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I was watching this That Pedal Show video about improving your clean tones.
After watching, it just reinforced that I really would like to have a compression pedal. I wanted something relatively simple. The MXR Dyna Comp is a classic and quite affordable. I've also heard of people using it very successfully on bass. It should arrive tomorrow whenever the UPS guy decides to grace me with his presence...
Well, it came in the mail this morning! After letting it get acclimated to the inside temperatures, I took it for a spin. There is a lot of compression on tap. Higher settings on the sensitivity knob crush the living heck out of the signal. My "sweet spot" for the sensitivity right now seems to be at about 9:00 with the level set to roughly unity gain. It sounds especially good with arpeggios, evening out the attack and balancing the notes. It's going to take a bit of getting used to. I'm so used to that instant attack when you hit a full chord. That disappears even with a little compression. I played "Walk, Don't Run" and that seemed to really benefit from a little compression. It made everything sound more even. I was afraid it would be like a crutch to cover up sloppy playing. It can do that to an extent, just like a lot of distortion can, but it certainly is not an instant talent button.
I only tried in on my Tele. I'll give it a spin with my Jackson later.
I tried it this evening with my Carvin amp (earlier it was with my Jet City set clean). Since I've been in Michigan I've had this weird thing with my Carvin, doubtless because of my new office. I either get high end that's a bit ice picky or it sounds a bit muddy. I can't seem to dial it in well. I found that the MXR really helps with that. It tames the very high end and smooths it out. It also seems to mellow out the clanginess of the built in reverb (honestly, I like my Polara's reverb better than the Carvin's spring tank). So clearly it is not "transparent" but that's just fine by me. I found that I needed to tweak the settings from what I had used with my Jet City. I'm guessing it's because that the Jet City has very little headroom and the Carvin has gobs of it.
I tried it with my Jackson as well. I think in the case of humbuckers that a little dab'll do ya. I needed to be more subtle than I was with the Tele. Since my Tele is my main clean guitar, it's all good.
So far, so good. Compression is a unique effect in that you CAN make it super obvious, but it's not like you always SHOULD. It's giving me what I'm looking for. I just need to tweak it a bit further to get it exactly where I want it. I haven't tried it as a boost yet, but that is definitely on the agenda.
Congrats! A compressor pedal is a must-have for certain clean tones, that's for sure. That pedal is legendary. I have a compressor pedal from Fairfield Circuitry that I like.