Any Boss Acoustic Singer Users?

JackB1 · #1 08-11-2020, 02:00 PM

Was thinking of picking up a small amp for small gigs and also to eliminate pedals on these small gigs. The Boss Acoustic Singer Live seems like the perfect solution, but I see very little discussion of it here. Would especially love to hear from anyone that has gigged with it.

Birdbrain · #2 08-11-2020, 04:37 PM

I love mine. Not that I've played every acoustic amp out there, but this suits me well. It has a sound that's big yet precise. It has a separate tweeter, which I consider essential in a hi-fi speaker, which is essentially what this is. Since it's made by an effects pedal company, you get interesting effects such as Acoustic Resonance, a looper and a vocal harmonizer. Turn up the Chorus and it does a reasonable impression of a classic Jazz Chorus amp, which makes sense, because Boss is owned by Roland. Add a few more pedals in front, and I tend to forget that I also own a tube amp.

After two years, I still haven't found anything missing from this amp. I've played it next to a Fishman Loudbox Mini, and overall I'd prefer the Boss for its greater flexibility.

BluesKing777 · #3 08-11-2020, 06:33 PM

I have the pedal but have not tried the amp models. I was interested when they came a couple of years ago, but they must surely be overdue to bring out a new 'super dooper looper scooper' better model pedal?

So I would still go with the pedal and ditch it if new stuff comes out - run the pedal to any plain amp, mixer, powered speaker...etc....that you can keep till it croaks of old age....

BluesKing777.

ohiopicker · #4 08-11-2020, 07:21 PM

I own it, and have gigged with it at farmers markets, pool parties and other relatively small events. I also sing, and the vocal channel does a good job. I also make use of the harmony feature, doing early rock and roll (Everly Brothers, et al), Americana, and country.

It is loud enough for the aforementioned type gigs. I have used it with Ovations and am now using it with a 000 Martin. The body res feature is handy for putting some “air” into your guitar if it is otherwise lacking. Being that it is a Boss product, the built in effects are good quality, without too many parameters which would make it confusing. I rarely use the looper live, but am glad to have it for practice and for sound checking. I already had several Boss foot switchers which made it even more attractive.

The build quality is good. I bought it on a black friday sale for a great price. As you probably know, it is very similar sounding to a Fishman Loudbox Mini, but with much more flexibility.

Birdbrain · #5 08-11-2020, 10:01 PM

I got that $350 price two Thanksgivings ago, from GC. It's widely available for $400 now, or when I last checked.

meb · #6 08-12-2020, 04:59 AM

ohiopicker summed it up nicely. It sounds very nice, and I used the
harmony function with an FS5U pedal. The looper + harmony is unusable
live; so I ended up with a PB into an S1 or l1C. All that is lacking in
the AS Live is a pedal that controls to loop + harmony functions.
With the VE-8, you 'can' use harmony + 2 button loop, but it was a
combo of the clumsy black buttons and footswitch. Setting
up the PB was easier for me.

Used simply as a combo amp + harmony....it is fine.

JackB1 · #7 08-12-2020, 11:03 AM

I don't understand why using the harmony and looper with a pedal is not usable? That would be a deal breaker if true. My whole reason for getting this would be for gigs and using the looper and harmony pedals with the footswitch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by meb

ohiopicker summed it up nicely. It sounds very nice, and I used the
harmony function with an FS5U pedal. The looper + harmony is unusable
live; so I ended up with a PB into an S1 or l1C. All that is lacking in
the AS Live is a pedal that controls to loop + harmony functions.
With the VE-8, you 'can' use harmony + 2 button loop, but it was a
combo of the clumsy black buttons and footswitch. Setting
up the PB was easier for me.

Used simply as a combo amp + harmony....it is fine.

ohiopicker · #8 08-12-2020, 02:15 PM

In my case, I do use the harmony function regularly (with a foot pedal) and it works as easily as say, a T.C. Helicon. Regarding the looper, while it is usable, for some reason it does not work as smoothly with the pedal as does my Roland AC-33, which is made by the same company.

Over and above the Loudbox Mini, the Boss has has switchable condenser mic power, Switchable tweeter,
pad controls, feedback notch, Body type enhancement, delay on the vocal channel, and numerous outs on the back, including the ability to feed a digitL recorder.

