ZOOM AC-3 Acoustic Creator

Zoom AC-3 is a pedal multi-effect/DI box for acoustic instruments with piezo or magnetic pickups. By using these built-in pickups, guitars often lose their natural, organic tone. This problem is reliably solved with this effect/DI box.

Two rotary knobs are used to assign your guitar's specific type to the corresponding parameter. The first, Source Guitar, offers sixteen basic acoustic guitar types. Use the Target Guitar potentiometer's fifteen presets to further refine this sonic choice. Not all basic types have corresponding presets, in which case you set the option on the second potentiometer to Off. You then place the three-position pickup switch (piezo/magnetic/off) in the desired position and you're ready to play. The resulting sound is similar to what you would get with a good microphone pickup in the studio.

Compared to the smaller AC-2 version, this multieffect/DI Box features an effects processor with nine effects such as Reverb, Echo/Delay, Chorus, Tremolo and Pad. Three corresponding potentiometers are used to control their parameters, affecting the amount and depth of effect distortion and the speed of the waveform. The three footswitches control, in addition to the integrated effects, the functions of the built-in tuner (with clear display) and the Boost function, which has 9 decibels of signal boost, so it can function as a "volume jump" for solos and as a means of balancing dynamics when combining finger technique and pick playing. This is primarily served by the Compressor control, where you set the appropriate level of compression (sensitivity) with respect to your playing style. This allows all the notes to come out in their full glory. In addition, the Zoom AC-3 features a Volume control, an adjustable Reverb effect, three-band audio corrections, an Antifeedback function to suppress unwanted feedback and a Phase switch.

The effect can be powered by the included Zoom AD-19 9V adapter or two AA batteries (not included).