Updated by Bobby
Updated on February 14th, 2022
Switched the BBE Acoustimax (no longer available) with the the Fender Smolder acoustic overdrive.
There's a lot of uncertainty about using acoustic guitar distortion.
Does it work? Will it mess up my amp? What pickup or pedal should I use? Should I use an amp or go straight through a PA system? Before answering these questions, I should point out that results are always going to be somewhat contextual. Since the main issue is eliminating feedback, the success you have, in that regard, can change based on a number of variables.
Thus, it's often a difficult puzzle to solve.
But, we can still offer conventional wisdom and best practices that will allow you to do one or more of the following:
- Add a slight boost to your acoustic signal
- Use a moderate amount of distortion with an acoustic guitar
- Move back and forth between a clean and "dirty" sound on your acoustic guitar
- Avoid feedback when adding gain to your acoustic guitar's signal
There are a lot of questions to answer before we get to "declare" the best overdrive pedal for acoustic guitar, so let's cover those first.
Read more: Best guitar effects resource page
Best Overdrive Pedals for Acoustic Guitars (top two picks)
Use the compare buttons to see specs and pricing for each pedal side by side.
PEDALS | DETAILS | RATING | SHOP |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive | n/a | |
 | Fender Smolder Acoustic Guitar Overdrive | n/a |
Does it matter whether I run my signal to an amp or PA system?
In most cases it's better to run a distorted acoustic guitar through an amplifier, as opposed to going straight into a PA system.
Part of this is because feedback typically stems from a PA system monitor that is facing your guitar sending the source signal (your guitar) back into the acoustic pickup. While it's not always a problem, it's a safe bet you'll have better luck getting your signal into an amp, distorting it via a pedal and then sending it to a PA system by putting a microphone on your amp or using a balanced output.
Note however, that there are certain pedals and systems that can be setup to allow you to send an acoustic signal straight to your PA system, regardless.
Using a PA system with a distorted acoustic guitar doesn't automatically mean you'll be dealing with feedback issues. Once again, experiences will vary, so there are a few different options you can try.
Is an acoustic amp necessary?
You don't need an acoustic amp to play a distorted acoustic guitar.
Aside from going straight into a PA system, some electric guitar amps, particularly warm-sounding tube amplifiers, can also work well. The one caveat is that you'll tame feedback more easily if you get your distortion from a pedal and not from the amp itself.
Use a clean and balanced EQ on your amp as a base, then use a distortion pedal to add the higher gain setting.
The Four Options for Amplifying an Acoustic Guitar
- Dedicated acoustic amplifier
- Clean, low-feedback electric guitar amp
- Pedal-based acoustic preamp
- Direct to a PA system with a DI box
What kind of acoustic pickup should I use?
Note that if your acoustic guitar already has a pickup and preamp installed, this section is not a concern for you.
Read more: Acoustic guitars with pickups
If your acoustic guitar does not have its own pickup and preamp, you'll need to use some kind of soundhole pickup that you can install as needed. You would then have the option of adding an external preamp, which might be necessary if you don't have an acoustic amp to make EQ adjustements to the pickup's raw tone.
For improved odds of staying feedback-free, use a pickup that covers the entire soundhole, like the Fishman Neo-Buster.
Here are a few additional options, if you don't have one already:
How important is a soundhole cover?
A soundhole cover, while you can get them in a pickup form, are more commonly found as standalone feedback reducers that are meant to work in conjunction with the pickup that's already installed inside the body of your guitar.
For example, if you had the Taylor 114ce and wanted to add distortion to it, you could reduce feedback by simply using the preamp that's already installed and adding a soundhole cover.
They're a nice solution to try first (if you already have the pickup in your guitar) because they're really cheap. In a lot of cases, they'll solve feedback issues entirely.
Planet Waves makes a soft rubber version that fits most acoustics.
Which overdrive pedal for acoustic guitar works best?
Now that we've burned through some of the technicalities and peripheral issues, what distortion or overdrive pedal for acoustic guitar will work best? Before getting into specifics, let's cover some general best practices.
1: Your distortion should not be heavy or overly saturating.
Overdrive for acoustic guitars should not be heavy or laden with a ton of gain. If it's too distorted, you'll have feedback problems no matter what kind of pickup arrangement you've pulled together. Think smooth, simple overdrive.
For example, a lot of players use the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver in this capacity. Hardly aggressive.
2: Volume levels between pedal and amp should match up
You don't want a huge jump in output when switching between your pedal and amplifier. Since most distortion pedals have a level knob, which acts as the pedal's master output, make sure that this is set to roughly the same as the master volume on your amplifier.
