.

There are only 4 knobs, it isn't that hard.

There is a fuzzy sound whenever the level is above the halfway point. It is hard to get a good sound. The bass is usually to high, even when the "Body" knob is near the bottom. I usually use it on the piezo mode or standard. Jumbo has too much bass. It doesn't sound like an actual acoustic guitar, but is the best simulator i have encountered. My setup is as follows: Epiphone G-400 guitar, Boss Ds-1 Distortion, Boss Super Chorus pedal, the Ac-2 and a Marshall 30dfx combo. It sounds cool to use the Chorus and Ac-2 together, on very quiet songs. I like to play punk, Hardcore and Rock in general. My Favorite bands are Blindside and Dogwood.

It is very good, like all boss pedals I have used.

Never encountered them.

It is durable and easy to operate, but the sound isn't that great. It's fuzzy and doesn't sound like an acoustic. But there aren't any other good simulators that I have seen before. When you find the perfect setting, it does sound great, but it isn't very cosistent.

I got the pedal used and with no manual, so I ended up needing to take a full day to play with it and find the settings that I liked. Once I got a few sounds and wrote them down, it became a very easy pedal to use.

I was really surpised when I plugged this pedal in. All that I could think was that this is the noisiest boss pedal that I have ever owned, as a loud hiss was audible. After a day of tweaking my pedal however, I was able to quiet the pedal down enough to record. As far as the acoustic simulation is concerned, I am able to get great dark and bright acoustic sounds. It sounds even better with a little reverb.
I use an epiphone dot with .11 strings and a fender twin. My only real beef with the pedal now is that it seems to drop the volume of my guitar significantly when I turn it on. I have to keep it cranked to max output to get it to equal regular guitar volume. I don't suggest using it with distortion, as I have never been able to get a good distorted sound out of the pedal. (Of course thats not why I bought this pedal.)

I have never had problems with boss pedals, and would gig without a backup.

never dealt with them

I play blues, rock, punk, alternative, whatever I happen to be interested in at the moment. This pedal is indespensible, and while it isn't the same as my dad's old acoustic, it makes my electric sound amazing. I only wish that it was a little quiter, but its excellent for live playing.

very easy to use. I find that the enhance mode works best for me.

I knew when i bought this that it was not going to sound 100% like a real acoustic. Id say it gets about a 50% acoustic sound. Really all it does is alter the clean sound rather than make it 'acousticish'. Its alright. I play a Jackson PS-4 guitar which has a H-S-H pickup style. I have a Duncan JB in the bridge and it sounds best there obviously since the JB has a great clean sound. THe middle single coil is too thin and the simulator just makes that more noticable. This pedal does make a little hissing when turned on. Nothing too bad though.

i doubt ill have a problem with it

never dealt with them

if it were stolen i doubt id replace it at its current price. Its a decent pedal but not at $90. Id probably try to pick up a used one on ebay if it were stolen for a lot cheaper. Id imagine a high end strat with a bridge single coil would work best with this thing. Id say only buy this thing if you have: A) a guitar w/ a bridge single coil. B) your desperate to improve your clean sound without buying a new amp.

Just a few dials.

Great with strat bridge. I can't get a good sound with my other guitars. I find that the most electric/artificial sounding input generates the sweetest acoustic output.
Might have to tweek the other guitars. You should try this on your guitar before buying.

Its a Boss. Nuff said. :) Only kidding. I have no idea. This is my first boss pedal. Looks as solid as all my other pedals.

Not used.

You can get it cheaper mail order. I use this all the time. I don't like my strat bridge pickup. I play mostly clean. This is great. Does chords too. It has a bit of reverb/delay so turn those effects off at the amp.

This pedal will take alot of tweaking to get a good sound. However, there are many authentic acoustic sounds to be had. Alot will depend on your guitar and amp. For instance, I could get no use out of this pedal whatsoever through the clean channel on my Marshall. The tubes distorted from the frequencies on just about every setting. However, going direct through my mixing board was magical. It also sounds great on my solid state Fender chorus amp. The manual is helpful, but due to the amount of intangibles, you will still need to tinker.

I play a custom 24 PRS into a Marshall JCM 800 head for dirty. I A/B the clean sounds via the acoustic simulator into the PA. I can get a beautiful sound using the ENHANCE setting with a little reverb. My guitar resonates like an acoustic would using this pedal. It is very genuine sounding to me. Your pickups will have alot to do with how to set this pedal. Using the neck humbucker with the volume rolled back a bit,the sound is warm. I get a great sound for the acoustic part on "The Trees" by RUSH. A little brittle on the bridge but like I said you need to tinker.

I use BOSS whenever I can because they are indestructible!! Most of them really do what they are supposed to do too.

Never needed them

This pedal saves me the hassle of lugging an acoustic around for the brief moments it is needed. If it were lost or stolen I would replace it. Nothing will beat the sound of a real acoustic, however this comes real close. It will take some time to tweak. (Believe me, I wanted to return it at first) Dont give up until you have tried each mode and setting. The A/B feature is great if you want to use a separate amp for acoustic.

Straight forward to use. Like most Boss Pedals.

I use mainly Ibanez Guitars with a Valvestate amp. I use the pedal with the EG lead going straight through the mixer and out the speakers. One stomp and you change from your amp to the PA. Sounds more realistic than my Semi-Accustic Applause, and because the Electric has a flat back, does not ride up my body during gigs.

Use it regualaly while gigging, although the singer has taken a liking to it with the Applause (gives a deeper, richer sound), I am concidering making him buy another one so we can both use it.

Not had to use it.

I play in a cover band so do lots of different sounds, from Distorted Rock to Clear Accustic. Just what I needed and a lot cheaper than a decent accoustic guitar.

I wish I could lock the knobs to prevent an accidental change in my setting.

It offers 4 modes, a body and a top knob (for bass and treble)
and a knob for level matching

I use my LesPaul's EMG85(neck position) with vol turned to max.
On the ac-2 I use the 'enhance' setting.
I've had to turn up the level to max and the body knob down to min,
top is set to 2 o'clock.

I am amazed. It reaches 90% of an acoustic sound.
I add bass to the lower strings by hitting them near the neck PU and add treble to the higher strings by hitting them near the saddle.

I use 10-46 strings. I'm convinced that if I used a bigger gauge,
the ac-2 acoustic sound would reach 100%.

The unit works absolutely silent.

It's 100% reliable - no doubt about that.
(Don't use batteries!)

The ac-2 acoustic simulator replaces my electric-acoustic guitar whenever I gig!

This little stomp box looks strange in front of my rack (Dunlop DCR-1SR, Sansamp PSA-1 and tc electronics G-FORCE),
but it produces a real acoustic sound and surpassed my expectations.

Sure, playing an acoustic feels different BUT at least it doesn't sound different!

If you look for more comfort and less luggage,
I urge you to try it!

quite easy to get a good sound out of, the manual is a bunch of crud no one ever reads. my unit has hasnt been upgraded.

i use this with my ibanez iceman ( Duncan Invader @ neck and soon a Custom Custom @ bridge). i've 14 other pedals i use but never all in one chain-that would turn tone into mud. this does not work well with the neck pickup-too much bass. mid selected is good buy use the bridge humbucker for the best sounds. this has a very full, mellow, warm sound. i turned it on started playing and thought i was hearing an acoustic. why do you fools ask so many questions, im not answering all these little nitpicky things!
i play thru a marshall combo-i love you jim marshall

HELL-FREAKIN'-O!!!! its a boss. its indestructable!!!

dont know dont care is that good enough for you

ive been playing bedroom rock for 2 years. if anyone stole it.... oh the things id do lets just say thered be visegrips involved with someone gonads if this turned up missing. and thats all im typing, except for finishing this sentence.

Very easy to use. Good manual. The body control sound better in the middle more or less, and the top control at 7 or 9 o'clock.

You get a very good acpustic sound. I use Jerzy Drozd Custom Guitars (jerzydrozdbasses.com/guitarras.htm) with JB and '59 Seymour Duncan. The '59 in the neck (in humbucker position) sounds great. A very good sound with my JMP-1, peavey classic 60/60 (6L6) power amp, and 4x12 Marshall cabinet. The JMP is in clean 2 sound, volume 18, gain 15, bass -3 or -4, middle -5 or -6, treble 3, presence 3. With Jumbo or Standar sound.
With this configuration i have not change the single/humbucker for soloing. I switch off the Boss and i switch on the solo preset.
With the chorus sound better. I use Gmajor: Avanced chorus, low rate, depth 90%, mix 50%, fase on.
Sounds very well.
For a sound fatter and spaciouser i use a dual delay, with total pan L and R and delayed signal 50% 10ms right channel and 15 or 20 ms left cahnnel.
My acoustic guitar (Alhambra) sound like an acoustic guitar because this it is, but the Boss simulator in the live performances it is great.
A good purchase.

