Guitar compressor pedal, how to use.

What is a compressor pedal?

To start with the most important question, what is it and how to use a compressor pedal for guitar actually?
A compressor controls the dynamic range of your instrument. Hard notes become softer and soft notes become louder.

A compressor protects against excessive peaks in your signal and ‘smears your sound a little more’. The FX-pedal glues different notes together and it may sound more ‘produced’ and sometimes also more professional with a compressor pedal. But you also give up something for this, namely the dynamics of your playing.

Finger on the knob

Believe it or not, before guitar compressor pedals existed, every radio station had a technician which held his finger on the volume knob, turning it up and down depending on the volume of the music broadcasted.
For radio broadcasts, it was important to tame the dynamic range of the music when it was too large. Otherwise, soft passages would be lost in noise and loud passages would cause distortion.

Replacing the technician

In the fifties, these technicians were replaced by the first dynamic range compressors.
Music producers soon discovered that compressors were much more than an automatic volume knob. They started using compressors because of their interesting side effects. The music got more punch, more focus and it became louder.

Guitar compressor pedal

A compressor pedal makes the life of a guitarist just a little bit easier. The notes come off your fretboard a little easier. You will have more sustain and your sound is a little fatter than without a compressor pedal. In this article I will explain how a compressor pedal works and what different types there are.

Nature of guitar sound

Clean guitar sounds have a lot of dynamics (i.e. peaks & valleys in recorded sounds).
The transients pop out.
The difference between those peaks and valleys may sound jarring or cause overload, depending on what you’re running your signal into.
On the other hand a piano has fairly even dynamics, while guitars are very transient-heavy instruments with relatively short sustain. This is simply the nature of guitars. This has nothing to do with uneven dynamics in playing.
A guitar compressor pedal’s purpose is to even out the guitar’s signal.

Less dynamics, more volume

Using a compressor will give you less dynamics and more volume without your guitar distorting. If your (bass) guitar gets lost in the mix, a compressor can offer a solution to make it more audible. A compressor works a little more subtly than increasing the volume on your amplifier or guitar.

Guitar compressor pedal: Funky rhythm and chicken pickin’ sounds

Furthermore, a compressor helps guitarists to play nice funk rhythm guitar parts. You create a sticky sound with it that also sounds very even. In country music you often hear a compressor in combination with a Fender Telecaster. Which chicken pickin’ part is actually played without compression? Finally, compression also adds sustain, which is very useful for solos, for example.

Guitar compressor pedal, how does it work?

Almost every compressor works in the same way. You set a certain threshold volume. If your signal exceeds this threshold, the compressor starts working.
Depending on the settings on your pedal, this happens quickly or slowly and with a certain value and for a certain period. The most commonly used buttons / setting options that you will encounter on guitar compressor pedals are listed below.

Ratio

This sets the amount by which you attenuate your signal. Common settings are 2:1, 4:1, 8:1 etc.
For example, 2:1 means that if your signal exceeds the threshold by 8 decibels, it will be reduced to 4 decibels above the threshold.
A ratio of 4:1 in this case means that your signal will exceed the threshold by an additional 2 decibels.

Most compressor pedals for guitar, like the Boss CS3, have fixed ratios. You are not able to choose the ratio in this case.

Threshold

The threshold control sets the volume level that forms the threshold for the compressor. Above this threshold, the compressor will start working, below it won’t.

On many guitar pedals, you will not find a threshold knob. This is often already set by the manufacturer and cannot be adjusted. By boosting the volume that the pedal goes into, you can still ‘control’ it.

Attack

The Attack knob controls how quickly the guitar compressor responds to your signal. If you want to make sure that the beginning of your note, the transient, does not exceed the threshold, set a fast attack (knob all the way to the left).

For guitar, a slow attack often sounds a bit better because it does not lose the dynamics of the attack.

Release

The release knob controls how long the guitar compressor continues to do its work. A long release provides extra sustain in your sound. A short release time provides a more ‘pumping’ effect.

Sustain

Many modern guitar compressor pedals have a sustain knob. In most cases, this controls how hard the compressor works to keep the signal within the threshold. This allows you to let your notes resonate for a long time, but also increases the noise level. Sometimes you also set the ratio with it (Keeley Compressor Plus)

Guitar compressor pedal Blend / Mix knob

With parallel compressors there is a blend knob on the pedal. A parallel compressor splits the incoming signal into 2. One part goes directly to the output and the other part goes through the compressor. With the blend knob you mix the processed signal with the unprocessed signal.

Level / Volume

With the level knob you set the output volume level. The compression makes the guitar signal softer and with the level knob you adjust that again.

Soft knee / Hard knee

With the more luxurious pedals you sometimes come across a switch with which you set the ‘knee’. A soft knee means that there is a smooth transition from the signal to the compressor. With a hard knee, this transition is immediate.

Guitar compressor pedal: types and their differences

Roughly speaking, there are four different main types of analogue compression. Each type has its own sound and characteristics.

