Roland AC-90

Two channels, Stereo chorus, Etc...previous reviews contain all the features. Suffice it to say it's loaded for the price. I'd like to see a selectable reverb effect and a little mor versatility in the chorus, but otherwise it's very well equipped. I have numerous acoustic instruments--Martin (hd28, 000-16sgt, 1932 tenor, Avante bari, Cripple Creek custom, Regal reso, a custom banjo, and a 1906 mandolinetto by Lyon & Healy. They all sound great through this amp!

Excellent, crystalline. Punchy mids especially in the vocal channel. Shimmery chorus and nice tight reverb/slap, again a little more paramater tweaking would be nice, but for the price paid...good.

This is where my amp fell apart. I own several acoustic guitars. The only one on which I noticed a problem (probably since it's my main gigging acoustic, was my Cripple Creek. At first it would work intermittantly with that particular axe. Then I noticed a crackling low battery sound coming from the amp. I replaed the battery in the guitar and got a righteous sound for a while. Then the whole thing brok up into that same crackling sound and the whole amp petered out. Unfortunately within 4 shows this amp acted up on 3. I'm having it checked out as of this writing. Right now I'm less than satisfied with it's reliability. Roland's reliability (versus Carvin's, per these reviews) was the reason I chose this amp over Carvin's acoustic model. Now that's irony for you.

I bought the amp from ProSound in Colorado Springs. When I took the amp to them and described the issue, they immediately took the amp and are having warranty work done on it. Unfortunately the warranty support they use won't be down from Denver until next week, so I'm cooling my heels waiting to see what's wrong with this box until they get it. Meanwhile I'll lug my larger and more cumbersome, Bose PAS. As far as Roland is conceerned, I haven't dealt with them directly. I'll withhold my opinion of their support pending the disposition of this amplifier.

I'll withhold judgement until I get the amp back. Then I'll update the post.

2008 Roland Ac-90 with two channels, effects loop, semi contollable effects. I use the amp for monitoring mostly and could then feed my Fender 250 Passport Plus for larger groups or areas. The stereo sound from this unit is very, very nice. The improved speaker configuration and extra power really put this ahead the smaller Ac-60 which I also use to own. As with all digital amps, once you start overpushing the power source the sound becomes a little harsh for my tastes. I use it for acoustic guitar in one channel and vocals through the other. Ive run Guilds and a Larrivee through however I use a Fishman pedal before running into amp. I got rid of my Fishman effect pedals since the effects in the amp are good enough for my taste.Sometimes simple is better and much less hassle then all the stomp boxes. The effects in these Roland amps certainly are not top notch but then those units cost thousands. I say good enough. For vocals, I use a Sure beta 58 through Tc vocal boxes. Very nice indeed!! Sounds like a recording with exceptions only in my abilities. I would say that this amp has enough juice for a small venue performance. i would still use my passport for a large coffee house or any bar setting. This amp is a great monitor that you cant wait to listen to. This amp has far more features then I will ever use. It would be nice to have the ability to control XLR outs but oh well. I really cant imagine that any guitar pl;ayer/singer wouldnt find this amp suitable.

I use all Fishman pickups with the Fishman aura before running into amp. Im a light flatpicker and play country, rock, wedding stuff and my own songs which I cant classify. I find the best tone comes when 50% or less from this amp. It starts getting harsh after midway. The sound at lower levels is the best Ive heard.

Dont know yet. Have no back up plan.

Not sure on this category either. All musicians hope we wont have to deal with this dont we?

Ive been playing guitar for about 30 years. I have owned very high end guitars but find Guilds suit me the best. Ive owned well over a dozen acoustic amps including Fenders, Genz Benz, Fishman, Aer, Schertler, Ultrasound, Behringer, Bose and SWR. I originally owned the Ac-60 but felt it did not have enough power to be used in real live settings. Ac-90 is clearly better. Alot of folks have knocked the effects but effects are a slippery slope. Real good ones cost an arm and a leg. Amp makers clearly dont want alot of their money in effects. I actually sold all my Fishman effects since they are too precise. I find that so many minute possibilties of control confuse and disorientate me from just playing. I tried out the Fishman solo but find this Roland amp superior in many ways and much less money. I had an AER acoustic cube but really dont believe that it sounds any better then this Roland. AER or pendulum seem to be the acoustic benchmark but the improvement is minor...at best. I would certainly recommend this unit to anyone.

The amp I bought was made in 2007. First I had a Fishman Loudbox. But that's an amp with a heavy weight and only 'loud'. All the features of the AC90 are described below. The tiltstand is really cool, but the I prefer a more wide angle. I love the 'widechorus'; sounds real stereo. It's a perfect amp in a band (you can even use it as a monitor), and also to perform with only the AC90 for singer-songwriters (in a small caf??).