Total reliability.
It is a Boss.

I play rock and pop. I play heavy metal too.
www.melodicca.com
My music and my web.

You would have to be legaly retarted not to use this pedal. Turn to knobs until your happy, and play away.

I have a very odd setup for this pedal it seem...since a lot of other people have it at the end/start of thier chain. I play either a Danelectro Hodad, Danelectro 56-U2, Epiphone ES-225, Vantage Avenger, BC Rich (1 humbucker, strat style body), or a Fender Telecaster though a pedal chain (from guitar to amp) including: Dunlop Crybaby, Blues Driver, Acoustic Sim - Bypass Channel: Danelectro Black Coffee, Boss Tremelo, Danelectro Cool Cat, Fender 80's Red Knob Twin reverb amp distorted channel. The effect channel of the acoustic sim runs straight into the Amp's clean channel.

So far I have found that to get the best sound out of the AC-2, is to use my Danelectro Hodad with the coil tap on, the Dano 56-U2, or the Telecaster. Mostly because the humbuckers seem to produce a lot of bassy tones into the amp that just makes it sound muddy and wrong on any setting. Also, I have to have the reverb up on my amp (to about 5) to get the sustain/resonance effect so I can effectivley simulate the sound of my Takamini (don't know the exact model... but it ran for about $1,200 when my dad bought it back in '79).

I hav also used this pedal with my Ibanez SGR5 bass and my Yorkville 400 bass head running a Hartke 410 cab. It dosn't got the sustain or the resonance sound I desire, but it still makes for some nice effects.

I give it a 9 because it sounds too "dead" going straight into a solid state amp without any other effects.

Boss has to make some of the most durable products to date! I'm still trying to decided what's stronger... my boss pedals or my cool cat chrous pedal.

The only thing I recomend is a AC adaptor...but I recomend that with any pedal.

I always do a lot of research on a product before I buy it. So I sent them an E-mail and asked some information on the sim, like impedance, average battery life, etc. I got a reply within the week, with a few sound bytes and the manual in pdf format. Best customer service I have received from any coporatation!

I play a wide range of musical styles across my three bands and solo projects; I mostly play surf, ska, punk, alternative styles, and I can usually find a place for this pedal. It has to be my second favorite pedal sitting right behind my Danelectro Cool Cat, the king of Chorus.

However, I wish that it had a steel body resonator effect built into it... as well as a more "real" sound, it really can have a digital sound at times...

Oh, and I use it at every show, never had a problem, and if it got stolen, I would hunt down the bastard, casterate him, then go out and buy a new one!

I work at a job where I answer the phone and read numbers the whole day. The last thing I want to do is come home from work or school and spend hours with programming worthless effects. I am very happy with the entire Boss line's ease of use. I press the pedal and can get the effect I want, when I want, and not have to worry about digital displays or cacophonic presets. The manual is great as well, although using it is practically irrelavent.

I have my AC-2 routed through several other Boss pedals with it at the forefront, allowing certain effects to be applied after the acoustic sound has already been simulated. When combined with my CH-1 Super chorus it sounds absolutely beautiful. From the pedals I run the sound through a Peavey Bandit 112 which sounds great for a solid state setup. I play an Epiphone Scroll 550 which comes with coil-tap so I can use either single coils or humbuckers. Personally I prefer the humbuckers, It sounds cleaner and more symphonic. The single coils almost kill the tone and make it to twangy for my taste. The jumbo setting has a lot of bass and tends to mix with my bassists sound, but it can be fixed easily by EQ the amp. Overall the tone is great. The enhanced setting works best. Although nothing can replace a great acoustic-electric tone, this comes close and it does it for a fourth the price.

Like all Boss it's built like a tank. Enough said.

I've only had mine for a few weeks, but still love it.

I play mainly hard rock and metal, but some days just playing softer pretty music is more appealing and this pedal works great for that.If you want a genuine acoustic sound, buy an acoustic, but if you're not going to use an acoustic a lot or have little money this pedal is fantastic.

I wanted a different sound the other night, just tried the knobs back and forth until I got one I liked.

I got this to use with my basses (one six-string tuned to low A, and one fretless). The typical setting I have it on is Jumbo, with all the other dials pointing the same direction as the Jumbo dial...
I like using effects and put it at the end of the signal chain. I doubt if anyone else consciously notices it - it's not an acoustic sound with my setup - but it takes a certain electrical/artificial edge off of the effected sound making it warmer and more pleasant.
Usually I use a crossover network, then I put it at the end of the treble signal chain, but it works fine for the low bass notes too.

I use different settings and arrangements everytime I play. (I play in a praise/worship band, so the sound doesn't have to be the same twice in a row like for most music.) Sometimes a favorite pedal doesn't sound right and I pull it out or bypass it for the evening. This one is subtle enough I've never had to do that.

Started playing hard rock, some lead guitar and some bass, in a garage band 29 years ago. Prefer alternative progressive rock now, which I infuse into the praise/worship band (as much as I can). If this were stolen I probably wouldn't replace it for a long time until I got tired of trying other things to improve my sound. Even though I don't often change the settings, I like the amount of variance you can give the sound. I haven't compared it to other acoustic simulators.

I posted the last review, and just figured something out...many reviewers say this pedal does little to no good for their electric guitar, though I've read quite a few that claim it enhances their cheaper A/E guitars, and I think I figured out why. Strings. The reason this pedal (and other acoustic sims) don't really turn an electric around is because you're starting with nickel or steel strings. My mando, which is strung with elixir strings, some sort of bronze alloy, sounds really natural through this pedal, but my electric just sounds a bit more airy, and I think it is because I use nickel strings on it. Not that I would start running bronze strings on my electric, but if you're not happy with your AC-2, the strings you're using might play a big part.

Three dials (level, body, top), one switch (looks like a dial but just toggles between standard, jumbo, enhance, and piezo), and a footswitch. I was able to get a decent sound just by leaving everything at 12 o'clock with the switch on standard. I'll probably tweak settings a bit more, but basically it's plug-in-and-play. The manual is brief but effective, and as with all boss maunals, gives a few ideas for starting points.

It's a simluator pedal. This will not replace your acoustic guitar, and it will not make your cheap Fender A/E sound like a Taylor, but if you need an acoustic sound for a bridge, or want to make your cheap Fender A/E sound a bit better, give this a try. Reviewers for this and the Rockman simulator tend to polarize, saying that it makes no difference in sound, or that the AC-2 is Christ incarnate in a pedal and does your taxes too, but the reality is somewhere in the middle.

I bought this pedal to enhance the sound of my Rogue A/E mandolin. So right there you know that I can't plug my mando into something that would make it sound WORSE, but the AC-2 really helps. I can play lead stuff and it comes out crisp, and when I do chop chords it sounds very natural. It won't stop me from saving up for a real mandolin, but it'll keep me content until then.

It's a Boss. Every other brand, on this review board, starts with "well, it's not a Boss, but..." Boss is the standard by which reliable is defined. The only thing I'm not sure about is its battery life. Some Bosses are very efficient, others (like my DD5) will eat a Duracell Ultra in one day of solid playing. But you should always have a few extra strings and 9Vs during a gig anyway; keep those around and you'll be ok.

I want a job doing customer support for Boss. Easiest job in the world, as nobody ever has to take anything back.

Like I said before, it's a simulator. If you have that mindset, you'll be ok. If you expect it to replace your Taylor, or you think it has, then I'll trade my AC-2 for your Taylor, straight up. And like I said before, it won't stop me from saving for a new mandolin, but it will stop me from smashing my Rogue. If it were stolen, replacing it would depend on whether or not I had a new mandolin yet.

