Recommended compressor for bass?

[Jopn]

Hey guys,

Anyone have a recommendation for which compressor to try for bass?  I'm just needing something to level out my playing, optionally add some punch, and be reasonably low noise.

Cheers,

John

[Silver Blues]

I like the Mictester RCBC. Built one and it's very transparent and silent. I even used a TL072 as opposed to the specified lower-noise 5532, with a known-to-be-noisy power brick, and still nothing.

[Jopn]

Cool, that one has definitely been short-listed in my research.

I'm also potentially leaning towards the Rothwell Lovesqueeze.

[Silver Blues]

That's a good one too. I was actually going to build that one but I had nearly all the parts for the RCBC already, plus I wanted something simple.

If John K drops in here, he'd be able to point you in the right direction for sure.

[johnk]

I've built 11 of them. my faves are the Keeley 4 knob, the EMMA Transmorgrifier and the the Diamond Bass Comp. (the Diamond is probably my favorite, but the other two are great too).

here's the ones that I've built so far:



and here's my web page with a short description of each one:

http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Compressors.html

[Jopn]

I haven't seen the schematic for the bass version of the diamond before.  Did you mod the guitar version or do you have details on the bass version?

[Jon Rep]

I too like John Kallas have built a number of Compressors  and my favourite also is the Diamond Compressor for its rich full tone.  It is not on this site but on www.sabrotone.com.   Mods to the Input and Output Caps should ensure you get the bass tone you want.   Enjoy.  

[Ross]

I love the Really Cheap Bass Compressor, it's great for subtle compression. It has definitely banished my Keeley clone off the board.

[rocket88]

Hey John, how did you make the Philosopher's Twin? I've seen a layout and schematic for the Philosopher's Tone, but not the twin. Any chance you could post it, especially with the extra boost stage?

[johnk]

a philosopher's twin is just a  a philosopher's tone with an added footswitch to click the germanium distortion in and out of the circuit.

[rocket88]

Ahh, I didn't realize it was that easy of a change. Three questions, one the booster you added, how do you control the additional volume? Two, how did you add the switch to turn the distortion circuit on separately? Three, how did you add the 18V charge pump? Did the 9V connect to the charge pump, then the charge pimp to the 9V in on the board?

I assume you used Harold's layout, so I'm trying to figure out how to do the same. Also, I saw the gutshot of your build and trying to figure it out but I'm getting lost. BTW, you're builds are incredible, and so neatly done, hopefully mine will get to look that good.