Panterachat

No, not Billy Sheehan's album.

I know just a very little about compressors.
What are the advantages of a compressor?

If anyone uses one, what model/make do you use?
If i get one it will be a pedal, i detest having a big rack for any other application than the female i stick my jimmy in.

From what I understand (very little), compression gives you a lot of sustain. It's not something you'd want if you were going for a shred approach.

I'm not an expert myself but I'll tell you what little I know. Compression helps even out the dynamic range of the guitar, and basically makes everything more "even" sounding and smoother, if that makes sense. I hear a huge difference in clean sounds using my compressor, I don't get any excessive "twang" from my cleans...and like I said, it just sounds so much smoother. For distortion I didn't notice anything incredibly different, but the volume level between playing power chords and a guitar melody is evened out and my sounds a little "crunchier", and I'm sure I'll notice the difference the more I play with it.

I use the boss cs-3 compression/sustainer pedal http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=151307

Just a warning though, you get a shitload of feedback with a compression pedal so you'll need a noise supressor of some sort to go along with it

If you use lots of gain, a compressor is actually a bad thing. Distortion already compresses the signal anyway. If you're going to use it, put it BEFORE the distortion pedal or gain stage or it sounds like absolute ass.

Pflöyd wrote:If you use lots of gain, a compressor is actually a bad thing. Distortion already compresses the signal anyway. If you're going to use it, put it BEFORE the distortion pedal or gain stage or it sounds like absolute ass.

This is accurate. Also, unless you are in the studio I think you should abandon any thoughts of compressing distorted guitar.

I was thinking about picking up one today, but i decided to wait untill i can bring my rig up there and try it out. Instead i picked up a used boss digital delay for 70 bucks, he threw in 2 patch cables and a few 9 volters.

compression boosts the lowest tones and compresses the highest stone. this keeps the volume output consistant, rather than having short peaks of loudness or softness.