Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

Very easy to use, just plug in like any other stompbox, has controls for level, "top" (high end), "body" (low end and resonance) and guitar type. Just plug in and start tweaking to find your favorite tone.

OK, let's start by being realistic. You can't expect to plug an electric solidbody into an analog box and tube guitar amp and expect to sound like a miked Martin dreadnought. (Maybe at some point the digital modelers will get closer, but it ain't here yet.)
That stated, this box DOES fulfill its mission to give you an acoustic-like sound for convenience, simplicity and cost savings live live performances. And I'd say with my Hamer Artist (chambered semi-solidbody with Seth Lover humbuckers) it does this as well as one of those hybrid electric axes with piezo pickups in the bridge, and even approaches the sound of a thinline electric-acoustic. What this box does is give you an acoustic-like EQ curve and also seems to enhance in some subtle way, which I can't quite put my finger on, but which makes strummed chords and single lead notes RESPOND like an acoustic.
So, while you wouldn't use this box as a substitute for the real thing in the studio or in an intimate coffee shop setting, when you just want a quick "acoustic" sound in a bar with your band, it does a fine job.
So if you approach with realistic expectations, this box satisfies.
I'll also add that if you tweak it right, it will make an Ovation sound MUCH better through a regular guitar amp (if you don't have one of the specialized acoustic guitar amps).

Typical Boss heavy cast aluminum shell, have not experienced any glitches.

No experience to give an evaluation

This box fulfills its mission.

The pedal is very easy to use, play with knobs and go, or you can look in the manual to find suggestions. The manual should show you everything you need to know, but it is pretty basic.

I found that the sound quality was very good for an acoustic simulator. You have to be stupid if you think it'a gonna sound exactly like an acoustic because nothing will. The AC-2 does a pretty good job though. It's a lot better than just amp sounds. It saves you the time of having to switch guitars for different songs. Another cool thing about it is that it gives you a choice 4 different acoustic effects. STANDARD, JUMBO, EHANCE, and PIEZO. It's truely a great pedal.

What kind of question is this people??? If you actually are reading this you probably didn't notice that this is a BOSS pedal. You can't get any more reliable than a BOSS!!!! They'll never get damaged or loose their sound. Sure it will get scratched a little, but really, who cares?!

Never delt with them, and probably never will.

KICKS ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would definatly buy this pedal again and again but I wouldn't need to unless it got stolen or I lost it. I encourage anyone out there to buy one. I play metal/hard rock and it's a major part of my rig. Don't forget, it can be used for any type of music.

Piece of preverbial. It's all down to pickup settings really.

Now, I've read the reviews that dis this pedal with comments such as "still use my acoustic", well it's never going to sound as good really is it! It's a gigging pedal isn't it. In the studio of course you'd dig out your acoustic but live it's perfect, no microphonic feedback, no guitar swapping and a perfectly passable sound whether you're picking or strumming. And with it's extra output you can switch from acoustic to full on filth without raising an eyebrow... do that with a real acoustic! It's also worth mentioning 2 other points... 1. If you ignore the word "acoustic", it's a great pedal to beef up your guitar's clean sound anyway. 2. Try adding some filth to it... you can get some big distortion sounds by adding a bit of the AC-2 in there.

It's Boss isn't it.

It's Boss isn't it.

"Simulates" an acoustic to make gigging hassle free and has a few extra uses thrown in... top idea and a top pedal.

How hard can it be?? 4 controls, 2 plugs, and an extra line out

I think its really great for strumming between verses, because its not overpoweringly loud and gives your song a good backing rhythm. i use a lotus strat (i hate it) but i tried it through a jackson ps-4. i really liked the single-coil tone better because it gives you that extra feedback that can be used for extra string sliding(which sound like acoustic strings too). ive never had the chance to get it through a real amp, (but i will when i get my marshall speakers) one of the main problems is that when the top feature is set past about 2 o' clock, you get a nasty scratching distortion from the higher notes (the g-string doesnt attach right with the other strings, so it buzzes already, making things worse) but overall its really cool

boss pedals probably went to 'nam way back when and suffered no damage. i just worry about them getting wet, or get dirt in them.

