I bought the play acoustic over a year ago. Really more out of curiosity. I'm not a professional performer by any measure but have been playing the guitar, both acoustic and electric for over two decades and have recently gotten interested with doing acoustic versions of songs purely as a hobby. I was looking for effects pedals specific for acoustic guitars. I've had my fair share of electric pedal boards having gone thru several boss and zoom multi-effects units.

What I really enjoy about the play acoustic is its very intuitive user interface. Right out of the box, I found it quite easy to navigate thru the various menus for vocal, guitar, overall mix and specific genre sections. It also appears to be built quite tough. The metal chasis body and the almost automotive paint finish gives the unit a truly rugged but elegant look.

The out of the box presets are quite enjoyable as well. I've yet to fully explore the presets but I've quickly identified vocal presets that are quick favorites.

The guitar effects is basically chorus, delay (echo), reverb, and Body Rez (Compressor) and is more than sufficient to customize one's guitar tone. Tuner and built in looper is present as well. Although from a looping perspective, I'm still reliant on my Boss RC 30 for any looping as the play acoustic has a somewhat limited max loop time.

The power of the play acoustic is in its vocal harmonization capabilities and the possibilities is only limited by your imagination and the amount of time you'd spend fiddling with it.

Definitely happy with the purchase and Tc Helicon that I purchased the switch 6 foot switch which adds some latitude to move around as the TRS cable allows you to position the foot switch at a distance from the main unit if needed.

So it is both a guitar effects and a vocal effects processor. I will be using this any time I play live acoustic guitar. It is also a DI box for the guitar. The vocal harmony effects are good enough to use in live gigs. I added the 3 button switch for easier control of the looper. I had to stumble through the menu to get the foot switch to work as the default setting is for the 6 button switch. That has been the only glitch.

Wonderful piece of equipment for guitar singer.

Love it. I use it for my solo shows and it adds a very natural harmony at the push of a foot switch. Easy to use, works as advertised. My wife (and others) actually commented that my guitar sounded better than ever. I play a Taylor 410CE, Shure Beta 58 and EV speakers for my PA and I'm very happy with the outcome.

I do have to cut the gain down a bit or I get a hum (hence the 4 versus 5 stars) but there are controls for gain and ground lift that eliminate most crappy power situations that bars provide.

Other reviews will provide a list of features but those are available on Youtube and on TC's website. In the real world for a gigging musician it works very well. I haven't tried the looper function but plan to once I buy the Swtich-3 for added versatility.

One final note, I had the TC Harmony Singer for a while - which also sounds good but the Play Acoustic has better and more harmonies, guitar sounds and buttons to go up and down the presets.

I've actually bitten the bullet for two of these, one for my studio/practice equipment and another for my road rig. I do use effects, e.g. a synth and octave pedal, but alone the TC Helicon Play Acoustic can carry its own. Love the vocal effect presets and customizable guitar body rez and reverb settings. This box EXCELs at vocal effects, ambient settings, harmony variants, etc. What it doesn't do so well, in my opinion is on-the-fly guitar effects, unless one is prepared to spend hours learning and applying the use of custom pre-sets. I would think this would not be time-conducive to all but the nutters among us. Therefore, I've found going into my instrument settings for a 'base configuration,' then applying the factory presets on top of it is useful. On my road rig, also with a TCHPA, I augment the guitar effects with a Zoom AC-3 which gives better on-the-fly results.