favorite compressors?

[jtn191]

I'm looking to build a compressor...what's your favorite?

[Geiri]

Haven't tried it yet but I only ever hear great reviews of the Keeley 4-knob. I've so far built a Dynacomp but I didn't like what it did to my tone. Not sure what it was though!

[PStevenson]

anything that actually compresses - I'm sick of these "transparent" compressors that do next to nothing. Behringer / Alesis do good proper compressors I used both in that foo fighters cover I posted on here a few days ago

[johnk]

my faves are the Keeley 4 knob, the Emma Transmorgrifier and the Pigtronix Philosopher's twin germanium. The Demeter Compulator is also nice if you're going for transparency.

[IvIark]

Did you ever build the Forest Green John?

[jtn191]

I have a Behringer CS400 that I'm not completely happy with. Guess I'm leaning towards the Forest Green or Bearhug

[johnk]

nope. but i'm going to be building a diamond comp soon. what's the forest green like?

[IvIark]

It's nice, I like it, but I haven't built any of the ones you have so don't have any point of comparison.   It has plenty of compression though and is quiet so I thought it would be up your street.

[Stinger25]

I plan on building the engineer's thumb soon, i've decided to choose it over keeley 4 knob

[Ross]

I have a BYOC 2-knob compressor (identical to a Keeley 2-knob) and I love it. It has a slight treble cut, which I find useful to drive the rest of my rig.

[KT]

Hi John,

do you have a layout of that Pigtronix Philosopher's twin germanium, or did you buy it?
thanks

[johnk]

KT wrote

Hi John,

do you have a layout of that Pigtronix Philosopher's tone germanium, or did you buy it?
thanks

I built it using Harald Sabro's vero.

[notnews]

I built the Forest Green.. it's fantastic. The compression is freakin great with a single coil guitar.. it goes from super warm and sweet to pretty squishy and cool. Definitely recommend building that one.

The 5-knob engineer's thumb is awesome, too... it's the pedal that Foxpedal built their Refinery after. That's a pretty cheap comp too if you're up for supporting a cool company.

[KT]

Hi John,

what is the "twin germanium" part then? I saw that you included a mosfet booster but the boost switch should be "an additional footswitch to layer in a germanium enhanced vintage overdrive into the mix (pigtronix site)". Or did you changed the diodes of the sabrotone layout for germanium diodes?

thanks already!  

[johnk]

the 'germanium' is the 1N60.
I added a Jfet booster to the output because the circuit could barely get to unity gain.
I didn't need an additional footswitch for the boost since it's always on.

[motterpaul]

I built the Diamond compressor in the blog and I find it to be very useful. When you combine it with the ROG tonemender it becomes the perfect Twin Reverb AIAB.

One thing about compressors is that they tend to lose low end (because low notes have more power and hit compressors harder). That is why the "tonemender" (3-band EQ) makes the compressor so much better.

I have owned both the Keeley 2 & 4-knob jobs - I would classify both of these as very transparent - which I personally did not like (some players I showed then too couldn;t even really hear what they did - very subtle).

I worked on a guy's DOD - not bad. I also built another one in the blog here - but the Diamond is the best IMHO.

[KT]

with the switch off, taper 1 and 2 off the grit pot are directly connected then?
Thanks John

[Muadzin]

I'm not a big fan of compressors, as its a subtle effect and I'm not a subtle kind of guy. I like how they can sustain notes, but I loath how they kill my attack and dynamic. Despite that I've built a few compressors over the years and my ideal compressor would be the one that leaves my attack intact, doesn't kill off my volume when I hit my strings harder and only gives me extra sustain and some boost on my low volume notes. If anyone has any suggestions they're welcome.

I've built the 2 and 5 knob Engineers Thumb, a Dynacomp, a Fuzzdog Lovely Squisher and did a Monte Allums Opto mod to a CS-3. I also have a CS-2. The ones I prefer most out of them are the Dynacomp and the modded CS-3, the latter the most. Too bad the CS-3 hisses like a hi-gain metal distortion.