A.E.R. Acousticube IIa Combo

The Acousticube is a professional level acoustic instrument amplifier which is extremely versatile and can accomodate a wide variety of acoustic (and electric) instruments. Endless options for stage outs - pre-eq DI, separate line outs, recording outs, effect loops, etc. Top quality effects unit with 100 presets which rival any professional level dedicated reverb unit I have ever heard, including Lexicon PCM-90 (which I used to own). Tone controls -bass, mids-treble work very well; would be nice if they offered even more control-like a graphic e.q., etc. Foot pedal control offers option to switch between 2 stored effects; would be nice if foot pedal offered more options

The Acousticube is expensive but worth every penny. My main instrument is a Scheerhorn L-body curly maple custom resonator guitar with a Fishman resonator guitar pickup but I also use it for my Weissenborn slide guitar (with Sunrise pickup) and my acoustic guitar (D28 with Baggs M1)With a minimal amount of tweaking it makes all of my instruments sound great. It is difficult to appreciate the capabilities of this amp until you use it in a variety of settings. This amp is capable of delivering acoustic tone at relatively high sound levels. I personally like a lot of bass in my tone and I can testify that the Acousticube delivers the goods without a hint of distortion.

Never needed service. Its clearly built like a tank-I am completely confident that it is totally reliable

A.E.R. factory is located in Germany. Minimalist web site; the company depends on word of mouth for advertisement. The U.S. contact is in Laguna Beach, CA and answers the phone when you call. 2 year warranty. I have never needed service. My impression is that A.E.R. operates a very high quality and expensive manufacturing operation and that the reliability is absolutely top quality

I have been playing guitar for almost 30 years, dobro and various lap slide guitars for about 15 years. I also own a Rickenbacker BD-6 lap slide guitar, a vintage Gibson amplifier and a R-body Scheerhorn mahogany/spruce resonator guitar. I owned the A.E.R. Compact 60 before trading it toward the Acousticube. To my ears the main difference between the two amps is that the effects unit on the Acousticube is far and away superior. I am completely satisfied with my sound on 3 different acoustic instruments - which is saying a lot!

Mine's the older model. Bristling with cool inputs-out-puts, very groovy mic-line idea, useable (not overpowering) effects, good eq, bright switch (colour)
What more could you wish for?!

The amp does one thing better than any other rather than trying to do many things with varying degrees of success. It's an acoustic instrument amp, principally for guitar but I've heard awesome vocals and violin thru it too! The acoustic guitar sounds wonderful. And this is me trying to be critical!! It'll transform a crappy guitar and make a playing a fine one a semi-religious experience!

I've never dropped it or filled it with water but apart from that it's been gigged throrughly and is still going (four year's on!)It's intimidatingly tough, I trust it!

never had to deal with them yet

I have tried just about every other acoustic amp going from ashdown to Washburn (and everything in between!)This is the mutt's nuts! I use Lowden/Brook guitars highlander pickups and rode mics. My sound is awesome thankyou very much! This beast makes jazz noises, slide noises, Hedges-thumping, Bensusan noodling Latin tantrum type lovely sounds! It hasn't even peen pinched and I'm buying a new one! Yup, I'm going to run two in stereo for a kind of P.A style thing. I'm not the first! This sounds amazing! And it's tiny!

I've tried many of the acoustic amps, Fender, California Blonde, Crate, etc. I also currently own a Crate 125. The AER outperforms any amp I've found. The only amp I have not tried is the Rivera. I use this amp with a group and for solo gigs.

I think the sound is as true as any you will find for acoustic guitars, that was the initial attraction. The digital effects are numerous, you can do just about anything with this little powerhouse.

Have not has a problem.

I lost my pedal midi chord and called the US distributor. I had a new one in five days, no charge, that is customer service. Very nice people to talk to.

Ther is nothing about this amp I don't like except the price. I forked over the money, it's paid for so I don't think about that anymore. You get what you pay for and in this amp I couldn't be happier.

