Boss Unveils AD-10 Acoustic Preamp

Boss has announced the AD-10 Acoustic Preamp, a new professional preamp/DI pedal for acoustic-electric guitar.

The dual-channel AD-10 features the latest generation of Boss' Acoustic Resonance technology, which restores natural acoustic tone in amplified acoustic stage instruments. The pedal also includes numerous tone-shaping tools, onboard effects, and a looper, plus newly developed functions to control feedback with minimal tonal coloration.

An unplugged acoustic guitar produces a complex, full-bodied tone that can’t be reproduced by the standard pickup systems installed on most stage guitars. Using proprietary Boss technology, the AD-10’s standout Acoustic Resonance feature solves this issue by analyzing the input signal in real time and employing advanced processing to recreate the guitar’s naturally resonant acoustic tone. Acoustic Resonance is also featured in other Boss products, including the Acoustic Singer amplifiers, VE-8 Acoustic Singer, and AD-2 Acoustic Preamp, but the AD-10’s Acoustic Resonance offers the deepest implementation to date, with more powerful processing, three resonance types and the ability to balance the tonal character to suit the needs of different instruments.

Feedback is another common problem with amplifying acoustic guitars on stage, and the AD-10 includes multiple layers of feedback protection to address these issues. With a twist of the feedback reduction knob, the user can engage newly developed Boss technology that seeks out and suppresses the offending frequency while continually maintaining balanced overall tone. For deeper feedback problems, the AD-10 includes sophisticated notch filters that can be tuned manually or set for automatic scanning to eliminate feedback in the background.

The AD-10 has two input channels with adjustable sensitivity, allowing the player to set up tones for two stage guitars, blend two pickup sources from a single instrument, or use two instruments at once. Each channel can be adjusted with a four-band EQ section and a widely variable low-cut filter. Unlike standard EQs found in other preamps, adjusting the AD-10’s EQ bands engages multiple interlocking parameters under the hood, allowing for precise tonal shaping with subtle tweaks.

In addition to its core tone-shaping abilities, the AD-10 offers a wide range of high-quality, easy-to-use effects. The Ambience effect offers three types of reverberation specially tuned for acoustic guitar. There’s also a delay with standard, mod, and reverse types, plus three variations of Boss' famous stereo chorus effect. A single-knob compressor enables users to transparently control dynamics with Boss' intelligent MDP technology.

The AD-10 also includes a customizable boost function, an 80-second looper, a built-in tuner and 10 memories for storing user setups. Three integrated soft-touch footswitches can be configured to select memories, turn effects on/off, access the tuner, and more.

The rear panel of the AD-10 offers stereo XLR jacks for a DI feed to a PA system, plus stereo 1/4-inch jacks for connecting to a stage amp or headphones for monitoring. Signals can be sent to the outputs with or without effects. There’s also an effects loop for patching in external effects, and a jack for connecting up to two footswitches or an expression pedal to control various parameters. In addition, the AD-10 functions as a two-in/two-out USB audio interface for recording tracks to a DAW and playing computer music through the AD-10’s audio outputs.

To learn more, visit Boss.info.