Boss AD-8

Ease of use to get a good sound is straight forward - turn the knobs NO MENUS!! Manual is good. Do you know the firmware revision number? NO Has your unit been upgraded? NO

Used this with a Tech 21 PE90 and an ovation adamas w597. Made the adamas come alive and never sounded better. Body type setting #6 - Ramirez classical was difficult to get a good sound out of, but I do not think that I will ever use that setting anyway. Great reverb on unit but no chorus.

Built like other boss equipment, like a tank. Do not think a backup would be necessary. Very road worthy!! :-)

Haven't had to contact them.

I play acoustic and electric guitar in a Worship Band. been playing on/off for 20 years and started taking Jazz lessons 6 years ago. I favor BOSS/Roland equipment and use tech 21 amps specifically for the sound and construction from both these companies. No one has ever complained about my sound except for maybe I was TOO LOUD?? Oh well. I have the tech 21 para acoustic and yamaha ag stomp processor . I like the boss ad-8 hands down out of the three of these. Just wish it had chorus. LOVE the 4 band equalizer too.

I never even cracked the manual and quickly found my way around this unit. The only thing I had to look up was which models corresponded with each body type settings. I'm using this not with an acoustic guitar, but with a piezo bridge equipped solid body (a Fender Highway One HSS with Graph Tech Ghost piezo saddle and on board Acoustiphonic pre-amp). The unit is so intuitive that its very easy to tweak the sound, you just have to spend some time with the unit and learn how to tweak it to your specific guitar.

I mentioned the guitar and pickups I'm using above and I'm playing this through a 1000W powered PA speaker, a QSC K10. The sound is extremely hi-fidelity; 20-20k and since the PA speaker is so high end, I found myself immediately looking to attenuate the treble and presence, which is easily done given this unit's straight forward control layout. Since I'm using this with a piezo equipped solidbody guitar, the source of my tone is missing the sonic complexities and depth of an actual acoustic. As such, I found myself doing two things to come up with good acoustic tone: 1) dialing in a lot of mids and 2) being careful with the body knob and not dialing in too much of the model. The 12:00 position is a little counterintuitive, because that position is actually 100% model and zero direct signal. Coming back to about 9:00 was about perfect for my needs with an acceptable range being anywhere between 8:00 and 10:00. The reverbs are decent, but could be more tweakable.

This thing is like a lead brick - super solid.

This unit is very intuitive, but it does take a little time to understand how the unit can best complement your specific guitar and amp setup. I use this to give my piezo equipped solid body some dimension and more acoustic guitar-like sound for playing with a live rock band, and it really does a great job at that. My powered PA speaker is so high fidelity that I'm hearing everything coming out of this unit, which is very quiet and super high quality fidelity wise. Given how well this unit is designed and how tweakable it is, I am surprised that Boss didn't include a chorus effect or at least an effects loop. Then again, the reverbs are just OK, so it would make sense to turn the reverb off and run this into a high quality outboard multi-effects device and then on to your PA or amp etc.

Since it uses knobs rather than some digital screen, it is easy to use without help. Easy to get a good sound? Well, I'm not so sure about that. Saving patches is easy. The manual is very helpful, but you won't need it except for the model descriptions (and those descriptions seem arbitrary once you hear the simulations).

Well, it doesn't sound terrible, but it sure isn't anything great. It definitely sounds like a digital simulation. I use this with a Hamer Duotone (it's a hybrid guitar with a rosewood acoustic-style bridge and a piezo underneath). That guitar has a decent acoustic tone, but it needs a little help to really sound acoustic. This unit usually sounds stiff and lifeless, and it can even sound brittle. The nylon string sim is a joke. The two Martin sims are okay, but they're certainly not worth the price of this thing. I completely regret purchasing this unit. I recently bought a Zoom A2 (a cheap $100 acoustic effects box), and it sounds much more natural (read: better).

The string enhancer certainly does not enhance anything other that high-pitched frequencies that are grating to the ear. The body control does add more "boom" to the sound, but it's too over-the-top to really use. The reverb sounds fine, which is one of the only pros in this box full of cons. Another pro would be that it has XLR outs - it sounds best going direct to PA, and this makes it easy without an extra direct box. The EQ is pretty good, but the modeling (which cannot be bypassed without bypassing the whole unit) ruins it.

It's built really tough - you could probably kick it down a few flights of stairs and it'll still be fine. I've had no problems... except for the poor sounds, of course, but it puts out those poor sounds reliably.