In other words, when you turn on your distortion pedal, volume either stays the same or only increases slightly. This will help keep feedback at bay. With that out of the way, let's get into some pedal recommendations.
Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive Mod
The Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive MOD is the same pedal as the original Sparkle Drive, but with a few extra settings that allow you to choose from different distortion flavors based on EQ variance. For example, you can dial in more of a bluesy midrange grind or opt for a thicker bass-heavy tone. It's helpful to have the variety, as certain MOD settings might be more accommodating to your acoustic guitar.
The "CLEAN" knob
While the extra MOD settings are nice to have, the single most helpful feature for acoustic players is the knob labeled CLEAN. This basically allows you to dial in a blend between your original clean signal (with a slight boost) and the distorted signal, which is an incredibly helpful tool for when you're using the pedal to distort an acoustic.
The benefit is two-fold:
- You can dial back in the natural tone of the acoustic guitar's clean signal and avoid losing its raw sound.
- Feedback reduction becomes much easier by simply changing the clean/distortion blend.
Check the following demo video around 45 seconds in.
He boosts the clean knob to about halfway which brings his guitar's clean signal back into the mix.
This is one of the few distortion pedals providing this luxury (the Fender Smolder that we discuss below provides this as well).
Pedals like the Boss Blues Driver and DS-1 distortion don't have that feature, and instead only allow you to control level (labeled VOLUME on the Sparkle Drive) and gain. Other notable and acoustic-friendly features of the Sparkle Drive include the following:
- True bypass wiring
- Vintage mode with a tube-style drive (good for smooth acoustic distortion)
- 100% clean boost circuit
While distortion pedals without the blend control can still work, it's hard to recommend anything other than the Sparkle Drive Mod since it has both the smoothness and versatility we're looking for, in addition to this hallmark feature.
IDEAL FOR: Basic acoustic guitar distortion
TONE
n/a
EQ/CONTROL
n/a
BUILD/STRENGTH
n/a
COST/VALUE
n/a
THE PROS
THE CONS
Fender Smolder Acoustic Overdrive
Fender's Smolder acoustic overdrive is one of the first overdrive pedals designed expressly for acoustic guitars. As such, it's one of the few overdrives we've tested on an acoustic that doesn't just cover over the natural resonance of an acoustic tone.
This pedal pushes more midrange into your acoustic signal to help balance out the typically heavy low-end of an acoustic guitar.
The "thud" sound.
Though if you're using a brighter acoustic, like the Taylor 114e or ce, you can use the treble and tone controls to dials those mids back and let the heavier bass in the low-end push through.
Once you've set your EQ, the Blend control let's you adjust the balance between your wet and dry signal.
Having a blend knob in an overdrive pedal is fairly uncommon (as we mentioned conerning the Sparkle above), but definitely helpful in this context.
With this control alone, I was able to make the distortion as heavy or subtle as needed.
While the Smolder is probably less versatile than the Sparkle Drive, we liked the way the Smolder handled an acoustic tone better, especially if you're working with a Piezo pickup. The Smolder is an easy choice for us, given the narrow job description and the extensive thought/work that went into making this pedal acoustic-friendly.
IDEAL FOR: Subtle acoustic guitar overdrive, performing and recording
TONE
n/a
EQ/CONTROL
n/a
BUILD/STRENGTH
n/a
COST/VALUE
n/a
THE PROS
THE CONS
A Few Honorable Mentions
As with most guitar gear questions, answers are always going to be somewhat subjective.
The two distortion pedals highlighted are what we believe will be the most optimal solutions for the largest number of people. What it doesn't mean is that they're the only solutions or that other options don't exist.
A lot of what works for you is contingent upon your rig, how you play, where you play and how you have everything setup.
Thus, there are a few honorable mentions that could serve as working distortion pedals for acoustic guitar rigs.
What You Should Avoid
If you don't go with either of the pedals recommended:
You should avoid any kind of distortion labeled "metal" or "heavy," opting instead for lighter distortions and overdrives.
As we've mentioned before, too much gain or saturating distortions will overshadow your acoustic guitar's natural tone and make feedback an almost constant problem.
Keep this in mind as you pick out an acoustic guitar distortion.
There's a balance to be struck between adding a little bit of gain that enhances your signal or drowning out your acoustic guitar behind a wall of fuzz and feedback.
Hearing from You
Particularly if you've used the Sparkle Drive or Fender Smolder with an acoustic guitar and have a war story to share, we'd love to hear about it. Leave such stories in the comments section.
Most questions about the pedals or the setup should be shared in the comments section so others can benefit as well.