even though this is boss, im glad theirs support around (just in case)

i play metal and alternative and this doesn't fit anywhere in the music i like, but i use it in a few of my songs. i mainly just use it for chord strumming or a quick little riff or something. having been playing for 2 years about, i'm still experimetning for better sounds. the acoustic sound actually goes very well with the chorus on my zoom 1010. what i really like this pedal is that you could go from pantera to days of the new just like that. but dissapointments include the distorted highs, and when you boost body and cut some of the top, the pedal sounds almost identical to the clean sound of my amp without the pedal. i actually like the lower output, because in most of my songs i want it to be softer. i had the chance to get this same feature from zoom and digitech processors, but i felt boss would put more effort into one effect pedal.

Only had it for a week, But it is very good for what it does "simulate an acoustic". It's very easy to use only 4 knobs, pick the guitar type you like then adjust the body, top knobs for the best sound. The manual is ok, there are some setups for the different pickup types (Humbucker and single coil)for a base line

I use a Fender Strat Ultra going into a Peavey ultra 112, I use this pedal in the fx loop. It will cause some hiss when the top is cranked up, but not that bad, My friend tried it with an old guild acoustic and it sounded real sweet running it into his guitar amp it actuallly enhanced it

All boss pedals are reliable, I would use it without a backup

Never had to deal with them

I play rock, but needed a pedal to allow me to do some acoustic parts Without changing guitars. This does the trick

Four modes, level, top (amount of body) and a knob for tuning in the harmonic content. Play around with it a little. You'll get good sound out of this one though.

Despite what some other people have written, it was very quiet under any conditions. I play a Strat or an Ibanez through a Fender Princeton Plus amp. I like the Jumbo mode best in combination with my Strat. It's nice for some country-ish strumming. The Standard-mode is a bit, well... standard, but still. Enhance with a lot of body added gets you a nice tone for acoustic rock intros, etc. Overall, I like the authenticity of the sound. It's like having four good acoustic guitars at the stomp of a pedal. It even has that typical "hiss" as you slide your finger across the strings. Don't get me wrong: this IS a simulator so don't throw away your Martin/Takamine because of it! It's a simulator, but a mighty fine one. And tell me: where can you get four acoustic guitars for slightly over 100 bucks?

Plug it in and stomp on it. It'll always work. Always.

Never dealt with them, but my local guitarshop is an official Boss-dealer.

I think it's great value. What a great idea to put acoustic guitars into a pedal. No more guitar-switching, just pedal stomping. It's great for country-strumming and also, which is very cool: you can play the whole song acoustic and when it's time for the solo, tap (Boss off) tap (Distortion on) et voila you're ready to go on. As I said before: it's a SIMULATOR, but it's a good one.

A little tougher than most BOSS pedals

I guess if you really want an acoustic sound you should play an acoustic guitar, but this pedal offers a very reasonable simulation with one major setback. I use a DR Z non-master volume amp and when I used this pedal, even at moderate volumes, the prevelant frequencies it produced started to overdrive my amp. I was unable to match the level of my clean "electric" sound without it sounding like a distorted acoustic guitar. This is not to take away from the pedals credibilty. At low volumes it was VERY convincing and not really cheesy, even though I expected it to be.

I used to have an old DM-3 analog delay with a bad switch. Other than that, every BOSS I've owned has been holocaust-proof.

I fixed the bad switch on my DM-3 with some WD-40. Unless BOSS's service department sells WD-40, you will probably never need them.

I really liked the idea of having an acoustic sound available for the cover stuff that I do. It's too bad this pedal did'nt work out for me. For anybody with a solid-state amp or a tube amp with some clean headroom, this pedal should work fine. If I ever get rid of my DR Z I might try it again. If you're interested in this pedal take your rig to the store, turn it up a bit, and see what you think before buying. I know that sounds like a lot of trouble, but experience will tell you that this practice should be applied to ALL pedals, and it will save you a lot of dissapointment (and money) in the end.

