Good compressor for the price

My first and unique compressor before this one was a MXR Dyna Comp. Many people knows about it and it has been on professionals' pedalboard since its release.

My change into a lower budget pedalboard resulted in a time reduction for my playing, so I don't need a better or superb professional rig at the moment. However, I found over that even budget stuff can fit or sound 'well' on certain combinations. Having a good amp and a good guitar is 2/3 the way for the tone you ever dream. The another 1/3 is on your cables and the quality of your pedals.

I bought this compressor for under USD$20, free shipping. Probably still I'm trying to figure out how good it is on stage situations, but the first con is the stompswitch, it does a "clack" big sound considering you do studio recording, you might want to change the stompswitch.

About the sound, I just tested it on low volume, but feels great when it is connected to the Vox AC15C1 and improves greatly the smoothness during the playing (this is, the dynamics get improved and also the touch response). I remember regreting about my Fender CDR68 and the Vox AC15C1 because both didn't feel like if them were tube rectified. However, with this compressor, helps a lot compressing the sound to give a sparkle to the sound.

Finally I understand that when we found a saturated tone, is because the frequencies get compressed. Taking note about this, when you have an overdriven amp (like the Vox AC15C1) but you don't get more overdrive, you probably have to put a compressor in the first spot of your pedalboard and turn up the sustain.

About the tone, I feel it lack of some frequency push around 700~800 Mhz, exactly I don't know, or it is because I was playing very low (around 3-4).

Some cons I can add about this pedal is that sometimes tend to bring noise to the signal, and is resolved using an isolated power supply for pedals, supposing that the electrical supply is correctly grounded according to the National Electrical Code (NEC).

The question is why should I need a compressor? Let's compare this pedal into two amps.

The first one, Class A Vox AC15C1, if you add more volumen per channel, the gain goes up at the same time the volume goes up. However, you sometimes need clearing your sound because it is fuzzy, gritty and even messy. So you connect your compressor, all knobs at 12 o'clock and then turn counterclock wise the sustain until you feel comfortable with what you're listening to. Turning the sustain knob clockwise, you get a grittier sound, as the same if you turn right the level knob. Do you want to nail the Marshall amp sound with your AC15C1? Bring a compressor into the signal chain, put a proper gain and sustain down the pedal.

On the other side we have a Fender Custom Deluxe Reverb '68, which features a Class AB amplification, the compressor reacts as an 'acoustic improver', so you can lower the gain pot on the guitar, get a proper volume and then turning counter clockwise the sustain to get a close tone like if the guitar was an acoustic. However, if you turn sustain in clockwise, the dynamics get improved and the feeling during your playing gets smooth. If you turn right the level knob, the gain raises a little up and the volume goes up.

If you just want to have pedals on a budget, this is a nice option, even better than a digital effects processor (yuck!)

Sep.22.2023 Update. Recently, I'm practicing and I finally found how may it work on my pedalboard. The best concept for this pedal in my opinion is as enhancer, improves your sound, from a poor signal to a richer sound. Those thin and lack of character sounds, goes up with crispy and some decibels more in your chain. Those guitars with special coils may take profit of this pedal (probably from any compressor). My favorite setup is left knob at 10 o'clock, right knob at 2 o'clock and the central at your choice depending how much speed you require.

This pedal as enhancer is always always on.

Works great

For the price is a honest pedal. Some noisiest but can be resolved using a noise gate pedal.