OKAY... I went to Mars today and tested out some pedals. What I'm going to say is going to sound a bit ludicrous and even blashpemous to some people. Anyway, here's the thing. On my Zoom 3030, my favorite sound of all is to get the Acoustic sound pre-set, and then add a lot of fuzz or blues OD. Well, I tried that today with the AC-2 and a Boss Blues Driver and Distortion. To tell you the truth, I can't tell too much of a difference between the two distortion units when I put them on my favorite setting (full gain). However, with the AC-2 on, it gets me that "murder by scraping your face off with a rusty machete while listening to the Jesus And Mary Chain's early recordings". Really, sharp disgusting stuff. I could actually tell the difference between the two distortions at full. The Blues Driver sounded better with a sharper cut, warmer sound, and less sustain. Ideal for rhythm only.

I don't know, I don't own it.

If you like Psychocandy, try this with a good distortion unit (fuzz or Blues OD).

Plugged it in and it turned on. Switches very easy to turn. Manual was easy to use. Very brief. Very cool that you can have it dedicate to another amp set to take a "acoustic" sound while muting you main amp.

Running it through a Crate G-212 that I use for stereo off of a Laney 50 pro tube amp. First I tried it with a Strat which I thought would be the best choice because of the non-distorted sound of the Strat but it sounded bad. Like a Strat that was really bright. Then I tried a Les Paul and guess what, it sounded like a Les Paul. I was getting very ticked off and had all but re-packed it to send it back and I tried a Jackson Dinky with it and it sounded pretty good! Not good like you could pick your way through a Foglberg song or Dust in the wind with it but not bad. I have been messing with it picking some stuff out with it I found it sounds rotten on the "Standard" setting, muddy on the "jumbo", best on "enhanced" and so-so on "piezo". I think this pedal might do wonders for a real acoustic and really make it awesome. Just when I think the pedal really sucks I'll turn it off and that wakes me back up because when you turn it off the Acoustic piece that you were trying to play really sucks. Go figure Duncan distortion pickups playing Neil Young. Not bad. If you have a guitar with a blank sound and non-distorted pickup this might sound very good.

ALWAYS DEPEND ON THE BOSS.

Who knows. Anybody ever sent a Boss pedal back yet?

For what it is, a SIMULATION, it's pretty cool. Lots of songs I play need a little acoustic whipped in once and a while. If I had to play a whole acoustic ballad I would use a regular old acoustic, unless it was a strummer. It really is pretty handy to have and would buy another one if my fat ass cousin sat on it and somehow broke it.

I borrowed this petal from my guitarist to see just what it would be like for the BASS. It's a Boss, no manual is need to figure it out.

I own two basses one is a Washburn Bantum and the other is a Epiphone EB-1 Fretless. For the Bantum I wasn't over impressed by this effect but on the fretless it does some WONDERS. It filters out some of the harsh tones of the electic and gave a deep warm feel. I bought the fretless mainly for jazz and this petal helps make my electric fretless sound closer to an upright (double bass), which is the sound I desire from it. All by turning the body up around 60-70%, the top down to 30% and the setting on jumbo. Vary cool effect with no loss on the low end!!! In fact I was able to enhance the low end via the body control.

10+++

n/a

Well, I mainly play rock, funk, punk in bands and jazz and other experimental styles alone. For my Epi I would concider buying this petal if I could find one used and cheap. If I start a playing in a JAZZ band I feel this would be a MUST HAVE, but for indie/rock bands I'll spend my else where.

This is a very easy unit to figure out. Like most boss products within minutes after out of the box you are a master.
The manual is good.

i use this unit on humbuker and single coil guitars.
the single coil sounded like a martin somewhat. About 85 %.
Its not noisy, and sounds better than you would expect.
I have th VF-1 effects unit with abuilt in siulator by Boss, and this unit sonds better!
I was able emulate most early acoutic recordings with no problem. When it comes to the more rescent stuff I came close.
this is definitley a versatile addtion for electric users. If you have a clean amp you will be please with what this baby does. Look at 80 bucks, and aclean amp and single coil guitar you have basically saved on a ovation or martin acoustic electric guitar. thats about 700 buck saved.

i play a whole lot of styles. Bottom line is if you need the versatilty this will give it to you. If it were stolen I would but it again. What i like most is the acoustical sound it produces. that's what I am suppose to like. There was no way to compare it.
It will help me from this day forward to always know I have that edge in my arsenal of effects. that makes it a staple for guitarist in my opinion.
I t has everything it needs and more. Buy it.

Pretty straight forward....directions (like you need them) say it all.

Well people do not make the mistake of attempting to run this thing thru a effects processor. Your wasting your time. Alot of peeps wrote reviews here stating that they get alot of hissing and what not...and the only way I got that effect was running it thru a digitech 2120 -> alesis EQ -> sonic maximizer into a Mesa Triple Rec and Mesaa 4x12 cab. It sounds like shit...but running it on a seperate channel by itself thru a Gibson Explorer with a EMG 85/81 config I was really impressed with its results. No of course it doesnt get the Martin tones but like whats been said earlier this is a SIMULATOR pedal not the real damn thing. And for what it does Its really worth the money.

Its a BOSS pedal. Get mad at it and chuck it accross the room. It'll never die

never dealt with them before

Again for what it does people its just a little miracle. I was really impressed of the tones that an EMG 85 gave it.

No manual, but no problem. Gain, Bass, Treble, Mode. Pretty easy, but more tweaking than usual to dial in a sound.

I ran the following guitars into the following amps: Telecaster Plus, Hamer mystery model (as in, I don't know what model it is), and a Takamine acoustic/electric through a JC-120 and an Acoustasonic Jr. At first attempt, all configurations made the sound extremely muddy and sucked out all tone. The key to making it sound respectable is cranking the volume on your amp. The electrics sounded very similar, perhaps a bit better on the Hamer w/ the humbuckers, but the Takamine was atrocious. Unlike a previous reviewer, who said it would make a cheap acoustic sound like a Taylor, it took my decent acoustic and made it sound like crap. Try for yourself I guess. I found too much treble made it very noisy, and not enough made the sound muddy.

To me overall rating = sound rating. The other crap is just what it takes to get there. This is my first HC review, although I've been playing for 10+ years and own lots of gear. I was prompted to write because of all the glowing reviews. I was greatly looking forward to this pedal, saw them fetching legitimate prices on ebay, and jumped at the chance to get one "cheap". I wasn't impressed at all. At this point I won't be adding it to my rig. The sounds are just plain muddy or hissy. I'd much rather play any "acoustic" song clean through my current setup than through this thing. But all you rawkers with your BC Rich going into your Marshall stack can use this pedal to play your power ballads. Besides, I've only got so much room on my peadalboard.

This is a COMPARISON & FIRST IMPRESSION review... for a while I've had my Rockman Accoustic Pedal and I absolutely love it. I'd heard about the Boss version of it and decided to give it a try out of curiosity. Both are very easy to use, but the Rockman is easier. The Rockman has a gain knob which the Boss doesn't have. The gain will add a bit of bite to your sound and I kinda like it on my accoustic but I hate it when used with an electric. Most people don't like the gain on the Rockman though. Both units have a "Level","Top" and
"Body" knob on them. The Boss has a mode selector which gives you different types of sounds, though I didn't find there was a huge difference between the modes. The feature I really like on the Boss is the dual outputs... they were really thinking smart here. One output for when the pedal is on and the other for when the pedal
is off. So when the pedal is on you can send the output to your accoustic amp. When the pedal is off, you can send the output to your Marshall stack! Wish the Rockman had that. The manual is well written, but I doubt you'll need it.

Last night I played both the Rockman and Boss back and forth for about a half an hour. I tried it with my electric guitar (humbuckers) as well as my Takamine accoustic straight into a Yorkville PA system.
It was clear to me that the Rockman was much more authentic sounding, but minutes after I came to that conclusion my friend came into my studio and gave the exact OPPOSITE oppinion! I found the Boss to give
a very tinny sound compared to the Rockman. Both units will do an ok
job of making your electric guitar sound like an accoustic, but I have found they are more appropriately used to make your $200 accoustic guitar sound like a Taylor! Both pedals will do that folks... they will do to your accoustic sound what a BBE Sonic Maximizer will do to your distortion... when you turn it off, you feel like all the life is sucked out of your sound. I should also add that these things can be used on other instruments. I use the Rockman to transform my crappy $50 "cardboard sounding" mandolin into something I can actually record. I normally play classical guitar, but I do play steel stringed instruments too. Both units are quiet and I get no hum from them. I give the Rockman a 9 for sound and this thing a 7.