4 knobs: Gain, Top (Treble), Botton (Bass), and a four-way rotary selector switch to switch between modes. The four modes were Standard, Jumbo, Enhanced, Piezo. The pedal has 2 outputs, but it is NOT a stereo effect. Rather, the second output switches your signal through a different signal path when the pedal is bypassed.

Sound quality was very good. In Enhanced and Piezo modes, the pedal sounded just like an accoustic! The Standard and Jumbo modes really didn't do anything, thoguh. No noise or other problems. I was playing a Peavey Axcellerator electric guitar through a Peavey Backstage amplifier.

It was built out of metal instead of cheesey platic. I think it would survive.

Never dealth with them.

I didn't buy it. I went with the Rockman Acoustic box instead. Although the Rockman didn't come close to simulating an accoustic guitar as the BOSS pedal did, I just felt that the ROCKMAN produced a more pleasing tone. The BOSS pedal is quite impressive!

Works like any other effects pedal, 1.plug it in, 2.turn the knobs, 3.shake your head in disgust, 4.Curse the Roland empire.

I have tried it with everything from a Peavy Bandit to a Boogie MK IV, Sounds best with strat in neck pickup, straight into fx loop return or straight into board. But even doing this,? the sound would have to improve a lot just to suck. Sounds like a sears 12 string that needs a fretjob and is being played through a home stereo that is laying face down on a pile of aluminum siding.

always works, always sounds bad.

There is a rumor that they have a tech support, just a rumor.

I have tried and tried with all types of guitars and amps, I will always take my Ovation along and use the AC-2 a reminder that this kind of crap always sounds better in the store.

Easy enough to use, impossible to get a good sound. There is no editing, the manual was useless but unneccessary, except for telling you to dial back on the TOP knob if it distorts. All mine did was change the timbre of the distortion.

Guitars used: Strat Standard, Carvin Bolt, Ovation Legend Ltd. Used both straight (no other effects) and with my rack setup (BBE 462, DigiTech 2101). Tried several amps, including my Peavey Ultra 112. The Ovation sounds real nice through this amp with a little help from the rack, would no doubt sound better with a hi-fi amp setup. However, no matter what I did, I could not get a clean sound with the AC-2. With the rack, it distorted horribly. Without the rack setup, it would still distort at even lower settings when the guitar was hit hard. Even in the store, they could not get it to sound clean (and we tried two - that's all they had). I tried every possible way of hooking this up, and it never worked right anywhere. I'm very disappointed, because I could really make use of a box like this.

Can't depend on it, wouldn't use it on a gig.

Never dealt with them. Tried to reach them via the web, but could not find a way.

Returned it to the store for credit. Would like to try either run from a different production run, or another unit of similar function.

Yet, another pretty cool pedal from Boss with affordability without the mess of a rack. Simple to adjust with a pretty broad range of sound.

This pedal, I found, sounded best when playing through the neck pickup. At loud volumes it can get a little noisy, but still controllable.

I've found, through countless times of buying, selling, trading, and just trying out different manufacturers of effects, that Boss has always proven flawless.

Well, for the typical jam around town garage band maybe play a gig at the local bar or club on the weekend type person, this is a pretty cool little box. Of course don't plug it in expecting it to make your electric sound like a Martin D-50 or something. But, with a little expirementing and a little patience, not bad for a $130 bucks.

Typical BOSS interface. Takes a little more playing around, though to get the right sound.

I used it with a Telecaster. It seemed to work best with the neck and combo neck/bridge pickups, but the bridge pickup alone often distorted going into the pedal. I wouldn't try it with humbuckers. The output was really low even when cranked, which was disappointing. The best gig situation with the pedal ran the acoustic output through a DI while the EG output when back into my amp--the soundguy was surprised at first. It sounds like a piezo pickup on an acoustic and is nice for those nights when you don't want to drag out an acoustic or have to worry about doing a guitar switch.

I liked the pedal because it worked really good, but it added a lot of noise and the output level was very low. I don't like to have to touch volume knobs on my amp during a show, and with this pedal I have to.

Turn the knobs...that's about it. The manual is helpful if you have the brain of a chimp, I suppose, but I didn't need it.