No experience with Boss, but the salesman who convinced me to waste money on this thing was either a liar or an idiot, and I'm a bigger idiot for buying this thing.

When I first plugged it in, I thought it was fine. I was using headphones, and it sounded acoustic. I have used this direct to PA, and it sounds okay. Once you actually start listening, you'll hear the plastic tone coming out of this thing. I'm usually skeptical of anything with "COSM" written on the side, because "COSM" sucks more often than not. I may be a little critical of this unit, but a $100 Zoom A2 beats it hands down. If you get this for free, then it might not be that bad to use once in a while, but I wouldn't recommend spending money on it.

A note on how I use the Boss AD-8. I don???t use the modeling. I like my pickups (K&K Pure Western minis) and they don???t need any special processing. The already sound like a guitar. Actually the sound like the Guitar They Are Installed In! The modeling makes the K&Ks sound like crap. I use the AD-8 strictly for the multiple, storable EQ settings. I always take two guitars to shows and sometimes three. The 4-band EQ section does an acceptable job of dialing in the proper EQ to mach each guitar sound like itself. The feedback suppression works great but is a bit of a hassle to use. See last paragraph in this section.

With the AD-8 switching guitars is painless. Mute, switch guitars, dial up the stored EQ for that guitar, unMute. Good to go in 5 seconds.

Excellent manual and the pedal works as described. I was concerned that it would be a pain to remember how to store EQ settings but it???s a piece of cake. Do it once and you???ll never forget how. At shows, I seldom need to change the stored settings.

My only complaint is this: You can???t use the feedback surpression on the fly. You have to start from scratch if you need to make a change. If I get low-register feedback, I have to first dial in this Guitar???s EQ again, then create the feedback and trigger the feedback killing circuit, then save (overwrite, not update) the new setting. It works GREAT, but a bit of a pain to do live.

My goal for amplified acoustic tone is this: Sound like my guitars, only louder, hassle free, and at a reasonable cost. I???ve achieved that goal with K&K Pure Western Mini pickups, the K&K Pure XLR preamp, and a Boss AD-8.

If I only used one guitar, I would not need the AD-8. But as I mentioned earlier, I usually take two or three. I use one for regular tuning, one for Open D, one for Open G. The AD-8 makes.

The 9 rating is only because the AD-8 does suck a little tone. The guitars sound a tad better thought the Pure XLR preamp by itself, but that???s a trade-off I???m willing to make for convenience.

I don???t use the modeling. I use only the storable EQ settings. The AD-8 has made it much simpler for me to use multiple guitars on stage and get proper EQ for each guitar.

Unlike most effect pedals this one has very easy to use dials for guitar modeling, shape, EQ, and effects. You could also preset floor buttons for a custom sound. It acts like a direct box to XLR mixing board or line out to guitar amp or both. It has a built in very easy to use tuned.

I have played several acoustic guitars through it and you get a nice edge with boost, clean with no distortion. I have played my $200 ibanez AEF18 through it at my church sound system and it sounded better than my friends playing much higher end guitars. Now a have a Martin D1 and it makes this wonderful instrument sound better. It gives any accoustic guitar a nice edge to accomadate different finger or picking styles.

very reliable with out a hitch.

never needed to use customer support because I have had no problems with it.

I play Accoustic guitar Christian music and original material.

Its a little overpriced if you buy it new like I did but I get alot of use out of it. I have been using it ever day for the last year and don't want to part with it.

The only bad think I could say it that its kind of big to tote around.

Boss style. Pretty easy for basic use. Once, you want to edit some more, better take a look the manual. Manual is just few pages but include everything needed to know. Wish Boss makes more or give users more presets.

I'm using this one with my Taylor 314CE. This guitar sounds awesome when play unplugged. But I'm not satisfy with it when plug it in. Fishman pickup that used to be installed with this model was replaced with Taylor original system after 2003, I believe. This Boss does help improve the sound but you have to sit down, spend time and tweak it a little bit to find the sound you like. If you already have a good guitar with good preamp, you don't need this box.

Boss!!!. What do you expect from them?

Never dealt with them

I play Pop rock/ with both strumming and picking mostly. AD-8 helps improve my strumming sound. It gives more depth to the sound. I'm not going to buy it again if it's stolen or lost it. I think I can get the close sound by eqing and adding some effects I have.
My friend bought Korg acoustic box AX10A right after I got this one. AD-8 is better on the sound but AX10A has many more presets/functions and volume pedel.

