How many of you use a compressor?

brojangles

Using a Diamond Comp as overdrive for clean sound, works great. 

Sassafras

Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone sustains like a bastard.

TTBZ

@mark_jwedge ; I keep thinking about trying one for the same reasons as you but can't seem to find many people who use them for anything other than funky clean stuff. Keep meaning to try it with something subtle like a mooer yellow.

Alnico

Free the tone Silky comp. 
It's always on.

It's rarely set to anything harsh but the string balancing thing it does i can't imagine trying to play without. 

Rather than switch it off I just vary the amount of compression to suit what I'm doing.
It's rare I play totally clean and distorted in the same song,  I'd usually use the volume on the guitar to vary gain or I'd be playing clean throughout.  Either way the comp stays where it is for whatever song I'm playing.
It was expensive but worth every penny.
One of the best pedals I've ever used.
As a boost it's amazing and when I do want heavy compression it's great.
Better than great.

Brett Kingman does a great demo of this pedal on his you tube channel.

ESBlonde

I use an old BOSS micro rack RCL10 comp/gate. It's usually always on and is the last thing on the board so I make up the output gain to goose the front end of the amp a bit. Compression set subtle and gentle until you dig in for funk where it spanks it out. I've tried other pedal sized things but prfer the dynamics I can get (or not) with these units so I replaced the old broken one with another old one.

Sassafras

I'm quite surprised at how many of you use comps as always on pedals.
To me, too much compression makes everything sound quite bland.

bigjon

I use a Boss CS3 with level at 2 O'clock and Attack (actually minimises the attack!) and Sustain on full as the basis of my sound, with hardly any overdrive and a clean solid-state amp. The compressor is on probably 90% of the time for my blues-rock and function bands.

kennedydream1980

I've always used a compressor when playing live in my cover band, and its on all the time, to me it makes everything sound more polished.

My favourite pedal compressor of all time is the Maxon Cp101 but in my current setup I'm using a TC Nova System. The compressor on the Nova is active on all my presets, clean and overdriven. It's a really nice compressor that doesn't get in the way, it just pushes the guitar forward in the mix ever so slightly which is really nice.

Alnico

Sassafras said:

I'm quite surprised at how many of you use comps as always on pedals.
To me, too much compression makes everything sound quite bland.

With the proper amount of fucking around it's possible to get a good compressor to do the boosty-balancing thing without going mad on the amount of actual compression you hear.
But I agree, outside of the songs / sounds that need it, too much does sound bland.

The way I have mine set most of the time adds life to the strings and to me, it sounds quite bland without it.

rsvmark

Essential for funky stuff imho. Keeley 2 knob user here and both usually at 12 o clock. Does provide a modest boost and a pleasant level of squish.

Fuengi

Mooer Yellow Comp. Always on. 

TheBigDipper

Not me. That 'compressed clean sound' isn't a sound I want to produce. I just prefer a more organic, un-produced sound to appear from my playing. Compression on clean just homogenises me and I don't like it. Doesn't make it wrong for anyone else, though - I don't mind hearing other people sound that way. 

mburekenge

Rothwell Love Squeeze when in single coil land.

MrMusic

+1 for Keeley 2 knob

- Great always on compressor
- Simple to use
- Makes clean tones sound amazing and also pushes overdrive pedals really nicely too
- Reasonable price

bermudianbrit

really surprised no one has mention the TC Hypergravity. Its the only comp I've ever owned and seems to do the job - I play country so like that clean compressed sound a lot.

Boromedic

I had a Mini Bicomp which was always on for everything using the Ross side, just sounded better to my ears having it on especially on cleans. I had it set pretty transparently but the Ross is not a very transparent compressor even at minimum levels so I bought a Mr Black Big Payback, which is more transparent and I prefer it to the Analogman. That pedal show has a good demo on clean sounds (you probably have already seen it) and comp uses and I tend to agree with them, for cleans its a must. They also show how Andy Timmons uses a Boss BD2 as a kind of Comp which is cool : 




I also had a Philosophers Tone which was awesome and I never should have sold it but didn't like the way it was set up horizontally, the new mini version is ace though. Optical comps are my fave and the Mr Black may be getting switched but it lives so far!

Col_Decker

I've had a few comps and sold them all shortly after. My problem with them is .... wait for it ....... it makes everything sound compressed. Say goodbye to your dynamics and welcome a kind of lifeless blaaaaaaaah. 

Its probably down to my ears and playing but I've never switched on a compressor and though 'ooooh that sounds better'. As ever ymmv.