BOSS AD-10

The Boss AD-10 is an acoustic preamp in a floor unit, built to take the signal from an acoustic guitar pickup and turn it into something that sounds like the guitar itself. Its central feature, Acoustic Resonance, analyzes the pickup signal and recreates the missing body and string resonances that Boss says are essential for natural acoustic sound¹. Around that core sit the tools a performing acoustic player needs on stage: EQ, compression, ambience reverb, delay, chorus, an 80-second looper and anti-feedback notch filters².

What the AD-10 does for an acoustic pickup signal

A piezo or magnetic pickup on an acoustic guitar captures the strings but loses most of what makes the instrument sound like wood and air. The AD-10's answer is Acoustic Resonance, which Boss says analyzes the pickup signal and recreates the missing body and string resonances, restoring the elements essential for natural acoustic sound¹. It offers three different resonance types, more powerful processing than earlier Boss acoustic preamps, and the ability to balance tonal characteristics³.

The AD-10 has two input channels, which Boss says can be set up for two different stage guitars, used to blend two pickup sources from a single instrument, or even used with two instruments at once¹. That makes it a fit for players who switch between guitars mid-set, or who run a combined piezo and microphone rig on one guitar.

For players comparing acoustic preamps, the AD-10 sits alongside units like the Boss AD-2 Acoustic Preamp, the Zoom AC-2 Acoustic Creator and the LR Baggs Session DI in the acoustic pedals category.

The controls: EQ, compressor, effects and footswitches

Each channel gets its own EQ section with four bands, including a parametric midrange, plus a widely variable low-cut filter. The EQ can be defeated, and phase is adjustable per channel independently¹. In his Acoustic Guitar review, Pete Madsen described the layout:

There is also a central Output Level control adjacent to the EQ knobs².

The compressor is a single-knob design using Boss's MDP (Multi-Dimensional Processing) technology, which Boss says transparently controls dynamics³. The effects list from Madsen's review covers the full package: boost, chorus, delay, resonance, compression, 3-band EQ, reverb, an 80-second looper, and anti-feedback with notch settings and a reduction control².

The soft-touch footswitches are designed for unobtrusive operation in quiet acoustic settings, and can be configured to select memories, turn effects on and off, access the onboard tuner and more¹. A rear jack accepts up to two footswitches or an expression pedal for controlling looper functions, volume, tap tempo, anti-feedback scan and more¹, something Madsen's review also confirmed with its input for an expression pedal².

Anti-feedback

Feedback is the recurring problem for a plugged-in acoustic on a loud stage. The AD-10 gives you two individual notch selectors that dial out two different feedback-causing frequencies, and depressing both switches makes the unit scan for feedback-causing frequencies². Each notch filter cuts out both the fundamental and the first overtone of the feedback frequency, and the depth of the filters is adjustable³.

Outputs and connections

On the rear panel, stereo XLR jacks provide a DI feed to the front of house, while stereo 1/4-inch jacks connect to a stage amp setup or headphones for monitoring¹. Madsen's spec list adds the detail: two XLR main outs, two 1/4-inch line outs, one 1/4-inch send and one Type B USB port². The USB port is where the computer drivers below come in.

Drivers for Mac and Windows

Boss provides USB drivers for the AD-10 for both platforms, with versions covering a wide span of operating systems⁴⁵⁶.

A few restrictions apply across the Windows drivers: ARM-based PCs are not supported, the driver cannot be used in a virtual Windows environment, and Windows running on a Mac is not supported⁸. The Windows 8.1-era driver also will not work on Windows RT⁵.

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