ShortScale.org

so what compressor is good for what? which would you consider good and which should be avoided? are there any good cheap ones? I'm considering one just to see what it does to funky rhythm stuff. i've just never considered one before so need some clues on where to start looking

How about a Boss CS-3?
[youtube][/youtube]
I've been hankering after one since listening to a load of teenage fanclub. Seems like a good all rounder.

erm yeah i dont have specific recommendations or much more to add than that the boss cs3 is pretty decent. ive had it for about 2 years now and at home use it ALL THE TIME! live though its probably never been used. not really noticable in a live band situation, unless your playing funk and using it more as a focus point. but yeah the boss is great for clean guitar, picked parts and funky stuff. the keeley one looks pretty good, i dont know the price but id hazard it as being quite expensive and probably not much different to the boss really.

Weird things Compressors. I've owned about four different ones, but oddly, when i scored a Line 6 Constrictor module for £5 i thought to myself 'how the fuck have i managed without a Comp for all these years'? Until i got it in the rehearsal room and it created loads of noise that is.

In my opinion they are only really good for clean guitar work. You know, Andy Summers, Johnny Marr, etc.
For your needs Chris, a Comp will tighten up the chords depending on attack settings and make it sound more crisp. I'd buy a cheap one to experiment, or you could even borrow mine if you want to see what you think?

thanks fran that would be pretty cool. I would still be up for hearing others views on the subject though

EH Black Finger is my fav but it's big. I'm building a compressor with a noise gate right now hoping to control the compressor noise.

I have never found a guitar compressor useful for anything.

i had a marshall "edward the compressor" pedal several years back. you could really squeeze sustain out of those things for days, but it took too much of the life out. these days, i'd probably only ever use one for acoustic stuff. . . in fact, live, i think an amped/mic'd acoustic sounds better with a compressor behind it most of the time since most people don't know how to eq them.

Sloan wrote:I have never found a guitar compressor useful for anything.

I'm really not much of a compressor person either. I hook one up every once in a while and it makes me want to play country licks. Sometimes I put it on as light as I can and it's pretty usable for me that way but the added noise usually turns me off and I end up putting it away. Hence my compressor with noise gate build. Maybe I'll actually use it if it turns out well.

I hate the Boss compressors for some reason. I think there is a snap they have that bothers me. The Dyna Comp is a decent one for a decent price. The Ross compressor is supposed to be the king of stompbox compressors and the Dyna Comp is based off that. I built a few Ross compressors and they are slightly better than the Dyna Comp. Oh, the Aphex Punch Factory is a good one. I had one in for repair and was surprised how much I liked it. If I had to choose one, I would pick my Black Finger. I would actually use it more if it wasn't so big and didn't have a special AC adapter. I think for a really good compressor you would need to get a rack compressor.

i go back and forth on boss pedals. i cannot knock them for some reason, but for some other. . . most of them aren't that great. they just have EVERYTHING.

I think with compressors more than any other effect it is worth taking the time to understand what it is doing to your signal. If you think of it as a sustainer, which unfortunately a lot of guitar pedals sell it as with controls only labelled 'sustain' and 'level, then you will struggle to find it useful.

I'm not saying that nobody in this thread understands what is happening to the signal when you use one, just that many guitarists don't because of the way the pedals are marketed to them.

The idea that it's only useful with clean signals is almost like saying 'I like the brakes on my bike but not so much when I'm trying to increase speed, they work better when I'm trying to slow down.' Distortion or overdrive on a guitar already has compressed the signal more than you're likely to do with a compressor but in a different way so as to distort the signal rather than even out the dynamics.

the nice thing about a decent compressor is it can be used like a scalpel when applied correctly, even it is usually a blunt instrument in some hands. there are some really nice plugins i've used in sonar that will compress certain frequencies, emphasize others, and even have control over where they "hit" in the stereo spectrum. music, in general, is overly compressed these days, but overuse doesn't negate the great things this tool can be in the right hands.

barber tone press is a brilliant compressor.
has a 'blend' control.

The old DOD Milk Box is worth a try and you can still get them cheap.

A lot of the DOD pedals are pretty unique. I've been grabbing them when I come across them. I like most of them.

Guyatone ST2

OK, i'm going to ask again on this one, which is best for funk tonez ala funkadelic, meters, JBs, Isley Brothers, Sly style funk? I'm guessing something with an early 70s flavour so would this be something like a dyna-comp/ross?

Fran was gracious to lend me his compressor and that helped settle my mind that for what I want it for it will be a brilliant effect. Now to piece my funk board together

I like the Boss CS3 personally... could do funk easily. I find it useful for many applications.

Don't have much experience with other compressors.

cheers OT, I think I equate boss compressors to that early 80s Prince squashed tone, maybe I should sit down and have a good play with one and see what I feel about them

I love compressors. These days I tend to use something pretty close to an orange squeezer for my crunch tone with the twin reverb.. The orange squeezer is kind dirty for a compressor anyway and the one I built has even more boost.


I'd go for something based on the Ross circuit. Which technically I think the dynacomp is but I'd go with something else the Keeley one is probably pretty sweet if you want to spend nearly £200. The analogman 2 knob one maybe for a slightly cheaper option. I just think it was probably the Ross one that the guys in the 70s were using.