My Martin with also an Highlander piezo sounds great. Because the guitar has only a straight, clean sound (no eq., vol. or other effects), it all has to come from the amp. So, all the features on the amp are much pretty and you can finetune the equalisation. Even if I play with the piezo of my Godin GLX, the sound is rich, clear, crisp, natural sounding, deep and warm with body. The reverb/delay has it limits, but is useful enough to add some more spatial effect.

I own the amp sinds december 2007 and it never broke down so far. But maybe the time is too short to tell something abouth it.

I played over 30 years now and have had many amps. I play also a Gibson ES 333 on a Fender Deluxe amp (a golden combination!). The AC90 is a complete and portable amp, with a amazing sound. I use it in an band but also as duo with a female singer-songwriter. First I'd like to buy the AER compact 60, but the AC90 has more body and a beautiful chorus.

The AC-90 has the same features as the smaller AC-60 (you may want to also check those reviews) with the exception of 2x45W (rather than 2x30W) power and that the speakers are different. The AC-60 has two 6.5" speackers and the AC-90 has 4 speakers (two 8" and two small tweeters). The main features are 2 channels (one instrument, one instrument/mic). Each channel has volume, bass, middle, and treble. Of course there is also a master volume. Then you can run up to two types of effects at any given time. Specifically, you can select to have reverb or delay (but not both), meaning there is one knob which selects the intensity of the reverb on half the sweep and the duration of the delay on the other half. The delay intensity cannot be changed! Then there is chorus, which comes in three flavors, again, only one dial to control chorus. Unfortunately, with the exception of reverb, you are stuck with the intensity of the other two effects and can only control the "personality" of the effect. One interesting feature is an anti-feedback feature, which acts like a notch filter, and can be used in a manual or automatic mode. Other useful features include: phantom power on the mic channel, some special buttons (magnetic/piezo pickup, shape, mute), and a headphone jack. There are tons of connectors on the rear, e.g. XLR and 1/4 jacks (left and right) for output, aux input (e.g. to play with iPod), tuner out, sub woofer out, and some foot switch jacks. All in all, other than the limited control over the effects and no effect loop, this amp has just about any feature you can possibly think of. With 25 pounds weight it quite nice to carry in the case that comes with it. But the AC-60 is much lighter! A cool reature is a tilt stand and it has the mounting to put it on a speaker stand.

Before buying the AC-90 I played around with the AC-60 in the store (again same controls). In my opinion the AC-90 sounds much better, probably not due to the extra power (2x45W versus 2x30W for the AC-60) but due to the larger speakers (8" vs. 6.5") and the two extra tweeters. I play though a Martin guitars with Highlander pickup/mic combination and Highlander Pro Acoutic Mix DI (PAMDI) preamp. The sound of the AC-90 is nice and very clear. The clarity becomes very evident when you hook up an iPod to the aux in input. It sounds just like a clean PA. With the guitar is sounds very much like plugging in the PAMDI directly into the board. Will the sound make you fall out of the chair? Not sure, but it is the cleanest sound I have heard in an amp. Just to compare I plugged the PAMDI into my Matchless DC-30, Boogie Mark IV, Boogie Triaxis with Simu 2:90 and cabs, and there is no comparison. The AC-90 sounds so much more like the real acoustic guitar. Of course, the other amps are not designed for acoustic guitars. (So please do comments like: how can you compare the AC-90 with a DC-30 :-)

I was disappointed by the reverb, which only sounds ok. I tried a Lexicon MPX 100 and a T-Rex room-mate in the signal path, which sound much better than the buit-in reverb. I would have gladly paid an extra $50-100 to get a killer built-in reverb. The delay is pretty much useless, since you can *not* change intensity nor repeat rate, but only the delay duration. The three chorus flavors are pretty decent.

For the clean sound without effects I would have given the amp a 10. No reduction for a bit of a booming sound at higher volume. This is the price to pay for small size and low weight of the cabinet. A reduction of 1 point for weak reverb/delay.

Time will show.

Hope I will not have to find out!

The amp sound great and I like it a lot. Perfect for any gig. For the size and weight, a good natural sound and plenty of power. The built-in tilt stand and mountings for speaker stand are great! The effects are ok, relatively decent chorus, but weak reverb/delay.

My suggestions to Roland
1) use a higher quality reverb
2) more control over the delay, at least add intensity
3) put a stronger cloth material over the speakers as the thin cloth cannot take any abuse. (This will not add much weight:-)

Otherwise, the unit is worth the hefty price.