diff --git a/docs/manual/access-control.rst b/docs/manual/access-control.rst
index 037272496..2fcbcb46a 100644
--- a/docs/manual/access-control.rst
+++ b/docs/manual/access-control.rst
@@ -151,6 +151,26 @@ For example, this header may be set based on IP range, or based on password auth
 
 Further examples of how to set this header will be provided in the deployments section.
 
+One may also specify default access for different users by adding sub keys to the ``default_access`` setting::
+
+  collections:
+       test:
+           ...
+           default_access:
+               default: block
+               admin: allow
+
+Note that the ``default`` entry will be applied both if the user name is empty and if it actually is ``default``.
+If the ``default`` entry is missing, it will be assumed to be ``allow``::
+
+  collections:
+       test:
+           ...
+           default_access:
+               guest: block
+
+This works whether the ``default_access`` is specified at the top level or for a specific collection.
+
 **Note: Do not use the user-based rules without configuring proper authentication on an Apache or Nginx frontend to set or remove this header, otherwise the 'X-Pywb-ACL-User' can easily be faked.**
 
 See the :ref:`config-acl-header` section in Usage for examples on how to configure this header.
diff --git a/pywb/warcserver/access_checker.py b/pywb/warcserver/access_checker.py
index 46cd7acd9..e3ca7a06d 100644
--- a/pywb/warcserver/access_checker.py
+++ b/pywb/warcserver/access_checker.py
@@ -107,6 +107,10 @@ def __init__(self, access_source, default_access='allow', embargo=None):
         self.default_rule['access'] = default_access
         self.default_rule['default'] = 'true'
 
+        if isinstance(self.default_rule['access'], dict):
+            if 'default' not in self.default_rule['access']:
+                self.default_rule['access']['default'] = 'allow'
+
         self.embargo = self.parse_embargo(embargo)
 
     def parse_embargo(self, embargo):
@@ -273,7 +277,17 @@ def find_access_rule(self, url, ts=None, urlkey=None, collection=None, acl_user=
             if acl_key < tld:
                 break
 
-        return last_obj if last_obj else self.default_rule
+
+        if last_obj:
+            return last_obj
+
+        if isinstance(self.default_rule['access'], dict):
+            default_rule = dict(self.default_rule)
+            user = acl_user if acl_user in default_rule['access'] else 'default'
+            default_rule['access'] = default_rule['access'][user]
+            return default_rule
+
+        return self.default_rule
 
     def __call__(self, res, acl_user):
         """Wraps the cdx iter in the supplied tuple returning a
@@ -334,6 +348,9 @@ def wrap_iter(self, cdx_iter, acl_user):
             if not access:
                 access = self.default_rule['access']
 
+            if isinstance(access, dict):
+                access = self.default_rule['access']['default']
+
             if access == 'allow_ignore_embargo':
                 access = 'allow'
 
diff --git a/tests/config_test_access.yaml b/tests/config_test_access.yaml
index 8fb352f7c..bf19331ac 100644
--- a/tests/config_test_access.yaml
+++ b/tests/config_test_access.yaml
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ collections:
         archive_paths: ./sample_archive/warcs/
         acl_paths: ./sample_archive/access/pywb.aclj
 
-        default_access: block
+        default_access:
+            default: block
 
     pywb-acl-list:
         index_paths: ./sample_archive/cdx/
@@ -62,6 +63,12 @@ collections:
         acl_paths:
             - ./sample_archive/access/pywb.aclj
 
+    pywb-acl-user-default:
+        index_paths: ./sample_archive/cdx/
+        archive_paths: ./sample_archive/warcs/
+        acl_paths: ./sample_archive/access/user-default.aclj
 
+        default_access:
+            staff2: block
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_acl.py b/tests/test_acl.py
index ea7655aa8..d7c929234 100644
--- a/tests/test_acl.py
+++ b/tests/test_acl.py
@@ -96,5 +96,13 @@ def test_allowed_different_coll_acl_dir(self):
 
         assert '"http://httpbin.org/anything/resource.json"' in resp.text
 
+    def test_user_default(self):
+        headers = {"X-Pywb-ACL-User": "staff"}
+        self.testapp.get('/pywb-acl-user-default/mp_/http://www.iana.org/', headers=headers, status=200)
+        self.testapp.get('/pywb-acl-user-default/mp_/http://www.example.com/', headers=headers, status=451)
+
+        headers = {"X-Pywb-ACL-User": "staff2"}
+        self.testapp.get('/pywb-acl-user-default/mp_/http://www.iana.org/', headers=headers, status=451)
+        self.testapp.get('/pywb-acl-user-default/mp_/http://www.example.com/', headers=headers, status=200)