AC-3 Advanced Acoustic Simulator Guitar Pedal

The Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator is exactly what it is advertised. I am a long time acoustic guitarist (Taylor 810ce, with beautiful bass tones). Because of some physical challenges, I have recently acquired an electic guitar primarily for the ease of play, but also because I wanted to expand my musical options as a guitarist. Basically, am having a really hard time making the transition in sound produced. I am playing a Fender American Standard Strat through a Fender Blues Junior amp. The Strat is about as "electric" as it get and I've dealt with the loss of "bass" tone with thte use of an Equilizer. The Boss AC-3 has helped me achieve a really nice acoustic simulation, which has made playing more enjoyable for me. I do have some difficulty with the "Top" end control adjustment being very sensitive, causing an annoying, unwanted hiss and distortion, but work most of it out with turning it down to a minimal position and compensating the drop in trebles with twiking my equilizer. I'm still experimenting and twiking for "my" sound, but thus far I believe that the Boss AC-3 is meeting my expectations and is central to my set up.

Very good quality, it was what I was waiting for, I used it and it works perfectly, good material and good finishes, I recommend it 100%.

I ordered one of these for a delivered price $102. Waited a few weeks and never got the pedal. I canceled the order because I did not want $'s spent on something I didn't get . Now I see them listed at $124. I believe this to be a good pedal as I had an AC-2 model years back and it sounded great. I still think $124 is a good price but will I get it this time? I can only order it and wait to see if it shows up.

Many negative reviews on this. I quite like it. It sounds more like an acoustic than I expected, especially based on those review. Add a digital delay and you get the echo you would expect from a hollow body acoustic. I'm running this through the clean channel of the amp and the middle pickup of a Stratocaster. This gives the best sound for the items I have. There is a little bit of background noise from the thing but it is not bad enough for me to complain about it. A noise gate does silence it while not being actively played.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but after working with it for a week, I ended up returning. My ES-335 probably had the best "acoustic" tone but it was still lacking and unnatural. I do think it would work OK if you put time in setting up both the pedal, an EQ box, and the amplifier. I was running through a Fishman Loudbox mini. Again, it's nice if you have some acoustic stuff you need to do during your set, but it doesn't replace an acoustic guitar IMO

When Keith Richards used a Fuzz pedal on Satisfaction, he was attempting to emulate a trumpet like timbre. Did it sound exactly like a high end Trumpet? Of course not. If you are tone chaser and/or a tone snob, you need to look elsewhere. If you have the expectation of sounding like a high end quality acoustic guitar rig with this pedal, you have unrealistic expectations. What does the pedal do well? If you are willing to work with an Acoustic "like" pedal, it will add some nice clean tones to your rig. I can dial in some decent tones on my Fender Strat with noiseless single coil pickups. I find the Enhanced and Piezo modes less than desirable. I struggle to dial in something I am happy with in those modes. However, Standard and Jumbo modes I really like. I find I have to get rid of the Spring reverb on my Hot Rod Deluxe. Using the Reverb on the pedal helps in my opinion. I use the middle pickup on my Strat. Playing chords sound somewhat "okay". This is the trickiest to dial in. But, it is doable. Finger picking sounds pretty good in my opinion. Also, lead tones are fairly easy to dial in as well. Some people have complained about a metallic and or tin like sound. You just have to remember to use the tone on your guitar as well as your pedal. You can totally take those highs out. I wouldn't recommend using Humbuckers. The sound is too beefy for me. However, I am sure that there are people out there that could make it work. Bottom line is, if you want to get a quick acoustic like jam going, this can be fun. So long as you accept it is Simulator.

You really didn't think it was going to sound like an acoustic guitar for real did you? This is a "simulator" pedal. This gives your Stratocaster a more analog like tone through an amp - if you will. It's another great effect pedal by Boss to add to your collection. Obviously so many more conditions like what kind of guitar, what pick ups (it's better on single coil) what are your settings etc. to get to your sound. If you really knew your amp and guitar and technique, you wouldn't even need it. But I just kick it on when I want it.

No, it won't turn your electric into an acoustic worthy of being recorded. Then again, no acoustic should be plugged in for recording either. That said, it's a handy tool onstage: the A/B box format for the output fits most people's use (the electric sound goes straight to your FX and amp, the simulated acoustic has a dedicated out to go to a DI or an sciatic amp. You can even add reverberations to the acoustic sound. It has enough settings to get your favorite sound going. Mostly, it all depends on how you play your guitar to make it sound like an acoustic. But it sounds really close to the real deal, to a point where a music lover in the audience wouldn't be able to tell the difference...