Both the Rockman and Boss get a perfect 10 here.
Metal casings and sturdy footswitches. They'll never die folks!

Never dealt with Boss. Rockman no longer exists but you might be able to deal with Dunlop.

At first I'd have to say the Rockman sounds better than this thing. I'll use it for the next few months and if I change my mind, then I'll leave another review. I wish I could combine the two units into one... a unit which has the Rockman sound, the gain knob of the Rockman, dual outputs of the Boss, 9V DC power of the Boss (Rockman uses 18V DC - a very hard to find adapter) and the mode selector of the Boss. Perhaps I'll play around with them and see how they sound when connected together.

There are 3 self explanatory knobs. Easy to tweak.

Here's a tip: it would be best to use this pedal with a quality (eliminating Squier, rogue,harmony and other lower end guitars) electric through a quality amp that is at least 25watts or has a speaker at least 10" in diameter in order to get the widest frequency output. I've tried it in a 15watt, 8" Fender practice amp and the Princeton 112 with 65w and 12", and there is a clear and extreme difference! I've also used it with my Carvin and a nice Fender Tele, and the Carvin, with its active/passive electronics, gave such a clarity and boominess to the sound on the single coil select neck pick up that it could be used for recording phrases. The Tele made it sound wussy. True, not a replacement for a real acoustic, but it very convincing. If if sounds like cheese, it's probably the guitar or the amp.

I use a Danelectro Fish&Chips EQ with this thing, and it makes a difference in shaping overall tone and getting rid of the hiss. I strongly recommend using an eq with it. Also, it is important to note that the eq settings should not look like the standard "v" but more like an "m". Go to the Boss ge-7 eq tips page to see what i'm talking about. makes strumming alot smoother sounding.

take some time to synchronize the guitar and pedal to get best sound. don't use it with a mutlifx because it will ruin the sound. instead, invest in a LS-2 line selector and create a separate acoustic signal loop and add a chorus or something to it. that way it'll be clean as a bell.

Solid. No back up.

Havent tried. Harmony Central pages and reviews probably do more to help though. Consulted this page before buying.

I'm a serious musician playing for almost 8 years. I am impressed with this pedal. I would absolutely replace it. Don't even consider getting the zoom acoustic pedal. This pedal stand alone as an accurate and adequate simulator. If you're like me, you are looking for a review to convince you to but it. Well, I'm telling you to try it and get it if it's what you're looking for. All the negative stuff about his and bad sound seem to be (according to their descriptions of themselves) a result of cheapy equipment. (No offense guys, I've been there too) Use good stuff and take time to tweak and add some modulation effects, and you'll be more than gig worthy.

Uh - turney-twisty knobs, well labeled, manual if necessary (helpful actually with regard to cabling options with the two output jacks...) pretty straightforward.

If you are not gettig great tone from this pedal... it's probably more to do with your pickups and amp than with the pedal. Having said that, this pedal is quite intolerant of imperfections in the signal path.

I can get a GREAT acoustic sound out of this thing. Just one mind you with minor variations... but that's what knobs are for... to dial in the sound you want. Sounds just like our Larrivee Orchestra model (truth). With properly wired single coils and a clean amp you can acheive a sound that will suffice for the occasional "acoustic" passages or even songs in a set. Frankly, I get such a great sound (rewired strat, B+M pickup) that I just use the pedal when I could just as easily reach for my acoustic. And I could play any acoustic I wanted to really... just an idea regarding the potential excellent sound with the right equipment.

This pedal in combination with a distortion pedal or crunch circuit of any discription sounds like hell. It needs to be clean. If you need a distorted acoustic sound look elsewhere.

Interested in a few simple modifications to improvide the sound of your stratocaster or telecaster - www.guitarnuts.com - "Quieting the Beast" took me, a soldering novice" about 2 hours to complete and I weep with joy every time I pick up my strat. All the bite and clarity of the single coil Texas Specials with zero hum (no 60Hz hum, no RF interference, nothing).

The point is, my guitar contributes to the success I'm having with this pedal.

They shoud just eliminate this category from the BOSS product reviews... I think if I dropped this into ten-ton press I'd have to buy the guy a new press.

I dunno... never had to talk to them... wait. let me think... nope, never thought about talking to them.

Play all styles... custom strat > (NS-2 used only with the OS-2) > 535q > CS-3 > OS-2 > AC-2 > various amps
Playing a long time. It's a bit odd that the gain has to be on "10" just to equal the untreated signal - unlike every other BASS pedal I own. The sound is great with chorus or reverb or both. In my humble opinion it works best with single coils and a clean channel. My experience with humbuckers and this pedal is limited though. Works well with a pick (plucked or strummed) and fantastic with fingerpicking styles.

Very easy to use, especially if you are familiar with acoustics and boss pedals. Has a level, bottom (low) top (high) and a mode that selects the type of acoustic you want to simulate, jumbo (deep body, more boomy) standard, or piezio type ac/elc. I tried this out in a store and was really impressed. It was very easy to use, no manual was available to me since it was the floor demo model. I sat and messed around with it for about 25 mins and had no problem dialing in the good sounds.

Ok, there seem to be a lot of whiners here reviewing this pedal and saying "It was ok but it didn't sound like a $$$$ Martin or Takamine" Well no sh*t! The key word here is SIMULATOR. If you take this pedal for what it is you'll have no problems or complaints. Likewise...crap in equals crap out with guitars. I see complaints from people who say they used it with a Squier strat into a Crate practice amp. No offense to anyone...but I think you know what I mean. I used this with the "demo" setup they had in the store which was an Epi Les Paul Custom into their Boss pedal display and out into a Marshall VS amp. The EPI and Marshall VS aren't tops but they're certainly better than a Squier in a little Crate. I think I lot of people expect instant gratification here as well. You have to take time to tweak a little. I already knew the "jumbo" setting would have the fullest sound so that's what I dialed in first. Strummed a little...sat the body up about 75% rolled the Top back to about 25% and used the neck pickup. What I got was a nice acoustic electric guitar passable SIMULATION. Adding a little reverb and a bit of chorus really sweetened things up as well but the straight sound was nice too. The Standard setting yeilded a little more boxy tone with a tad more mids, a little less full sounding. The Piezio sound more "zingy" like if you were using one of those Fishman bridge setups on an electric...like Parker Fly's have. The bottom line again...is SIMULATION. Don't buy this expecting for it to take the place of a nice real accoustic. What you get is a nice accoustic electric sound that's a little processed. Its an EFFECTS pedal...what do you expect? I see it as a very useful tool especially for live work when you have a song that needs something special in the clean passages where switching to a real accoustic would be either impossible or impractical....Steve Howe is about the only who can get away with that haha. As far as the hiss that some are complaining about...why the hell are you cranking up the Top anyway?! Use your neck pickup and keep the Top rolled back a bit. Anything over 50% is just not neccessary! Also, again...if you're going to plug in with some Squier strat and try to use the bridge pickup and expect it to not sound hissy or zingy or whatever you're not using your head to begin with.

Its a Boss. I've NEVER seen a broken one.

Never had to deal with them...they usually never break.

Its a very good tool for SIMULATING a nice acoustic electric sound. It does what it does very well. As long as you aren't expecting it to replace your Martin, Takamine, or other $$$$ acoustic you shouldn't have too many complaints. Its a very cool pedal that does what its made to do, nothing more nothing less. I can't wait to get one for myself. Anyone got a used one they want to sell?

This is a pretty easy unit to use. It's just like a standard stompbox. The EG out is a pretty sweet feature. It lets you hook this baby up to 2 amps, and when its on, it will bypass the other effects in the chain, and just put itself through the 2nd amp. The manual does a good job in explaing the different modes.

Ok, here's the deal. This amp doesn't make your electric guitar sound like an acoustic. It lacks the hollow sound that an acoustic makes. But what this pedal does do, is make your clean channel sound beautiful. I cant really explain it, but it makes a sort of smooth glassy sound. Just watch out if any of your strings buzz. This thing picks up buzzing like nobody's business.

Don't throw it on the floor. you might wreck your floor. Its a tank!

I've heard not so good things about Boss support.

I bought this pedal without trying it. Lucky for me I like it. But that's just me. Some people really hate this thing. Try before you buy! If it were stolen, I'd get another one. I've been playing 7 years, and this one of the coolest effects I've used. I play prog rock, metal, folk, and jazz. This pedal is good for all these styles.