Optical

These compressors use a light bulb (or LED) to create changes in gain according to the incoming guitar signal. It then changes the gain by using the varying brightness of the bulb. So, more signal will force more compression. This method will soften the attack and release of the compressor meaning you won’t get any harsh compression artifacts in your signal.

FET

This stands for Field Effect Transistor which uses a special type of transistor to vary gain. They emulate vacuum tubes in the circuit and are quite similar to how an analogue amp can emulate a valve amp (without the valves). They are regarded as very fast compressors and don’t colour the signal as much as other compressors can. A good example is the famous Universal Audio 1176.

VCA

Voltage Controlled Amplifier is one of the most versatile compressors available. It can rapidly alter its gain level in response to different detectors analyzing the same signal. This is the one to go for if you want strict control over the signal and you can make it as fast and harsh or as gentle as possible.

OTA

An Operational Transconductance Amplifier compressor works similarly to a VCA, except that the output is a variable current and not a voltage. This type of compression is by far the most used in guitar pedals. It is not as fast as VCA but faster than optical compression. Well-known guitar pedals in this category are Wampler EGO, Xotic SP, Keeley Compressor Plus and the EHX Tone Corset.

Guitar compressor pedal: its place in the chain?

You usually place a compressor pedal at the beginning of your signal chain, just before or after your gain pedals. If you connect the pedal before your gain pedals, you ensure that a limited dynamic signal goes to your overdrives.
If you connect the pedal after gain pedals, you make maximum use of the dynamics of your drives and compress the overdriven signal. There is no right or wrong way to do it, so I advise you to try both.

Avoid “tone suck”!

This may occur when too many True Bypass pedals are used or when you simply run your signal through too long cables. Buffered pedals will help avoiding tone suck. Please check our blog about “tone suck” and learn how to get better sounds with just a few simple tips.

For our blog how to make your guitar sound better, click here.

What else should you pay attention to?

Every compressor will amplify the noise level in one way or another. No matter how quiet the pedal itself is, the signal that goes into the pedal will almost always contain some noise. This noise is further increased by compression.
That doesn’t have to be a problem, but it is something to take note of.

Will a compressor pedal affect the amount of headroom of your guitar amp?
Learn more about what “headroom” really means and if you prefer a closed or open cabinet for your style of playing.

Bass guitar and compression is a happy marriage

Compression is also a particularly useful tool for bassists in the studio and on stage. It helps to give the very lowest notes more articulation and definition. It also tames the hard volume peaks in the signal. Compression makes the short notes punchier and the longer notes get a bit more sustain.

Compression and Tube amps

Do you need a compressor when using a tube amp? This totally depends on your taste.
The nature of tubes, especially when volume cranked up a bit is compressing the sound it delivers.

Due to their natural compression and harmonic distortion, tube amps also tend to sound warmer and more musical.
As said before; a compression pedal is most efficient with cleaner tones. Distorted tones already sound more compressed.

Want to know more about tube amps and solid state amps for guitar and their differences?

Click here.

Best guitar compressor pedal

There are now dozens of compressor pedals on the market. Every reputable brand sells one or even more.
Most pedals are based on the OTA circuit.

In this category from Keeley are the Compressor Plus and the Compressor Pro and for bassists the Bassist Limiting Amplifier.

Wampler has the Ego and a smaller version of this pedal, the mini-Ego.

Xotic SP guitar compressor pedal is a popular and much-sold compressor.

Electro Harmonix has a number of them, for both guitarists and bassists.

For guitar, among others, the Tone Corset, Platform and White Finger and for bass guitar the Nano Bass Preacher. JHS has the Pulp N Peel V4, Walrus Audio has the Deep Six Compressor V3 and JAM pedals the Dyna-ssoR.

Another great and reliable guitar compressor pedals should be the Boss CS3 and earlier ones like the CS1 and CS2.

About ChickenPicks guitar picks: more info.

Please check some of our other blogs or pages on our website:
Read about the idea behind our guitar picks and how guitar picks do change your playing and your sound.

The guitar picks sizes chart will let you know which pick matches your preferences most.

Beveled guitar picks make your guitar playing easier and thick guitar picks create a fuller tone with more dynamics.

Are you a fan of small guitar picks, or just larger boutique picks? Or are you looking for the best bass guitar pick?

We will help you out in one of those blogs, but you are always welcome to send us an e-mail to info@chickenpicks.com

What others say about ChickenPicks guitar picks

Musikhaus Thomann
Chicago Music Exchange
Guitarpickreviews.com
Anatomy of guitar tone

Thank you

We would like to thank www.musicradar.com for the use of the page banner in this blog.

About the author

Hi, my name is Eppo Franken and I started to make my own picks in the mid ’80’s.
In 2010 my wife Jolanda and I started ChickenPicks guitar picks, because we’d like to see if others would enjoy them as well.

I play guitar since 1980 and my favorite style is country chicken picking and some kinds of rockabilly.
Send us an e-mail and let’s talk about guitar tone and picks