I had only one purpose for the AD-8, to make my Carvin DC400 guitar with a Fishman Acoustic Bridge sound like an acoustic guitar. I love the Carvin, but was dissapointed in the acoustic sound from the acoustic p/u. It took a lot of tweaking & adjusting to find the sound and the manual wasn't very helpful in explaning how each adjustment affected the sound. It isn't as intuitive as it appears for example the "body" and the "bass" adjustments seem to effect each other. I found the best way for me was to Eq it flat and adjust each parameter to the full extremes to fix the sound in your head, as you will tweak them again after making "body, string, and presence" adjustments. Definately NOT a plug and play, but well worth the effort. The manual doen't even talk about the guitar out plug, other than to show how to hook it up. If you have a Boss AD-3 pedal, you will know it's an "acoustic amp" sim. It appears to be the same on the AD-8 and does warm the electric amp, however the pedal will have to be set for however it's used, therefore I give it a 7 (would be a 4, except I love the sound when you get it tweaked) Also doesn't have a on/off switch, unit powers up when you plug into the input jack.

I'm using the AD-8 for our contemporary service at church going direct to the PA.I've got a vintage (72) Martin D-35 that spoiled me on acoustic sound, so I was disapointed with the acoustic output from the Carvin DC400, it sounded thin, shrill and w/o body. Needless to say I expected a lot from the AD-8. Boss advertises the pedal as modeling "6 of the worlds finest acoustics". Martin D-28, Martin 000-28 Gibson J-45, Gibson B-25, Guild D-40 and Jose Ramirez classical. I really wasn't expecting it to turn the Carvin into my D-35, but I needed a good acoustic sound and was considering a Line 6 Variax. I took the Carvin to a local music store (Centerville Music) and A-B'd the AD-8/Carvin with the Variax. After about 20 min. I was ready to throw in the towel on the AD-8, when I FOUND it. WOW it was like hearing your wife talk to you from a strangers body! It doesn't sound like an acoustic, it IS an acoustic! You can save the patches to one of 4 banks, which is great but It doesn't sound the same from venue to venue, and you will need to TWEAK, TWEAK again. I noticed also when I get THE sound, it only is good on one or two of the "body types" I use the #2 setting (Martin 000-28),it makes my Carvin sound like an old Gibson Hummingbird. The only effect is Reverb, which is useable for acoustic, but not great. I wish it had Chorus. It also has Anti-feedback which I don't need with my solid body, and a decent tuner. The Rear Panel really shines also. It has a headphone jack (1/4" not 1/8"), 1/4" Electric guitar amp output which does ok. Unbalanced 1/4" outputs Mono/Stereo, Balanced XLR outputs Mono/Stereo, Ground lift switch, Stereo/Mono switch, AC adaptor for Boss PSA120 (It can use 6AA batteries which are supplied), and a laptop computer security slot for a kensington style computer locking cable (not supplied). Doesn't have MIDI. I've tried my Martin through it and it sound the same as unamplified, only I can make it a lot louder. I can't comment on the modeling accuracys. The pedal is advertised to make an inexpensive acoustic sound like the models. It doesn't sound good using electric guitar p/u's and I would advise you to use something else for non-piezo pickups. Got to give it a 9 becouse even though the Carvin sounds dead on to a big old seasoned Gibson, there is always room for improvement.

It's too new to tell, however it is a Boss and made with the same quality & steel as my GT-3 & AD-3 which have never failed in the years I've had them. I think you should always have some plan for the unexpected though. Based on my Boss experences I got to go 10.

Never delt with Boss/Roland directly

We play praise/worship music from Third Day, Newsboys, Sonicflood, ect. and I switch from electric to acoustic as needed, and I wanted a true acoustic sound w/o having to switch guitars (very cramped area at church). I've tried the GT-3 stuff which was ok for the "in the mix" stuff, but fell short otherwise. I used a dedicated EQ on the Fishman Bridge, but it always sounded brittle, or processed to me. I would replace it if I had too, but I would try another type such as the Aphex Acoustic Exciter just cause it's there. What I love about it is the HUGE Acoustic Sound. What I hate is the effort to get that sound. As I said it's not particulary intutive and is sensitive to adjustments, some of which have a little lag in them. My favorite thing about the pedal is the HUGE Acoustic Sound. I wish it had Chorus and an on/off switch. I would recomend this pedal to anyone with a solid body guitar using a Piezo bridge(PRS, Carvin, ect.), that isn't "adjustment challenged" cause it isn't plug and play. But I got to give it a solid 9 for the HUGE acoustic sound