Easy to use, quite to find a sweet spot though. the manual is good enough

use a squire stratocaster, an aria pe dlx sd, a boss me30, marshall g80rcd. its quite hissy, and emphasises fret buzz. If you close your eyes, and actually forget that your playing an electric, it sounds very close to an electro acoustic being played through an amp. Good.
I actually compared it to a crafter "ovation" style guitar. Plugged in, they sounded about the same.

Would gig without back up.
It seems very strong, but here's something interesting: I dropped a capo on it, and it took two chips of paint off. I thought Boss were very sturdy in ALL aspects?
Batteries last quite a while.

Bought it off Goodwins in Capel Street, Dublin. Gave me #15 off it.

Sounds like an electro acoustic being played through an amp, and it does definitley sound better with higher gauge strings, just like a real acoustic. Worth checking out at least. Even for those who don't think it sounds like an acoustic, it does give a much more rounded, fuller smoother tone to your clean sounds. Nice pedal, but very expensive compared to other Boss FX.

A stompbox isn't too hard to figure out

I basically bought this pedal to see what it sounded like, I now have it up for sale on Ebay. Please don't buy it because you want your electric to sound just like an acoustic. The sounds are interesting, but very fake sounding. I ran it through my Crate GFX, and basically I could have gotten the same effect by switching to my neck pickup. (By the way, this pedal does NOT agree whatsoever with a seven string guitar) :)

Boss pedals are built like tanks, this one is no exception

didn't need

This pedal would be good for playing acoustic guitar interludes (short ones) live. But the sounds are not exactly pro as far as I'm concerned.

very simple; volume, 2 band EQ, mode. I got a nice strumming sound within seconds which works well for finger picking too.

I play a Mexican standard Tele with a Duncan distortion neck humbucker and a rio grande muy grande bridge single coil, into a Marshall JCM900 SL-X Head. Some people said that it hisses when you put the "top" up too high, but it is very trebley anyway, there is no need to put it past about one o'clock ever. It is true that you need to max out the level to equal the unaffected sound, but why have it any louder?
The tone itself is excellent, from warm and rich to hard and bright, it really does mimic an acoustic tone in a way that no ordinary EQ pedal can. I think someone has already mentioned Weezer in this set of reviews and this is an excellent example of this pedal coming into it's own- acoustic intros and verses in otherwise distorted songs. I'm sure, as so many others have said, that this is not intended to replace a decent electro-acoustic. it cannot be done, but nor can swapping between electric and acoustic in a song. An excellent addition to any chain.

It's a boss. I tried to convince a friend to try dropping his metal zone on a concrete floor but he wont believe it's harmless- well, it is.

This is probably where I should mention the best feature and how I use it. As you can see by the photo it has two outputs, one for the affected sound and one for the unaffected sound. I route the unaffected signal through my line 6 DM-4 Distortion box and rejoin it to the affected sound, which both go to the amp. This means that now to change between clean and distortion I only stomp one switch, and I can have distortion only effects e.g. compression on the distortion line and clean/distortion effects e.g. chorus after the signals are rejoined.
I have been playing 2 and a half years, and I plan to implement my above examples with a Danelectro surf and turf and a Boss CE-3. This is an excellent pedal for me and well worth buying. I also use a Simon and Patrick electro-acoustic, which this pedal could never replace.

Very easy to use. Four knobs. "Standard" setting sounds the best to me. The manual is there, but if you're an actual musician, "we don't need no stinking manuals!"

I seem to have a slightly different take on this. I play in a 3 piece band. (27 yrs experience) I have several guitars, but who can swap during a song?! I have 2 acoustic electrics. A Gibson EC-20 and an Ovation Legend Custom. If I want acoustic, I play acoustic. But, I bought this pedal to do the songs that start off clean and acoustic but then rock later on. (Fuel, etc.) I primarily use a Gibson Les Paul Custom through a Marshall JCM2000 full stack. With the bridge pickup, this pedal gives me a nice "fake" acoustic sound that sounds really great. Don't buy this pedal expecting to replace an acoustic, but it's perfect for what I bought it for...flexibility within a song that requires both sounds. There is some slight hiss with too much top dialed in.

Boss is indestructible. I have an old CE-2 that is forever old and still is the only chorus that I take on the road.

Never a need for support. The pedals are tanks and are always easy to operate.

The people who expected a pure acoustic sound to start with were on the wrong track before they bought. This pedal is meant purely to accent parts of songs that require an acoustic, not play a whole night of Jimmy Buffet. If I were to lose mine somehow, I would definitely replace it with another.

Plenty easy.

I borrowed this to use with my Yamaha AEX-520 through a Crate acoustic amp while my acoustic-electric was down. I figured it would sound better with an acoustic amp than with my Hot Rod Deluxe. It didn't. The first thing I noticed was hiss and high-end noise. I had a really hard time getting a decent sound. No, I did not expect to get a perfect in every way acoustic sound, but I thought it could be a lot better.

It's a Boss.

Like I said, I didn't expect perfection from this pedal, but it's pretty disappointing. If I actually owned one, I would sell it to the nearest dupe, then I'd buy a cheap acoustic-electric for a backup guitar if mine ever conks out again. I would rather use a $200 poorly made acoustic-electric than the acoustic simulator.
I suppose this pedal might sound good if tweaked just right, but the amount of hiss it had was just terrible. I didn't really have the time or patience to mess with it too much, but any pedal that takes more than 5 minutes to get a good sound out of isn't worth beans.

Can you say "ABC"

I use a Gibson Les Paul studio with a Digitech RP-100 amp simulator plugged directly in my PC's Soundcard.

I bought this pedal mainly for recording. This is the best gadget I have in my collection.

A small hiss apears with to much "top".

Have you ever tried to kill a BOSS pedal ?

I play mainly hard rock in the same genre as Rush, Van Halen, Dream Theater, etc.

The AC-2 gave me the sound I was looking for !

Very easy to use. It has 4 different modes of different tones that you can use.The manual has a couple of sound settings but to find the best sound you just have to mess around with it.

This thing sounds great, but if you are expecting the sound of a Martin then you will just have to buy one.The tones are great and have transformed my clean channel into a much more powerful acoustic tone.I use an Ibanez rg 270 through a Marshall 80rcd. I have a pedalboard that has a grunge,envelope filter,phaser,crybaby,jackhammer,and the AC

BUILT LIKE A BRICK WALL!!!!!!

It has a good sound and can turn toneless into greatness.

very easy to use. 4 knobs, if thats too difficult there is alwaws a fifth one.....manual for it good. tells you what it is and how to work it.

good sound, but you really can't expect it to sound like a $1000 real acoustic because it 'simulates' but it gets the job done. i play it through my fender deluxe 112 plus but it sounds bestout of this little 50w yorkville monitor/amp/preamp? way better than my regular amp.

it's BOSS no more said. you could run it over with a tank and have maybe a few scratches on it. VERY reliable.

never dealt with boss before hope i don't have to

i play any type of music, and this pedal is awesome when i need to add that little bit of acoustic rythm to a song.

Very straight forward and easy to use. Pretty much a "no Brainer"

I have noted that the reviews for this unit are mixed. If you are running a humbucking equipped guitar through a tube amp, I can see why you might not be happy with your results. This effect works best with low to medium output neck position single coil or neck position coil tapped humbucker pickups through a solid state amplifier. It also helps greatly to roll off your guitars volume knob. I am using both a Fender Deluxe Strat and a Carvin DC-200 through a Marshall VS-265 Valvestate and get good results. Of course, if you think you are going to get your Strat to sound like a $2500 Martin by using this device, you are dead wrong. The tone is similar to that of a pietzo pickup equipped acoustic/electric guitar. It works great live in situations where you need to cover an acoustic part without switching guitars. My only complaint about the AC-2 is that the level knob is practically useless. In order to get the effected signal volume to match the uneffected signal volume, you have to max out the level control. Also, the unit has an odd knack for picking up and amplifying fret buzz when using a hard pick attack. If you pick hard and like low action, this unit might not be for you. I have had to raise my action slightly and modify my playing technique a bit in order to use this effectively.

I have never experienced a problem with BOSS gear.

The BOSS people are very knowlegable and helpful on the phone. My only gripe hear is that they should offer E-mail support system from their web page, so I will knock them down a bit.

