Impressed with the Boss Singer Acoustic Pro 120 - A Review

[Mr.Thumbpick]

I mostly play through Electric Guitar Amps. I have a Fender Hot Rod Deville 212 and a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I do find myself mostly using a Roland Cube 80GX for practice because it has a brilliant and controllable volume control. I also own a Roland Cube Street Ex and Roland Cube 40GX. The Valve amps mostly get used for recording.

Even though I have mostly played Electric guitars I play clean and do own some Acoustic guitars. A Maton Dreadnought, Maton 808 and Godin Multiac Nylon ACS SA.

I have never been happy with the acoustics through any of Amps. So I finally relented and bought yet another amp which I didn't really want because I have them coming out of my ears... Enter the Boss Acoustic Singer Pro 120...

Well I have to say this Amp has blown me away. It sounds absolutely great for the acoustics. The Nylon Piezo Godin Multiac sounded so scratchy in the treble on my Roland Cubes - I really hated the sound of it but through this amp it sounds clear, defined and sparkly without sounding like nails on a chalkboard. Finally, this guitar sounds decent because being a solid body Nylon acoustically it's not much chop and as I said through a guitar amp it was pretty awful in terms the frequencies that came through.

I actually forgot my Roland Cube Street Ex had an acoustic setting until last night and suddenly thought omg I shouldn't have bought the Boss ACS Pro... so I put the Roland Cube Street Ex on the acoustic guitar setting and it sounded a bit muddy and canned. I swapped over to the Boss ACS Pro and man it sounded so great in comparison. Chalk and cheese. So no regrets at all. I should have done it years ago. The Maton sounded like Tommy Emmanuel was in the room so fantastic for the steel string too. Very dynamic and sparkly. The Godin was at least closer to listening to say Chet Atkins through his Gibson Chet CE Nylon. Really satisfying.

I am glad however I bought the Eight Inch speaker version of the Boss ACS rather than the Boss ACS Live, again like my Roland Cubes it has a great volume control for low levels and in my experience the larger the speaker the better the depth in the low end. As they say in motorsport you can't beat cubic inches. Same with speaker size to a point.

The store I bought it from didn't have Fishman's or AER's.. I do hope it compares favourably with those but have no point of reference with them to comment. Obviously, they would sound good as well given they are the normal "go-to". I'd be interested in people's comments on those in comparison as I realise the Boss is at a cheaper price point. I do think Roland/Boss does a good job on their stuff as a rule so I'm hoping it's not a poor second cousin.

I did briefly try the harmoniser and vocal functions. I'm not a singer, I'm a solo guitarist, but it did impress me. I didn't expect a small 8" speaker to sound good as a P.A. but I have to say it was pretty good.

[KenL]

I had one, and it was a really good amp. Not surprising, as Roland/Boss makes good stuff.

I sold it, though, only because it had a bunch of features that I didn't need, such as the looper and the harmonizer. I sold it for what I paid for it 3 years earlier. I used the proceeds to buy a smaller and simpler Fender acoustic amp which better suits my needs.

Glad you're happy with yours. In addition to sounding good, the Acoustic Singer Pro is a good-looking piece of gear!