Review: The JangleBox Acousticomp Pedal Adds Sustain and Clarity to Your Acoustic Sound

When assembling an acoustic pedalboard, one often-overlooked effect is compression. While not as obvious as reverb or chorus, compression is a useful tool employed on most recordings that can also be effective for live performance if used carefully. The dramatic 12-string sound on the classics by the Byrds and the Beatles was made possible by compression. While compression pedals for electric guitar are fairly common, they are not always ideal for an acoustic guitar. Accordingly, the boutique pedal company JangleBox has released the Acousticomp ($265), a compressor/sustainer voiced specifically for acoustic guitar.

The Acousticomp is relatively simple to use, although dialing in a sound involves several interacting controls. The sustain knob determines how hard the unit drives the soft-knee compression. At extreme settings, you can easily hear the compression kicking in, reducing the volume of the initial attack and increasing apparent sustain as the guitar decays. An attack control determines how quickly the compression kicks in. The mix control supports a technique known as parallel compression, offering a way to get both compression and a natural sound by blending the processed and unprocessed signals.

The tone control is flat when fully counterclockwise, but when fully clockwise, it combines a significant treble boost with a slight cut to lower mids. Finally, there is a volume control that can be used to adjust the overall volume of the effect when it’s engaged, and, of course, the unit has a footswitch to activate or bypass the effect.

I found the Acousticomp enjoyable to play through. It’s easy to overdo the effect—heavy compression can sound artificial on an acoustic guitar—but with more subtle settings, including leveraging the mix control to retain a portion of the natural sound, guitars sounded fatter and fuller with increased sustain. Even with very subtle settings, you can feel the effect of the compression when playing. The device was useful for smoothing out strumming, and the treble boost—used in moderation—adds presence to duller-sounding pickups. 

I especially liked the way the combination of compression and treble boost sounded on a 12-string Taylor, but even when fingerpicking a six-string, the pedal added a little extra pizzazz, making notes leap out with less effort and adding presence. With its ability to boost volume and treble, and provide increased sustain, the Acousticomp could also be an effective boost pedal for solos when playing with a band. janglebox.com

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.