I play hard rock. This pedal works great for me in that I can go from a heavy sound to an acoustic like sound without switching guitars. I did not compare it to any other products. I bought mainly based on my past experience with BOSS effects. I would certainly replace this if lost or stolen.

I just bought this thing and after about 30mins of tweaking i got a good acoustic sound that i like. 4 knobs, the manual does an ok job on explaining things.

I use a fender strat through a nevada ng10 amp, which is pretty cheap. I also use it with a nevada strat copy. I get a nice sound, but there is a slight hissing and "chopping" noise coming through. But thats because i have the gain on my amp maxed, and treble turned to 12 o'clock, and bass maxed. I tested the pedal on mainly weezer songs and it did the job.

i play mostly weezer and creed and got the sounds pretty good.

I have the level switch at 11 o'clock, the body at 9, top at 3 and mode at standard/jumbo.

I use the piezo mode when i play pixies songs.

its my first pedal, and i can say i will buy more boss pedals. I would use it on gigs. But then again, i've only used it for 2 days...

never dealt with them.

I'd probably try to steal one of these if mine was stolen, i dont have money to get another one. Overall it is pretty much what i wanted to get from an acoustic sim pedal.

Four knobs - twist 'em 'til you get the sound you want. I found the Enhance mode gives me a sound I like better than the other modes.

I use a dual humbucker solid body through a Digitech GSP-5 into a Carvin CX1272. The AC-2 tends to sound really boomy if I use both humbuckers, but the bridge pickup alone sounds alright. Like the other reviews said this effect doesn't mimic an acoustic perfectly, but it gives a much closer tone than you get with anything else. Other reviewers said it's noisy, but I didn't notice much noise going through the Carvin powered mixer (which tends to be noisy in stereo mode).

I could build a house with it.

It works well to mimic the acoustic sounds on Boston tunes, not quite right for ELP or Niel Young, but close enough for most purposes. I only paid $50 for it used, and would definately get another one at that price if it got lost - I'm not sure why anyone would pay the $169 suggested price when there's so many places to get one cheaper.

This pedal is very easy to use. Follow thw manual for a base tone then tweak from there.

I didn't have very high expectations for this pedal but it does what I wanted it to. Its close to an acoustic not the same but close enough for my tastes & uses. I use it with m a Rickenbacker 330 & Rickenbacker 360/12. I have also used it with a Stratocaster. I'd recomend it for a quick & dirty acoustic sound but you are better off with an actual acoustic if you plan on playing mainly acoustic tunes

I've never had a problem with BOSS equipment before & don't expect to with this pedal either.

Never used customer support

Like I said before the AC-2 does what I wanted it to. Its not the same as using a real acoustic but for the amount of acoustic style music I play its close enough. Its great for a change of pace but I don't feel it would cut it for an "Unplugged" session

Really easy,,,,just a few knobs,,,,you mess around for five 5 mins and you find the sound you want.

I bought this unit without trying it at all,,,,I just read the reviews on here and it sounds ok.
I use a Gibson Les Paul Custom through a Fender Pro Reverb with BOSS DS-1, TR-2 and AC-2.
When I first got this I used it with my KORG AXG1 multi effects unit and wasn't impressed at all.
I have since been using it without the KORG and I really like it. Since I've started buying BOSS pedals I really hate the KORG and don't bother with it anymore....it just messes up the sounds and is generally horrible.

I like to play mainly rock (Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers) and this works perfectly for the acoustic parts in songs. There's loadsa people complaining that it doesn't sound like a Martin, Takemine e.t.c but what do you expect for a pedal that costs a fraction of the price....on an electric guitar?!
A lot of people have recommended using this with a Chorus pedal. I have only tried it with chorus on the KORG and it sucks,,,,but it probably sounds good with a BOSS Chorus as the TR-2 Tremolo unit sounds great with the AC-2.
I just practise at home but I'm sure this would be an ideal pedal to use on stage.
There is a little noise when not playing but nothing to cry about...anyway,,,,you're supposed to play the guitar not stand there listening to noise!!!

Anyone who has actually managed to break a BOSS let me know please....and also what weapon you used to smash it,,,I'd like to try it out . :-)

I'LL NEVER HAVE TO TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT REPAIRS

Overall an excellent unit.
I still think #90 was a little expensive but it was the cheapest I could find it anywhere in London.....and as they last for 10000000 years it's good value for money.
If it were stolen I guess I'd cry,,,then save up to get another.

One last thing,,,,if anyone has any ideas of what I can do with the KORG AXG1 to work nicely with BOSS pedals,,,,please let me know.

THANKS EVERYONE....AND GO OUT AND BUY ONE OF THESE THINGS!!!

Its pretty easy to use, but less experienced players may findi it irritating to get a good sound, a trait I find with a lot of BOSS pedals. The manual is pretty crap, just saying what connections are to be made and a coupla sample settings that dont really amount to anything much.

Right, I have tried this on: A Japanease BC RICH, Jackson, Ibanez, American Std. Strat and a Gibson Les Paul. I have to say, that on the first three, it just completely muddies up the tone - useless. The Gibson was a little better, but for best results, it should really be used on a Single Coil guitar (not necesarily a strat). Its a little noisy, but just slap a Noise Suppresser in there and its all good. I dont find it as big a problem tho for buying a BOSS NS specially, not to the extent in the other reviews i read. I put all of them through a Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier with 2 matching 412 cabz (oh yes!) I didnt really buy this to sound like anyone, so I cant give examples, but there are some sounds on there that are pleasing to the ear drum! I also like the second output where you can put your distortion on one output and the LS-2 on the other and flick between them easily. Nice... Bottom line, if you use a humbucker loaded guitar, forget it. Coil taps and the like are very welcome!

Id say you could rely on this. I wouldnt really use this in a live situation, its more of a studio/bedroom toy for me.

Pleh...

I play mostly metal, Seps, Pantera, Deicide, Dimmu Borgir, this ped is good for the lighter parts. Ive been playing 10 years, and own tonnes of gear. I would buy this again if it were lost or stolen, but not at that price! I wish it worked better with Humbucking pickups and I think I would hate this if it wasnt for the strat - i think ive actually found a use for my strat - I hate these things!

Pretty easy to understand. Take some time with the minor adjustments to get the sound your looking for. I found it helpful to start with the guitar selector, then the body, then the top. Once you get the guitar type and body, the top will smooth out your sound.

I play a PRS Custom 22 through an effects chain of an AC-2, Boss Metal Zone (M-2), Boss Blues Driver (BD-1), volume pedal (homeade), and digitech RP-7 processor (for my time effects). I play this clusterf#%@ through a '67 Fender Bassman 135 through a Marshall 1960a 4x12 Slant Cab. The biggest problem I had with the pedal was getting enough output. I had to crank it up pretty hot to get it even with my cleans. It tends to interface a little funky with the compression. Once you do find the right level, the pedal is pretty damn good for what it is.

It's Boss. 'Nuff said.

NA

If you are tired of lugging an acoustic around, sick of feedback from electric acoustics, or both, this pedal allows you to limit your guitar switching on stage whithout sacrificing too much sound quality. If you run this with any other effects, it's best to place it first in the chain. Happy playing!

Very easy to use. Have the manual but never looked at it. Pretty much obvious in it's controls.

I read all the other reviews and decided to try one for myself. Playing Blues Hawk and a Les Paul through a Fender Pro Reverb, sounds MUCH better with the Blues Hawk. Set on bridge PU and varitone adjusted correctly I get a very convincing acoustic guitar sound..especially with regular (non-bar) chording. To tell you the truth I was very pleasantly surprised. Also gives nice old blues sound on leads anywhere on the neck (as you would hear on old blues recordings). It will be a very useful tool indeed. Only problem I've encountered is the buzz it produces..especially at higher volumes with increased treble.

I've found that Boss pedals are very dependable

Never had to use it

I play most rock based blues, playing for over 30 years, use Les Paul Custom and Blues Hawk through Pro Reverb, original TS-9 and BBE Sonic Maximizer. This pedal will work in very nicely..offers tonal qualities not availble without it. We play a couple of songs that need an acoustic guitar and the AC-2 will work fine. I'd buy another if something happened to it.

Well, I doesn't have that many options on it, so it didn't take a long time from me to get use to it.

This is the part that I wanted to talk about. Some of you guys complain because it doesn't sound like a real acoustic, but the thing is that it's not! It's the same thing as MIDI's and Sound font banks. You get a tone that is good, and the rest is up to you. I have a jpm-100P2 , and with the pick-up selector in the middleposition, it sounds great. Not like an Martin, but very impressive

It's a boss.

