Roland AC60 - Any thoughts?

Hi all

I tried one of these today as I'm on the lookout for a new acoustic amp (my credit card isn't sqealing anymore so...). I tried it alongside the AER 60. Undoubtedly the AER is the better amp but it is £230 more expensive than the Roland.

Has anyone else tried one? If so, what did you think? I'm keen for opinions because it was hugely hot in the shop and very busy and I couldn't really get a feel for it with a million teenage metal merchants howling in the next room. I know nothing about Roland amps. Good? Bad? Indifferent? Depends?

I suppose my basic question is this: is the AER £230 better than the Roland?

God, what a waffler! Sorry all.

Always buy what you think is the best, in the long run its best.

Dunno about the Roland but I have no complaints at all about my Marshall AS50R which is about the dirt cheapest 50 watt guitar and mic amp around. In comparison with the AER 60 it is much bassier, and it has no mid EQ, so you can't scoop out the mid. My solution was to acquire a monitor stand which lifts the amp about 9 inches off floor level and tilts it a bit. Getting it out of contact with the floor totally rebalances the sound, adds some presence and kills bass dominance.

Used like that, it has stood in as a PA for our folk club for solo acts, and worked perfectly. It has a slight residual hum (AER amps tend to have a slight hiss, not a hum) but this is onyl audible in drawing-room conditions; get into a pub and you won't tell it's turned on.

Has anyone tried the Behringer Ultracoustic?

I did try the Marshall amp but found I had little control. Basically it didn't reproduce the sound of my acoustic - which the AER did and the Roland too (although to a slightly lesser extent) - but interesting solution in raising it off the floor.

Thanks for all the responses. As the Behringer one...oh my god - not another one to try!

A lot does depend on whether you want an Oasis-style acoustic sound (aka Taylor sound). The AER excels at this - very open, airy, silvery sound. The Marshall is altogether fatter and warmer and suits the large body Lowden character well, and it is also a bit kinder to vocals (the AER, if used for vocals, is pretty edgy).

I don't know why Marshall chose to enclose the AS50R. My experience is that open back combos (or open-back speakers, especially if over 8 inches driver) sound more natural for acoustic guitar. I have considered opening up the AS50R back as I reckon this would totally change its bass dominated response.

I've used loads of different amps and speakers over the years and conclude that deep, small speaker, bass ported, enclosed cabs are not very good at reproducing a natural listening experience; shallow, open back, unported cabs sound more like an unplugged acoustic. There are exceptions and those all seem to be very carefully designed like the small Trace Elliotts were, like the AER, like BOSE, or like the Ashworth. Every time I've fallen in love with a really expensive acoustic guitar amp of a portable size (I like to walk to my regular session) it turns out to be a real bummer for vocals, or not even to have a second channel, or to have no built-in reverb, or no control over how the reverb is used on twin channels.

Apart from the Marshall, two small combo acoustic amps which I've found to be very natural sound are the very cheap Tanglewood (etc!) AX-30 which is not powerful, has a violent spring line reverb of limited use, but has the BEST passive piezo input (as well as active) - and for £99 is hard to beat; and my secret weapon, the Nobels Streetman 10/15, which is amazing open back design battery powered twin channel amp even incorporating a A=440 tuning signal, CD input, ext speaker output, power outlet for 9v stomp boxes, three-band EQ, shoulder strap, mic stand mount, 9 to 12v compatible AC adaptor socket... and I think mine cost all of £69. It is the most natural small amp I've ever used, no reverb or fancy stuff, but amazingly able to take max vol and max gain without distortion (and to drive a 12 inch PA cab without blowing up).

I played 30 mins of instrumentals to a hundred or two folk sitting in the town square in Kelso (the largest market square in Scotland) on Saturday using just the Streetman and my Tacoma Papoose. I sat and played while they dismantled the 200W PA which had been running for the keyboard/songs guy, and set up tables and chairs on the stage for the next (town civic week) event. I don't think volume was an issue because the occasional end-of-piece applause was coming from all parts of the square, and from stone deaf old folk who had been wheeled out (captive audience!). My Fender ampCan can't do that without distorting horribly or rattling away on bass notes - the Streetman did it fine.