Hmm...I don't know here. It's a great sound, but I have a hard time getting it to stand out in band situations, the "Enhance" mode helps a lot though. I have it almost as a channel selector, it's at the beggining of my setup...one output goes to all my other stuff (that's the EG out....when the AC-2 is off it goes to the jack and whatever else is in line with that) and when I turn it on, it goes straight, into the other input on my amp. I find it cool that I can leave my distortion on and leave it while I have my acoustic on. Then when I turn the AC-2 off it goes to the other channel and gives me my distortion. Another thing that is really cool is how the strings sqeak like an acoustic or if you hold a low note and then let up a little to let it buzz...it's just like an acoustic as well. Pretty cool effect.

BOSS and DOD pedals are the most reliable pedals there are.

Yeah, I think I'd buy it again. I really like the tones, it's a little thin but putting it in line with and EQ and maybe a hint of reverb will do the trick for you. I really think this is one of the best inventions in a great while.

Very easy, just twiddle the knobs

Not so hot. Doesn't sound like an acoustic to me, just an overequalized electric. Very thin sounding to my ears.

I took it back and exchanged it for something else. Just spend the $100 and get a good pickup for your acoustic.

Another great invention from BOSS.The acoustic simulator.The controls are quite simple:Level,Body,Top,and Mode.It's pretty simple.Select the mode you want and adjust the Body(bass)and Top(treble).THe manual just came up with safety tips.And three settings which were useless.Fiddle on your own.You can find the best setting.To me the Enhanced mode with Top nearly full is great.

The sound is simple:Acoustic.Although not 100% because it is just a simulation.Sometimes when you put the Top on full it could cause hissings and sometimes very mild distortions.But the effects are always strong and sturdy.Never fade.It also can be used for weak acoustics or the ones you want to extend their tone capabilities with.

Very dependable.I haven't gigged with it yet coz it's just a day old.I think it pretty much is good on it's own.

What more can i say.They built a tank.It could even survive a 100km/h crash.BOSS:shut down customer service dept.Nobody needs it.

Kind of kewl.But nahh...i don't think i want to pick another one up.One is enuff.It really has very strong acoustic properties.All in all it is a very useful pedal.Buy it to those who are thinking of changing their electric to acoustic.

This pedal knows four knobs: volume body (bass) top (highs) and a selectorswitch on wich you choose the character of acoustic simulation. All the four simulations are more or less electric string "country" guitars. Eazy

The sound you get seems a combination of extreme equalizing, slight compression AND exciting/enhancing. Quite a lot of highs get created this way so noisefree it isn't. For livepurposes this thing simply works but you will get kicked out of studio's. As soon as you start to really dig into the strings, as you would do on a real acoustic, this pedal sometimes overloads and distorts. The manual advises you to take the highs back a little. This works but isn't the sort of foolproofness I am accustomed to from BOSS.
But IT IS an alternative for players who want to do small acoustic parts in their set without the hasle of a real acoustic.

BOSS gear is totally dependable

BOSS has the best trackrecord in the CS-buisiness

I started playing on a acoustic guitar and have to warn that this pedals dynamic range is tailored more for the true planksters. If you play "pete Townsent's ouverture for Tommy" the way it is meant, you WILL overload this pedal and sound bad! There is only one other pedal made by Rocktron so you don't have much choice (yet?)
It may not be perfect but all in all this thing works! And only a few yers ago we could only dream of a pedal that does what this thing do. A pedal like this simply is VERY USEFULL. I just find this pedal not in the league of other BOSS gear.

Amazing new pedal that simulates a "well miked" acoustic, or acoustic-electric, out of your solid body electric. Has Level,Body,Top,and switch for Standard, Jumbo,Enhance,Piezo settings for "size",and type simulations. Very easy to use immediately, almost impossible to get a bad sound. If you already have an expensive acoustic-electric and high-end special acoustic amplifier, you wouldn't need this! But if you have solid body electric, and looking for that "open" sound, there is nothing out there that can touch this, for price and size!!

Quite rich and full sounding. Reasonably quiet. Gets a bit "hissy" if you open up the "Top" (Presence) control to high.

If typical Boss quality,should last forever.

N/A

High marks. Very worthwhile and useable.