boss ad10 or

thomasw88

anyone used these in a band situation? 

currently I use an amp  (ashdown acoustic radiator) which has been rock solid for the last 12 years.   However I might be doing some more acoustic gigs and was thinking of getting something pedal based with reverb/delay etc.

How do people find them live? easy to use, don't require constant fiddling?  anything else worth looking at?  Must have some reverb/delay and prefereably either a compressor or boost.     

TheBigDipper

Have you looked at a Fly Rig Acoustic? I run mine off a Harley Benton 9v battery pack. 

thomasw88

TheBigDipper said:

Have you looked at a Fly Rig Acoustic? I run mine off a Harley Benton 9v battery pack. 

I've had a squizz, looks decent. but new is similar price to the Boss, and doesn't seem to do anything the boss doesn't??

I did have one of the electric fly rig things a few years ago.  wasn't wild on it tbh.

JonnyBgoode

I had an AD10 and hated it. Bought it to gig with but it never made it that far, really horrible design.

TheBigDipper

thomasw88 said:

TheBigDipper said:

Have you looked at a Fly Rig Acoustic? I run mine off a Harley Benton 9v battery pack. 

I've had a squizz, looks decent. but new is similar price to the Boss, and doesn't seem to do anything the boss doesn't??

I did have one of the electric fly rig things a few years ago.  wasn't wild on it tbh.

I'm not going to diss the AD10. I've got a friend who uses one and it makes his guitar sound much better than it really is, TBH.

ICBM

I honestly thought the Zoom AC-3 sounded better and was easier to use than the Boss.

I have a Boss AD-8, which I really like. I had the opportunity to get a second hand AD-10 at a good price, and expected to buy it and sell the AD-8, but to my great surprise I thought the 8 also sounded better, as well as not having stuff I don't want on it (chorus!) and annoying footswitches which are set at too steep an angle on the 10, which I found slightly awkward to be certain of pressing cleanly.

thomasw88

JonnyBgoode said:

I had an AD10 and hated it. Bought it to gig with but it never made it that far, really horrible design.

what do you use now?

what was horrible about it to use?

WindmillGuitars

@thomasw88 ;We've a used AD-8 available at the moment if you decided to go down that route 

JonnyBgoode

thomasw88 said:

JonnyBgoode said:

I had an AD10 and hated it. Bought it to gig with but it never made it that far, really horrible design.

what do you use now?

what was horrible about it to use?

Ok so I wanted something to mix dual pickup sources, with separate EQ for each channel (important) plus decent FX - reverb, delay mainly and a looper, tuner would have been useful also.  However...

- The ability to store separate EQ settings for each channel simply did not work, or if it did I could not get it to. I corresponded with a couple of guys on the Acoustic Guitar Forum at the time (2018) and they had the same problem. This was not helped by the manual disagreeing with the BOSS instructions online. I think I took it up with Boss/Roland at the time and they parroted the manual instructions.

- People of a certain age will remember when LED digital watches first came out in the 70s, and how cool we though we were in school wearing those clunky things that you couldn't see properly  in direct light.
That's what the AD10's display and menu system reminded me of, it really is dreadfully archaic, and the operating system is just awful too - awkward to use, lots of buried submenus where you have to press multiple things at the same time to access whatever. Just horrible, and inexcusable these days when even cheapo Zooms come with better designed menus and OSs.

-The tuner is rubbish

-The looper is a joke and pretty much unusable in a live setting

-Effects were (surprisingly) not great quality, the reverb was clacky and cheap, delay was limited in options

For me it seemed they had tried to cram everything, everywhere, all at once into one unit that did everything poorly, and with a operating menu/display that will have you banging your head against the nearest wall in no time.

I ended up buying separate reverb , delay and  looper (just the basic BOSS RC1 was streets ahead). I later bought (nicking the idea from UK fingerstyle virtuoso Mike Dawes) a Bose T1 Tonematch as a pedal board brain/mixer/multifx, It was lovely, superb bit of kit that I'm sure many will skip over because they see it as part of the Bose PA system.

thomasw88

JonnyBgoode said:

thomasw88 said:

JonnyBgoode said:

I had an AD10 and hated it. Bought it to gig with but it never made it that far, really horrible design.

what do you use now?

what was horrible about it to use?

Ok so I wanted something to mix dual pickup sources, with separate EQ for each channel (important) plus decent FX - reverb, delay mainly and a looper, tuner would have been useful also.  However...

- The ability to store separate EQ settings for each channel simply did not work, or if it did I could not get it to. I corresponded with a couple of guys on the Acoustic Guitar Forum at the time (2018) and they had the same problem. This was not helped by the manual disagreeing with the BOSS instructions online. I think I took it up with Boss/Roland at the time and they parroted the manual instructions.

- People of a certain age will remember when LED digital watches first came out in the 70s, and how cool we though we were in school wearing those clunky things that you couldn't see properly  in direct light.
That's what the AD10's display and menu system reminded me of, it really is dreadfully archaic, and the operating system is just awful too - awkward to use, lots of buried submenus where you have to press multiple things at the same time to access whatever. Just horrible, and inexcusable these days when even cheapo Zooms come with better designed menus and OSs.

