Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

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.