The acoustic guitar makes its own noise, but sometimes that just isn’t enough. If you want to play in front of an audience or in the company of other musicians, you might need one of the best acoustic guitar amps in this round-up.
What we are looking for is an amplifier that makes your acoustic electric guitar, or acoustic mic’d up through a condenser microphone, sound louder, sound better, but most of all sound like itself. That’s the thing. After all there is little point in agonising over which acoustic guitar is right for you and then plugging it into an amplifier that masks all those lovely transients and dynamics.
We are also looking for an amplifier that can handle your vocals, too, with a second channel dedicated to an XLR input for your mic. That would be great, right? Well, you’re in luck.
Acoustic Guitar Amp Buying Guide
The good news is that amp manufacturers get it. They know what you are looking for. And whether you intend on playing down the coffee shop or local club, busking on the high street or playing at church, there is an abundance of choice. So let’s have a look at 10 great choices and find the best acoustic guitar amp that’s right for you.
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German acoustic amp titan AER manufactures a suite of incredible acoustic amps but for our money, and for the professional’s money, it’s the AER Compact 60 MkIV that takes the cake. It will bring out the best in your acoustic, delivering its tone amplified, untampered, and with all the mod-cons you need in a pro-quality two-channel acoustic amp. For the gigging guitarist and studio pro alike, this is the one. Used by the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, its small and portable but can fill a room.
Yamaha Thr30iia Wireless Acoustic Guitar Amplifier
A more wallet-friendly option and yet stage-ready out of the box is the Boss Acoustic Singer Live LT. It’s a more stripped down and budget-conscious entry in the hugely popular series but its performance – not to mention its portability and build – makes it a convincing grab-and-go amplifier, with two channels to handle both guitar and vocals, onboard effects and plenty of tone-tweaking options to tighten up your live sound.
If you are new to acoustic amplifiers, one of the first things to note is that their modus operandi is a little different to their electric guitar amp counterparts. The goal with the acoustic amplifier is to amplify your acoustic guitar tone faithfully, with no distortion, no feedback, and none of the artificial twackiness that you can get when electro-acoustics are amplified.
Broadly speaking, this transparent performance places the acoustic amplifier at the mercy of your guitar; it’s only going to sound as good as your guitar. Where a great electric guitar amp can make a piece of firewood sound useable, the acoustic amp has to work with what it’s got. That is the rule of the thumb, and the platonic ideal is to own a great-sounding acoustic, right?
Fender Acoustasonic Ultralight Stereo 2x125w Piggyback Acoustic Guitar Amp
But then there are a host of tone-shaping features to look out for that can save your tone on a day when, for example, you are playing with other musicians, and you need the EQ to brighten up your tone and help your fingerstyle pop through the mix. If you’ve got a smaller-bodied orchestra or parlour model then you could always dial in a little extra in the lower-mids to add depth to strummed chords.
Another fundamental difference between the electric guitar amp and the acoustic guitar amp is that the two-channel designs of the acoustic amp aren’t for having one clean channel and the other with a gain stage on it. More commonly it will because one will have a 1/4” instrument input jack and a XLR input for attaching a vocal mic or – if it has phantom power – a condenser mic for your acoustic guitar.
Many acoustic amps will have onboard effects – typically reverb, which adds a little space to your tone and brightens up a dead room, but also delay and chorus. If you are a card-carrying member of the next-gen acoustic players who are shepherds of an ever-growing pedalboard, an effects loop might be essential.
Dealing With Guitar Amps On Live Gigs — Anatomy Of Guitar Tone
Most good acoustic electric preamps and acoustic guitar amplifiers offer some sort of prophylactic measure to stop feedback, such as a phase, notch filter and sweep. Feedback can be the bane of the acoustic player’s life, and it strikes when you least expect it. Sometimes it is the room that is the problem, but finding that troublesome frequency and taking it out will make your performances all the more enjoyable.
Amps such as the Marshall AS50D have a notch filter and a frequency sweep control to really give you control over it. Others will have phase switches, on/off buttons that cut some of the low-end frequencies that can cause mischief.