-The tuner is rubbish

-The looper is a joke and pretty much unusable in a live setting

-Effects were (surprisingly) not great quality, the reverb was clacky and cheap, delay was limited in options

For me it seemed they had tried to cram everything, everywhere, all at once into one unit that did everything poorly, and with a operating menu/display that will have you banging your head against the nearest wall in no time.

I ended up buying separate reverb , delay and  looper (just the basic BOSS RC1 was streets ahead). I later bought (nicking the idea from UK fingerstyle virtuoso Mike Dawes) a Bose T1 Tonematch as a pedal board brain/mixer/multifx, It was lovely, superb bit of kit that I'm sure many will skip over because they see it as part of the Bose PA system.

cheers for that, thats managed to put me off buying entirely!

TheBigDipper

thomasw88 said:

JonnyBgoode said:

<huge snip of frustrating experiences!>

cheers for that, thats managed to put me off buying entirely!

Now I come to think of it, my friend with the AD10 only uses one preset, I've never asked him about how easy it is to customise or use (or not) and he has a clip-on tuner on his guitar! But his basic tone through it is good and his natural guitar in the room is not, so... 

The Fly Rig Acoustic just gets the job done for my requirements, so I carry on with it. Decent enough tuner, a nice clean boost to lift the volume. The digital effects (delay, chorus, reverb) are in parallel, and I only use them subtly. The Sansamp section helps me control the amplified tone into the desk. I've never needed the notch filter in anger (touch wood). The only thing I'd say is the compressor can be a bit noisy (hissy) if you turn up the squish. I don't use it at those levels anyway, so not a problem for me. 

In context, this is all with standard flat top acoustics using passive K&K Pure Mini pickups and playing solo or with another acoustic player plugged straight into the desk. I couldn't tell you how it works in an electric band context or into a backline amp. 

thomasw88

Bought a  Zoom AC3 on ebay.    Looks like it will do everything I need and really don't want to do menu diving. 

Cheers guys!

TheBigDipper

thomasw88 said:

Bought a  Zoom AC3 on ebay.    Looks like it will do everything I need and really don't want to do menu diving. 

Cheers guys!

Will you report back? 

thomasw88

TheBigDipper said:

thomasw88 said:

Bought a  Zoom AC3 on ebay.    Looks like it will do everything I need and really don't want to do menu diving. 

Cheers guys!

Will you report back? 

no chance.



well ok.  I've also bought a yamaha AR5 as well.  Major Gas leak this week!

thomasw88

Sold the AC3.   I really didn't get on with it very well.

Tuner was impossible to read standing up, the dials were a bit hard to read during a gig,   and  the sound matching thing was a pita .
  The effects were decent and the boost was good.    The tremolo was awful but tbh who uses a tremolo on an acoustic?
The main thing was the lack of tap tempo for the delay which for me made it not usable live.  I should have checked that before I bought it.  once you tap you never go back.

has anyone tried just chaining up a few effects and then going to DI box ie compressor, boost, delay, reverb?  Does that work well?

TimmyO

Reading this makes me wonder whether a Nano with a few separates (Baggs DI, comp, mini tuner, Boost) might not be better ? 

TimmyO

Or an HX Stomp? 

thomasw88

Reading this makes me wonder whether a Nano with a few separates (Baggs DI, comp, mini tuner, Boost) might not be better ? 

I was thinking about that.  I have  Boss RV6,  TC spark boost, and a rothwell  compressor so in effect just need a Delay and either a preamp pedal (with effects loop) or just go straight to DI.

TimmyO said:

Or an HX Stomp? 

Had thought about that actually.  I've owned a stomp before and did try an acoustic through it but was farting around with acoustic IR's etc, never really liked it tbh. 
But maybe less is more so just using it for a bit of EQ, tuner,  compression, Delay and reverb, boost, and then into a DI box might work.

thomasw88

Complete change of tack..  bagged a fishman pro eq on the bay and also a TC flashback 2.   I had a boss rv6 which sounds fantastic with acoustic.  New small board with the fishman handling tuner, compression, boost, plus eq and general acousticy sounds. Boss rv6 and flashback for delay/ reverb.

Snags

thomasw88 said:

Sold the AC3.   I really didn't get on with it very well.



has anyone tried just chaining up a few effects and then going to DI box ie compressor, boost, delay, reverb?  Does that work well?

This is what I do. Currently have a small board set up for the acoustics, after a run of festival gigs and similar: baby tuner, Boss CE-5, Boss BF-2, Source Audio Collider, Boss RV-6 and then direct to desk. Thinking about swapping the BF-2 out for a distortion for the next gig, if I can find one that will work without too much howl.

ICBM

Snags said:

This is what I do. Currently have a small board set up for the acoustics, after a run of festival gigs and similar: baby tuner, Boss CE-5, Boss BF-2, Source Audio Collider, Boss RV-6 and then direct to desk. Thinking about swapping the BF-2 out for a distortion for the next gig, if I can find one that will work without too much howl.

Try a Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive. It has a clean blend so you can introduce a bit of distortion (it is more of a distortion really) while not losing the bulk of the clean signal, so you can keep the distortion level down.

Or most other bass overdrives… they usually have clean blends.