If you want to read about the numerous possibilities of the amp, you may go to the builder web site: http://www.aer-amps.de/
This solid state amp is going to provide you with numerous clean sounds - and only clean - but it is the reason why you want to own an AER. If you want the clearest, sweatest sound out of your acoustic guitar, do not look further. There are 2 chanels, and the foot command may allow you to switch from one to the other somehow. All the bells and whistles you expect to find on a $1,700 amp are here. Effect loop, line in and out, etc. One of the most amazing feature is the built in 32 bit digital processor. It gives you access to a library of a hundred effects (delays, flangers, pitch shifters, echos and combination of all of the above.)You may process the sound coming from a piezo and a pick up from the same instrument and somehow have a different process of the 2 sources. You may use a headset and have a stereo impression. There are more possibility that you can dream of. The builder announce 120 watts RMS, but although it sounds much bigger then it looks, I can not play as loud as with my Mesa Boogie Mark IV (but it is not the purpose neither)

OK, you have been looking for a special amp for your acoustic instrument and have tried the usual Fender, California Blonde etc. And then by chance you plug your guitar in this tiny AER and ...Magic!
Sure the California Blonde sounds good - open, transparent, fast (clearer then the Fender ones - which do not sound bad neither on their own, if you do not compare them side by side). It is obviousely a different kind of animal, and it should for the price. It even works well with my EMG single coil solid body, it gives this guitar an opening and brillant sound that I can not have with the Mesa Boogie. All the digital effects work well and very quietly. It is easy to configure any sound that you can imagine, as long as it is clean - remember, this amp is specificaly for acoustic instrument. I play an Ovation long neck, deep body and this amp allow me to craft a very natural sounding guitar sound. I also tried a Larrivee (I usually do not like the sound of these guitars, I find it very plain and lacking of personality) but with the little AER, this guitar suddently sounded very interesting. I had the impression that every caracteristics of a natural sound produce by this guitar were sorted out and only the pleasant ones were amplified.
I also tried the Compact 60 that cost half the price and frankly the quality of the sound I had with a couple acoustic guitars with piezo was very similar to the bigger brother. So, if you want that magnificent sound and want to cut the cost in half, do not hesitate, the only thing you will not have is the digital processor.

I can not answer this question, I had the amp for a few days.

I think the waranty is 2 years although the sales guy said five (he also said it was 100 watt RMS, as usual most of these sales guys do not know much about instruments).

I really like the fact that this little amp can be easily carried, it is so small and in the same time the sound is so big. You can buy it and your significant other might not even realise that you aquired an other expensive toy, because you can hide it easily, ha, ha! It looks like it is well assembled and should be lasting for a while. It cost much more then the other acoustic amp that you can buy, but if you want something really special and that you can afford it, why not treat yourself. You should consider trying the little one as well, it is so good that I am not sure I can justify the difference in price.

Check out the A.E.R. homepage for more info on the features. The available features are what you'd expect from an $1500 amp. What really matters is the sound.

I've been looking for the ultimate acoustic amp for quite a while. I've owned the Trace Elliot T-100R and I've borrowed and used the California Blonde for some time. I've gone through a whole bunch of different acoustic combos at various stores. I fell in love with the AER Compact 60 and borrowed it for a gig with a bigband and I couldn't believe that this small amp could cut through that whole band but it did !!

The verdict: The Acousticube IIa blows the competition away ! Before having heard the Acousticube I thought that the Compact 60 was the the best combo I'd heard. Even if the Compact 60 managed the bigband gig I felt that I needed something with a little bit more volume to it (not only in term of db). I A/B'd the Acousticube and the Compact 60 and I couldn't believe what I heard. The clarity, the volume, the bass... everything was infinitly superior on the IIa. (Please don't get me wrong - the compact 60 is an AWESOME amp and it costs less that half as much as the IIa and if portability is your main thing go for it. I don't want to discourage any Compact 60 buyers. If I hadn't heard the IIa I'd have bought the Compact 60 since it sounds better than all of the other acoustic combos put together.)

I use this amp to play jazz with my custom archtop guitar (stereo output - magnetic and piezo) - the sound is almost a joke - it blows everything I've ever heard away.

I also play classical music using a Godin Multiac.

Conclusion: The amp is very expensive but the sound get is worth every penny.

Built like a tank.

When I was scouting for amps I mailed the folks at AER but I never got a reply. If something would happen to this amp I'm sure that they'd come forward. (2year warranty)

If someone stole this amp I'd hire Chuck Norris, James Bond, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone (in that order) to find the guy and "(#?/#""#%"%).

The Compact 60 is very small and very light (7kg). The Acousticube IIa looks pretty big in the pictures but in reallity it's not that much bigger than the compact 60. It's alot heavier though (13kg). It's possible to connect an 8ohm cabinet to this amp. I might buy a cabinet in the future but with a cabinet you completely loose the portability. The size of this amp is about 1/3 of the California Blonde and the sound you get is 3x better at least. I could go on and on about my feelings for this amp but I'll spare you.

Make not mistake about it - AER makes the best acoustic combos on this planet.