If you just want to drop a line about your acoustic rig or the pedal you've used successfully for acoustic distortion, we'd love to hear about that as well.
Keep the fire alive.
Related Articles
Written by Bobby on Pedals and Roundups
Written by Bobby on Acoustics and Roundups
I use the fender smolder. It’s great. When I stacked a Nobels Od in front of it, it is fantastic. So, right, a light overdrive works well. I play an Epiphone inspired by Gibson acoustic with piezo.
Just surfed in here wondering what other folks have been using.
Acoustic guitar overdrive was my white whale for a long time.
The best setup I was able to do was with a Takamine EF341 and a Lace Sensor Dobro humbucker mounted between the soundhole and the bridge.
The key to it all for me was running the “electric” side to overdrives AND THEN volume pedal and then delays>amp. This allowed me to play the acoustic clean and blend in the distorted signal with the volume pedal. It would be like swelling in a distorted electric just for the chorus or something.
With the Lace – nearly any overdrive worked, honey bee, tube screamer, DOD250, hell even the metal zone allowed for shockingly huge sound and with the volume pedal – you can control the feedback.
Sadly the Lace pickup doesn’t fit on most guitars – it’s still too thick for it to live on any of my Gibson acoustics so with those I’ve used a Fishman Rare Earth humbucker. With the rare earth something with the clean thru like the Sparkle Drive is great and I have used that pedal. You can also bypass the amp and use something like the Tech21 Liverpool with the speaker emulation and go straight to a PA.
I have done exhaustive research into this. Many pedals, many pickups. Would love to chat with anyone about it. I’m easy to find if you just google my name.
This is some great insight, Bobbo. I love the idea of being able to balance the mix between distorted/clean signal with a volume pedal. A shame more distortion and overdrive pedals don’t offer this feature. Thanks for sharing!
Simple question: using an acoustic and a Shure SM57. I bought a Livewire 1/4″ TS male XLR female adapter to plug directly into my pedal (Fairfield Circuitry Shallow water). I can hear the guitar but it is super quiet and i need to turn thw gain to max to hear even a faint sound. Do I need to run the SM57 to an interface before going to the pedal? Searching the internet does not yeild any immediate explanations, just mic placement how-to’s. Ill be sending the pedal out to a tascam 424 MKII for recording when the tascam arrives.
Hey Joseph, Thanks for checking in!
There are a couple of things going on here. Using the SM57 is perfectly viable and running your acoustic signal through the Fairfield Shallow Water makes sense. The first issue I think you’re likely running into is the mismatch of signal types/strengths. Your SM57 puts out a balanced (three pins) ‘mic level’ signal which is pretty low level. The 1/4″ TS to XLR adapter, while it mechanically ‘mates’ the connectors does not properly address the signal levels. The goal we’re after is to get that balanced mic signal properly adjusted so we can route it through the effects chain you want to use. In short, your going to need some kind of mic pre-amp to boost the SM57 signal. This is one of my favorite pieces of gear for what is sounds like your trying to do.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ColourBoxV2–jhs-colour-box-v2-preamp-pedal
You would want to use and XLR cable to plug your SM57 into the input side of the ColourBoxl, boost and tweak EQ to taste, and then us the 1/4″ output from then Colourbox to feed your Fairfield Shallow Water. Hope this helps.
Hi, does anyone have a view on the new Fender Smolder Acoustic Overdrive pedal? Built specifically for acoustics and has good reviews.
Yeah I’ve been trying to get one of those for testing or get in touch with someone who has used it. If anyone on here has, feel free to get in touch with me at bobby@guitarchalk.com. I’d love to feature it on this page, but I just want to get some concrete info about it first.
For the past several years I have run my rig with a number of pedals, including OD/Dist. My set up is as follows: Larrivee D05E>TC Electronic Polytune>Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah>Xotic Effects SP>Fulltone MDV-3>Fulltone Plimsoul (this is my OD/Dist pedal)>Boss CH2>Boss TR1>Boss DD5>MXR Carbon Copy>TCElectronic SparkMini>Amplifier (AER Compact 60). The rig is powered by a Truetone CS12 isolated power brick which is mounted under the board. On my guitar, the onboard (Larrivee installed) electronics are a Fishman Blender (don’t remember which one), which I keep dialed 100% to the piezo pickup under the bridge.