1- No e-mail address in their web page?
Come on! You would think that they would get a customer support via internet but no.
G#?Dam" AS#H?l#s!!

Luckily the boss pedals are so reliable that I won't need a customer support. Try it out.

first off, here's some info on me so you'll know where this review
is coming from. i play electric and acoustic rhythm guitar, but
mainly acoustic...i'm using a piezo bridge pickup in my acoustic
and single coil in the neck position for my electric.
this pedal is simple to to use, it's easy to tell what the knobs
do, HOWEVER it takes some work to find a good sound...i've found
that it doesn't produce a variety of sounds that i care to hear..
BUT it does produce that one good sound i like...it's just a matter
of working with it to get it dialed in...the manual does a good
job of explaining operation of the unit. once you learn how to use
it you can fine tune the sound no problem...it's just a matter of
finding what works best with your guitar and pickups...the booklet
offers some helpful setting if you're using this with and electric..

the biggest problem i have with this pedal is when i turn it on it
makes a noticeable hissing noise..so i wouldn't say it was studio
quiet...if i had more power with my amp i might could turn down and
eliminate this, i'm not sure...
electric players: if you play mainly electric and just need an
acoustic sound occasionally on stage, this could very well be the
pedal for you...it can make a nice clean sound, but obviously not
as good as a real acoustic..
acoustic players: this pedal improves my plugged in acoustic/electric
sound a lot once i get it dialed into the right setting...it helps
bring up the bass as well as the treble..i like to cut the mids like
a lot of acoustic players...
bottom line: try it out before you buy it if you can with your gear
before deciding to buy it...i've had a love/hate relationship with
this pedal, but now i'm liking it with my acoustic/electric..

the pedal seems VERY dependable! very solid....and i would gig
without a backup because i really don't have the money to buy
another one of these...but i don't see any problems with it...

i've never dealt with them..

i play folk/pop/rock/alternative...and this pedal can work fine
for any of those styles...if it were stolen or lost, i might
spend some extra money to get a tech 21 acoustic di, since i'm
mainly an acoustic player now....
i like that this pedal improves my acoustic sound with my current
equipment...i don't like the hissing noise which is more noticeable
at higher volumes...once again, try before you buy!

This is an updated version of this pedal. I originally submitted a review on 7/20/99.Tell you what ,disregard that posting. The AC-2 I originally bought must of been a lemon. I tried one again at local music store and was impressed. The sound this time was excellent. The manual I thought was helpful. The first AC-2 I bought must have been used or abused. This one was totally cool.

I use Marshall half stack and a Les Paul. The highs are high and the lows are low. Hardly no noise with this one.Put in the enhance mode it's sounds excellent in any pickup combo.Sounds really good with a BOSS chorus.

It's a BOSS. That's all I gotta say.

They are good as usual. Company told me the first AC-2 I bought must have been pre owned and re packaged. Know what I believe them.

This pedal is cool. Sounds excellent and saves alot of time when it comes to setting up a acoustic guitar at a gig. Overall a good bargin.All four modes are effective for different acoustical numbers.I am a 21 year ameatuer but I recommend this one. As I said before disregard my previous submission,I was dissapointed at the time!!

It is pretty easy to use; it has four knobs - level, body, top & mode. But you have to do some experiments to get convincing acoustic sounds from it.

At first I thought this pedal was a joke, but I soon realized that I was wrong. After some experiments, I could get very convincing acoustic sounds from my Powerhouse Strat using the neck pickup. I set the level to 4 o'clock, body & top to 2 o'clock and mode to either enhance or piezo, and then I added a little bit of chorus & reverb. I don't own a guitar amp because I play guitar for home studio recording. On my Event 20/20p, my Strat thru the AC-2 does sound like an acoustic guitar (My Ibanez & Epiphone didn't work well with the AC-2). Well, the sound quality doesn't come close to a real Martin, but the AC-2 delivers better amplified acoustic sounds than did a Yamaha APX-6 & an Ovation Celebrity that I used to own. Curiously, my old Zoom 9002, which I've hardly used for last 5 years works like magic with the AC-2. I've also tried my RP-3, UA-100 & Lexicon MPX100 in conjuction with the AC-2 but for some unknown reasons, the AC-2 thru the 9002 sounds the most authetic. Others have complained about the noise coming from the AC-2, but I don't hear too much noise even when the top knob is cranked up.

Boss (aka Roland) products are built like a tank.

The AC-2 is awesome. It will not replace a real acoustic (Nothing will ever) but it does deliver very pleasing acoustic guitar sounds. I can finally enjoy acoustic guitar sounds even at 3AM.

Well I've used BOSS pedals for 21 years and this one just doesn't cut it. Sorry. Manual was helpful. As far as a good sound it just didn't happen. Basically sounded like a Radio shack setup.

I use a Marshall JCM half stack and a Gibson Les Paul Studio Gem. The pedal constantly had a hissing sound no matter what settings. The top end was way to high even at min sttings. The Bottom was way too much. Sounded like a metal zone missing the gain switch.

Like I said I've used BOSS pedals for 20 plus years. I hate to down grade this pedal but got to be honest.

Never have dealt to much with BOSS personal.Only a few times. Top notch company.

Bought this pedal on a Friday. By Sunday it was traded off for a Digital delay.Sorry BOSS but this pedal was better left off a memory in the factory.Got to use the real thing,acoustic,for the true sound.

The unit's minimal control interface is easy to navigate and self-explanatory. Other variables (pickup type and position, amp settings, effects) will increase the time needed to dial in the best sound, however.

I've tried a '78 Les Paul, a custom Strat with Lace-sensors, and an Epi Flying-V with Gibson '57 Classic + pickups, all through a Mesa/Boogie Mk III. The box can be tweaked to produce an acceptable sound with all of them, though it sounds best with the Strat, neck pickup. With the Humbucking guitars, the bridge seems to sound better. The box is definitely hissy, especially in enhance mode. I recommend keeping the "top" level as low as you can stand. Surprisingly, the "Piezo" setting sounds best to my ears, though I'm certain other guitar/amp combos may prefer other settings. For my purposes, this box is magic.

I have 15 year-old Boss pedals that have survived years of road-abuse: beer, dirt, roadies, vomit. Never once a problem.

Never needed to.

I've been playing about 23 years, both professionally and semi-pro. I own several stomp-boxes and minimal rack gear, and have spent much time trying to minimize my setup. I have rarely used acoustic guitars live because of the logistical and technical problems involved (feedback, changing guitars, lack of stage space for stand-up guitar holders). I play in a Genesis tribute band, which requires acoustic sounds on occasion. I have played these parts with a clean electric sound until now. The convenience of setup and the ability to switch easily between electric and a passable acoustic sound makes this box perfect for my purposes, though, needless to say, it is a simulation. If you need a cheap and easy way to get reasonable faux-acoustic sounds, this is your puppy.

This unit is very easy to use and the manual is very straight forward providing helpful suggestions on settings to got you started.

This is probably my most subjective pedal I own as far as trying to rate it for sound quality. The biggest debit is that the level has to be maxed to equal a pre effect volume. This makes the pedal very "hissy" especially when you increase top (treble) past 12:00. If you are an amplified acoustic player, this pedal probably would sound like crap to you, as an electric solid body player, I feel you can dial this pedal in to got a very good sounding simulation. The rub of it is that with all the available settings the pedal offers, it only sounds great when you use a preset pickup configuration with preset pedal configurations. (For example, I use the outside coils on my PRS with the pedal set on max level, body and top at 12:00, and mode on enhance. Any other setting sounds bad.) So, if you expect this pedal to give you lots of different simulations you will be disappointed, if you strive, you can match one great tone per guitar. Oh yeah, I highly recommend you run a chorus behind this pedal to get one killer tone.

I haven't ever had any problems with any of my Boss pedals. I did buy the AC adaptor because this thing eats batteries fairly quick.

For adding occasional accoustic coloring to your electric set, this pedal is great when coupled with a chorus pedal. I caution you to not expect the world since I can only get one great pre set tone from this pedal. As far as buying a new one if this pedal was lost, I sure wish I would have tried other acoustic simulators so that I could have compared to begin with. There may be better machines out there.