There are other practical concerns that the acoustic guitarist needs to bear in mind. If you intend on busking, you’ll need a battery-powered amp. Here we have two choices for you, with the Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge an amp you charge at the wall and the Roland AC-33 taking a stack of AA batteries.
Monoprice 20 Watt Acoustic Guitar Amplifier, 3 Band Eq With Frequency Selector, Perfect For Both Practice And Small Gigs
The best acoustic guitar amp for you can also be a question of outputs. If you are looking for a recording amp, or if you want to send a signal via PA speakers, you’ll need a line out or XLR DI output. Many of these amps will offer a variety of solutions here, with ground lift to kill hum and some with the option of choosing channels for the outputs.
Key Features: 3-band EQ (Channel 1), 2-Band EQ (Channel 2), Colour switch for mid-cut/treble-boost filter, digital fx (2x reverb, chorus, delay), headphones/line/DI out, external effects loop, 48V/9V phantom power, footswitch
The Compact 60 has long been a favourite of professional players for its exceptional performance, delivering a crystal-clear transparency that doesn’t step on your acoustic’s tone.
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Acoustic phenom Tommy Emmanuel is a fan. His signature model is based on the Compact 60, the only change in that the onboard delay is replaced with the reverb/chorus blend from setting 99 of a vintage Alesis MIDIVerb, and it costs about 30 bucks more than this MkIV. We could be tempted, but there’s plenty to be getting on with here.
The Compact 60 is super-practical. Its birch-ply cabinet is boxy but compact and light enough to take on public transport, and it is ideal for stage or the studio. Secondly, there are heaps of player-friendly features here and they’re all simple to use. There are four presets for the effects.
The MkIV is much the same as the much-loved MkIII. There is the Colour switch that can cut the low-mids and boost the highs to help accentuate fingerstyle playing, and this you can fine-tune via the EQ. And transparency is still the name of the game (set at noon, the Compact 60 is totally neutral). But the MkIV comes equipped with an auxiliary input with level control, a pre/post-FX switch to let you place your direct signal before or after the onboard effects, and 9V phantom power on channel 1 to supply instrument preamps without a battery.
Acoustic A40 40w Acoustic Guitar Combo Amp
Key Features: Bi-amp design for vocals and guitar, discrete analogue inputs, independent 3-band EQ for each channel, Mic Channel effects (Enhance, delay, echo, reverb), Guitar Channel effects (delay, chorus, reverb), phase switch, notch filter, tilt-back cabinet, aux in w/level control, XLR DI jack and phones/recording output, USB, Boss FS-6 footswitch (sold separately $69.99/£59)
The Acoustic Singer series from Boss takes the bi-amp format to offer an all-in-one amp solution for singer-songwriters, and its excellent design, tone and value for money make it a hugely attractive choice for any electro-acoustic player.
When it was first launched in 2017, we believed that the Acoustic Singer Pro raised the bar when it comes to the best acoustic guitar amps. The latest addition to the series, the Acoustic Singer Live LT, was unveiled at NAMM 2020 and offers a stripped-down version of the Pro and Live formats. It has a smaller footprint, is more affordable, and while it does not have the onboard looper, vocal harmoniser or dual DI, it nonetheless has a suite of features that make it ideal for live performance.
Acoustic G10 1x8
There is a vocal enhance feature – a simple button adds some oomph to your voice – and delay, echo and reverb. You can make quick changes to your acoustic tone too via a trio of acoustic responses, each at the touch of a button also. The guitar channel has anti-feedback control, and delay, chorus and reverb, while both have their own 3-band EQs. You have also got a line out and USB connectivity for recording and an aux-in with a handy level control for adding external audio to the mix.
Key Features: Ported cabinets, Microphone and instrument channels w/ independent EQ, independent anti-feedback and reverb levels, High Pass Filter and Brilliance controls, reverb (hall, studio, plate, chamber), MP3 line
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