With all of this going on let me clarify that I do play primarily an acoustic tone with my band, but I’ve found that my ability to bring distinct and different tones and sounds to our mix is an important part of who we are as a band and who I am as a player. With the OD, I chose the Plimsoul for its 2 stage OD. The first stage is a soft-clipped OD which can get way into distortion land but I keep it dialed to about 11-o’clock which is roughly the sound one gets from an amp that is breaking up (think Fender Twin dimed out). The second stage brings more of a hard clipping into the mix which sounds more like a plexi-marshall overdrive. Together, I get a really GREAT heavy OD sound. I keep the level at slightly more than unity gain so it does act as a minor boost to the overall volume. I have set the guitar preamp notch filter to feedback only when I really want to play the feedback, but otherwise I can play with the drive and the wah and have no issues of feedback (unless I want to create it). The trick in my opinion to finding the right OD sound depends on a couple of things: 1) Play lots of pedals at stage volume and tweak each one until you get the tone you are seeking; you don’t want to sound thin and fizzy which is easy to do w Acoustics. 2) Understand why you want to OD your sound and what you hope it to sound like. If you don’t have a clear picture in your head about what the tone is you want and when you will apply it, then you will struggle to get anything to work well for your rig.
If I may provide any insight to others, I’m happy to help.
Hey Howard – thanks for chiming in with such thorough insight. Sounds like an excellent rig (I had a buddy who played Larivee acoustics back in the day).
Your comment really adds a lot to this article so I appreciate it.
Also, good call on the Plimsoul. If you have pictures of your rig, send them my way and I’ll try and add them to this post.
hi..wow..this article is very very useful!! i have 2 questions,though:
1.do you have any tricks ” do and don’t” too for using multi-fx (especially for Vamp2 or POD line 6) with the acoustic electric guitar?
2. with the arrival of many unique pedals for accoustic guitar…can we use an overdrive pedal through preamp pedals (ex. Zoom A 3) before going to the PA?
need advice on this..thank u very much
Hey Joe – thanks for the comment. I would think that most multi-effects units would work, though personally I don’t prefer them with acoustic or electric rigs, unless they’re made for acoustic guitars. I’m not familiar with the ones you mentioned, though if they have an effects loop built in that could be particularly useful.
Otherwise, if you have a single overdrive pedal going into a pedal or rack preamp, that should work fine as long as you don’t have the gain really high. The trick with acoustic rigs is to keep it subtle. No metal distortions or high gain stompboxes.
Hope this helps.
hi,Bob..thanks for the reply..i appreciate it..btw,i forgot to ask..
u mentioned about using soundhole cover to avoid feedback..but wouldn’t it affect the guitar’s tone? i hardly ever used them anymore since i found them somehow changed my guitar’s tone.. thank you..
I use one on my Taylor 114ce and haven’t noticed any significant change in tone. When it’s plugged in, the natural resonance is a little different anyway. So in my experience, it hasn’t been a problem, but I suppose it could depend on what type/brand of cover you’re using.
I also have the sdame problem with my Boss AD-10 pre-amp.
I think theres no problem running one overdrive pedal through the FX LOOP of the Boss.
I also run Nux Mod core (modulation multi effect pedal) through the boss ad-10, and it works great
I have learned tons of other tricks on this subject. Please feel free to ask me anything.
Hey Jo, can you contact me at kinglerch #at# yahoo.com? i have some acoustic distortion questions. thanx!
I have used distortion pedals with acoustic guitars for more than 10 years. This is not a new concept. Lightning Hopkins did did this in 1960’s with his Gibson J160. The Alarm also did this in the early 80’s. Both of them used electric guitar humbuckers installed in there acoustics. I have success doing it have learned many things along the way. First, here is my setup; Seagull S6 with Fishman Rare Earth humbucker to boss bass eq pedal, Sabine distortion/fuzz pedal, Art Tube MP preamp straight into the PA console. 1. In order to diminish feedback do this; stay behind the pa speakers, offset the pa monitor if front of you so it is not directly ahead, add chorus effect to your guitar.
Nice article, I was courious to read this and it’s important for me because i’ve been playing distorted acoustic for several years now, As a professional guitar player I’ve make a choice several years ago to play mostly acoustic guitars. So in the process I’ve found that I could use distortion. Firts years I had cheap gear: and old Fenix acoustic with german made piezo plugged to a 30w Fame acoustic amp. Than I got a Taylor 314ce and a Roland AC60 Chorus. Than I started to check several distortion pedals but they were not what I was looking for dispite the fact that they all had problems playing live. Than I found the precious MXR Zakk Wylde ZW44 Overdrive Pedal (the first one) and than I added the new one wich sound different. And since than I’ve got a very good distorted acoustic sound and and can play with both turned on applying the isocond one for solos. I even got a 12 String Ibañes from 78 and works great.
Sounds like a pretty sweet setup there. I take it the ZW44 is your acoustic guitar distortion of choice?