OK! You other guys are pretty dumb if you bought this thing and expected it to give you acoustic sounds through your solid axe. I will tell you why I bought this pedal. I came across a store that was going out of business and figured what the hell I'll buy a AC-2 for 49$ new. The reason was I had the idea of using this pedal for kindof an experiment with eq and sound tweaking on my acoustic electric (Takamine). I had no intention of trying to use this with my electrics (solid bodies)becuase I new it wasn't possible to get an real good sound. So anyway to all the acoustic guys this pedal is very nice for tweaking your acoustic elec. sound alot of possibilities in this pedal just try it and see. To the electric solid guys, please don't embarass yourself, if you wanto sound second rate cheesy then be my guest. Me myself I am a Jimmy Page wannabe, I can blow your mind on an acoustic or elctric solid or classical nylon string. My gear-1-62 Fender Jaguar, 1reissue Jaguar50th Anniv. with Seymour Duncan 1/4 Jag Pickups and vintage Jag in Bridge Position, 1-69 Tele with B-bender, 1-vintage 381 Rickenbacker

Pretty cool for acoustic guitars. For electrics? Well, please try and develop a clue! I DON'T THINK SO!

Lottsa Knobs and choices but easy to get a wide variety of sounds with a little tweaking.

I play 2 Strats. One a vintage 1974 and the other an off the rack 1999 Mexican model. The guitars didn't seem to differ in tone but the amps made a difference.
I've got 2 amps on stage. Through the Marshall Twin it's got a decent sound but I think the natural overdrive (clean channel of course) of Marshall casues it to have a lot of hum/buzzing and not a real clean sound.
Through a smaller Carvin ... it sounds a lot better. The dynamics are easier to get since it's not in Overdrive through the amp.
BUT, no matter how you slice it, the volume is too low and it does create a bit of noise. The box must be turned almost all the way up just to get within striking distance of the 'no effects' volume.

We play a wide variety of music from Country to Classic Rock to current hits and a little progressive (is that still the right term?). Many of the songs have riffs that need an acoustic opening or filler and being able to get to that sound with a pedal is great.
I really wanted to try out the ROCKMAN pedal but no one seems to have it in stock. Even the mail order places only let you special order it. There's no extra info.
I really needed/wanted to get an acoustic pedal so I got the Boss and I must say it serves it's purpose. It's the best that's readily available to try out at the store and purchase. I think I'll be happy with it. But I really do wish I could have tried the ROCKMAN!

As easy as any pedal with more than 2 knobs. It takes some time to get use to but once you do it's fine. I've had it now for about 8 months.

Do you want to sound like you have a Martin or Takamine Santa Fe? Then go buy those guitars. If a very passable acoustic electric sound for live gigs is what you want and you don't have a lot of stage room, money, or time between songs to change guitars, look seriously at this pedal.
The neatest thing about his pedal is the ability to route it through the P.A. (Which is best for acoustic guitars. Almost any acoustic will sound flat through a regular amp.) and with the stomp of the foot go back and forth between the p.a. and your amp which can obviously be set for lead or rhythm. Great versatility that even an expensive acoustic electric can't really give you.
Unlike some of the reviews I've read, I think it sounds fine. It's possible to get pretty nasal/gross sounds out of it but by adjusting the body knob which is low end resonance and fine tuning the top knob which is more of a high end focus, you can find a wide range of sounds. I say the top knob is a focus knob because it isn't like a treble knob. It changes the characteristic of the high sound. It doesn't just roll off high frequencies like most treble knobs. -It took me a while to figure that out. Another knob lets you select what type of guitar you want: standard, jumbo, piezo pickup, an enhance which is Boss's way of giving you another setting that sounds a little different than the others. Each of these settings does sound different. Through the p.a. I prefer the standard setting with my pickup selector set in the middle to use both pickups at once.
I like this pedal a lot for what it is. People don't believe me when I tell them about it. Then I play it for them and they see what I mean.
Don't get me wrong, I would not take it into the studio. It's forte is a good sound with quick versatility in a live setting and again, if you dial it to fit your guitar's pickups, the p.a., your style, etc., it's pretty cool and hassle free

Anyone ever had a Boss pedal break?

FANTASTIC VALUE!!! I gig in local bars with small stages and small budgets. I play covers and originals and need versatility but don't want to sacrifice sound quality to get it. This pedal gives me the simplicity, versatility, sound and functions I need to do what I want to do live. If you buy it for any other reason you might be disappointed. For what I need this thing is great.
I play several guitars through it all of which have DiMarzio type humbuckers. I've been playing for 25 years, seriously for 8. It is not a gimmicky-image over substance pedal like you get with DOD. It's a product that fills a real specific niche but if you're in that niche like I am, you'll really enjoy what this pedal will do for you.

Well i recieved this unit about a year ago. It was not worth my while at all. The sound always came out flat, no matter what the setting. I tryed adding, everything from chorus, to reverb. The closest match to an authentic acoustic guitar had to be when i paired the box with a bit of reverb. The manual offers no help at all. So if you're looking for the true sound that an acoustic guitar would bring you, this box isn't going to be an help at all.

I used an American Standard Strat going into a Peavey transtube head with a 4x12 combo. I put the pedal through an effect loop. It didn't offer any extra noise to anything. The effects were so bad it's incredible. It sounded to me kinda like a volume pedal turned way down going through an amp with nothing but the mid ranges on. If i was patient enough to toy with it, i'd say that some reverb could really improve this stomp box. But i became fustrated very quickly, and sold it off.

well, as bad as a pedal as i think it is, I must give it some credit. And reliability is one of them. It wont ever break down (from what i can see) and yes, if i actually liked the tones it produced, i think i'd definetly use it at a gig!

never attempted

Well i play a lot of grunge rock and i was looking to sweeten up a few bridges i'd written, or even write some ballad style guitar solos using this pedal. Unfortunetly it didn't offer nearly what i'd expected of it. Please dont make the mistake of buying this product!

Call me impatient, but playing a humbucker outfitted axe yielded little pleasant sounds at first. Through the Boss web page I printed off the "sample settings" for this unit and tried out their suggested setting for a bridge humbucker. Presto Change-o!
The sound still needed some fine-tuning but I was achieving a pleasant acoustic-esque sound.

Once I figured out what sounded good to my ears through my Zoom 503 amp simulator (I don't trust my Marshall Valvestate for acoustic tone), I can say that reverb and a touch of chorus sound very pleasant indeed.
I admit that the effect seems to drain my pickups pretty badly (I had to crank up the pedal's level all the way to get unigain) but pleasant, usable, acoustic-esque sounds are available once properly setup.

Boss reliability is legendary!

Never had to deal with them.

I truely like this pedal for the added flexibility it gives me. I love acoustic tone but I'm useless on an acoustic guitar. This won't make you're guitar emulate the sweet tone of a fine Martin (everybody says that!), but it will yield an acoustic-esque tone to your favorite guitar.
The 'Enhance' setting seems to work best for me, but with creative use of the amp simulator, I could obtain a pseudo- Gibson-ES tone!
I like this pedal and the added "twang" and "shimmer" it adds to the electric tone. Bottomline, try it out and trust your ears, you may like what you hear!

One of my best boss-pedals. I don't like manuals so just try it for a couple of days and you'll find your sound. There are 4 acoustic sounds and you can easily change your sound even while playing a gig. Boss pedals are very easy to use so the AC-2 too.

I use it with an old Ibanez gitar and a Fender amp (pro 185). The AC-2 sounds great with a chorus then you'll get a warm acoustic sound

This equipment is Boss so you can throw it around and it will always work!!

I've never had any problems so...

I play all kinds of music especially metal. I like this pedal very much for the dark relaxed pieces in metal music (black etc.)

I bought it used with no manual and there is no problem figuring how the controls function.

I use a Carvin electric with the neck humbucker switched to single coil and a Roland Bluescube 60 amp's clean channel. I have been mainly using the Standard and Jumbo settings with everything else at midpoints. The sound quality is awesome and when mic'd to an old Fostex 4 track mixer, it sounds so much better that my Ovation celebrity (Pacific rim model) I got rid of that plastic untunable piece of junk. Playing the same guitar for acoustic prevents so much difficulty. (I don't enjoy playing acoustic unless it is tuned down to D).

My favorite guitarists for blues electric are Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and SRV. For acoustic: Larry Coryell, Al DiMeola, Adrian Legg, and John McLaughlin.