Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator

Loved the tone of this pedal. Many people complain about how it fails to sound like an actual acoustic guitar, but I found that the crystalline plucks that come out of it to be a very interesting and useful sound when paired with more atmospheric work. It works best when you think outside the box in how to use it.

My only complaints about this specific model are that, 1: there is a substantial volume drop when the pedal is engaged, so I found myself having to run a boost pedal in order to compensate. Unfortunately, this leads to problem 2: boosting the signal also makes the pedal noisy. Running a Noise Reduction pedal or other such noise gate alleviates this, but now you've increased your pedal footprint by adding two more pedals to your chain. In studio, this is not too big of a problem, but for limited use on a gigging board, that may be too much of a sacrifice if you have no other use for the Boost and Noise Gate.

I have read that the AC-3 version of this pedal has corrected these issues, and added an on-board reverb as well. I am looking to buy the updated version and have thus parted with the older AC-2 model.

I use this a lot for brainstorming sessions when I want to mess around with clean tones. It gives me that great thick acoustic sound, especially when paired with my Gretsch!