JackB1 · #9 08-12-2020, 08:20 PM

If the looper isn’t reliable to use then that kind of makes this amp less appealing.

meb · #10 08-13-2020, 04:03 AM

It has been a while since I had this amp; so double check me. i thought
you can either use a footswitch to control the harmony OR the looper,
but not both. I re-looked at an ad, and now see a y-cable; so maybe you can
use both simultaneously. But in the end, it is a 1 button looper, and I
want a second ''stop' button. To me, the looper controls on the front
panel were pretty irrelevant.

Good luck; I hope I didn't confuse the issue.

ohiopicker · #11 08-13-2020, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meb

It has been a while since I had this amp; so double check me. i thought
you can either use a footswitch to control the harmony OR the looper,
but not both. I re-looked at an ad, and now see a y-cable; so maybe you can
use both simultaneously. But in the end, it is a 1 button looper, and I
want a second ''stop' button. To me, the looper controls on the front
panel were pretty irrelevant.

Good luck; I hope I didn't confuse the issue.

The Y cable I believe is to feed One double or two Boss single footswitches into the stereo IN that can control either the Harmony On-Off and the Mute. With another one or two Boss Switches you can control the Start-Stop-Erase on the looper. All can operate at once if you have that much acrage below your feet. With regard to the looper, while I may be critical of it, it probably has more to do with my age than anything else. For me itis enough to look at a set list and iPad and operate a harmonizer, a mute, and play and sing!

JackB1 · #12 08-13-2020, 07:53 AM

I did a little more digging and yes you can use both the looper and harmony together with a footswitch. You need a TRS to a split mono cable or adapter or else you need to use 2 separate footswitches.

See here:
https://rolandus.zendesk.com/hc/en-u...ions-Functions

Quote:

Originally Posted by meb

It has been a while since I had this amp; so double check me. i thought
you can either use a footswitch to control the harmony OR the looper,
but not both. I re-looked at an ad, and now see a y-cable; so maybe you can
use both simultaneously. But in the end, it is a 1 button looper, and I
want a second ''stop' button. To me, the looper controls on the front
panel were pretty irrelevant.

Good luck; I hope I didn't confuse the issue.

JackB1 · #13 08-13-2020, 10:40 AM

Would love to hear from some more guys that have used this amp for live gigs and if it was sufficient. You think this would be OK for up to 100 people in a small club? I have read some reviews were people said the vocal channel distorts when you turn it up a little. They say the guitar channel is great, but the vocal channel has issues. True?

JackB1 · #14 08-14-2020, 07:34 AM

Heard about a weird glitch with the looper in the Acoustic Singer. Can any of you verify this is true?

When clearing out a previous loop, you have to hold down the footswitch button, which will momentarily start playing the loop before erasing it. This will sound weird when playing live to an audience...especially when using the looper for almost every song.

JackB1 · #15 08-16-2020, 04:07 PM

OK I actually got to try the Acoustic Singer Live this weekend and ended up returning it and here's why:

When clearing a loop, which is a single button looper, you double press and hold. For some reason, it starts playing your last loop for about 1 second before it clears it. This is a problem for live gigs. The workaround is muting the amp before clearing the loop, but that's kind of ridiculous,

The other issue was the small 6.5" speaker. I tried it on a small outdoor patio with around 6-8 tables and about 20-25 people and it was enough, but I felt like the sound wasn't "big" enough...probably due to the tiny speaker. I had it placed up on a bar stool and it was loud enough with volume at around 75-80%. The guitar did sound very nice, with the Acoustic Resonance feature and EQ'd just right. The vocals sounded OK but needed a lot more gain to compete with the guitars volume. Also when the volume was turned up loud for the vocal channel, it seemed on the edge of distorting. This was with a good Sennheiser mic. I think the larger 120 watt model with the 8" speaker would be a much better choice, but you still have the looper glitch deal with. The other weird thing is you need 2 footswitches and they have one programmed for harmony/mute and the other for looper/chorus. You have no way to change those choices. With a Y cable, you could use one footswitch for loop & harmony I suppose, but this is just a weird design. Also the included footswitch is very cheap with a short chord and is basically useless for gigging. This means you have to spend another $60-120 for 1 or 2 proper footswitches.