Michael Thompson Compressor Shootout 

lol that's totally what he did there. sharp eyes

that was terrible... i love MT, and like Exotic.. but that was embarrassing

onemorebrando I'm not a guitarist so sorry for this: where does the reverb come from? From his guitar?

I have the Wampler as well and don't have any hiss at all! What kind of power supply are you using? If it's something like a daisy-chain or onespot then that might be your problem. Cheers

I have a Vodoo Lab I took the Wampler back and purchased the Xotic sp works great and no noise

Thanks for sharing!

​@@XoticUs great

Joshua Lim Please let me know if you find out. Pieces like that make me want to buy a Strat so bad. Beautiful.

David Nyc Best thing I ever did. Sold my Les Poo and got a Mexican made Strat for $450 on sale. Sounds and plays like butter.

Fiasco Seven I have the diamond comp love it

The age old question only to be answered by the Gods.

So true.

Should I feel deprived if I didn't get to hear the equipment and settings that Michael finds useless for music? Life is short. I guess a lot of folks saw this, because those SP compressors are thick on the ground out here.

tim white So I shouldn't use something that makes my playing sound better because I might have to play without it someday? That my friend is the biggest steaming pile I've encountered on the internet today - possibly in 2 days. Maybe you shouldn't use strings. They make your guitar sound better but you might break them someday. Seeing the error in your logic yet? If I sound better I use it. Simple.

David D Your logic is absurd, you can't play without strings. Compression can be a crutch, and lead to bad technique become a habit. If you play only metal, then go ahead and use a compressor all the time. If you ever plan on using dynamics in your playing then you can't use compression it eliminates dynamics. If you rely on compression because of bag technique,then your playing will sound like shit. This applies to everything, If you need to rely on a cheat to be able to pull things off then correctly. read the whole post, and watch the video that just played, he gave several circumstances where you don't want to use compression

tim white I guess I earned that comment. I get your reasoning. Yes I play but never professionally and I don't own a compressor. Am in the market for one for clean playing. My understanding and reasoning for wanting one is while they all reduce loud and increase quiet sounds they can make quiet playing at bedroom volumes sound more like playing at higher volume. Brings the same saturated tone down to tolerable levels by reducing the level/volume knob. I guess I'll see what you mean when I get one about covering up my sloppiness.

David D the 'pull your head out of your ass' line might have been a bit much, I came back to delete it and saw your response. compression is a great effect, I have a real affinity for it, I own several out of which 3 I built myself all for different reasons. my old Dyna Comp has a really good strong compression that adds a percussive "click" to arpeggiated clean chords. I have both an opamp based and optical compressor that both have wet/dry blends, so I can turn the compression up high, but dial back the wet so it's 30-40%wet and 60-70% compressed to add sustain to clean solos to get an Eric Johnson like tone that without the compressors would require me to turn the volume up to a ridiculous level. Some can make a Strat with 9 or 10 Guage strings sound like they have 12s and give a SRV tone. I teach guitar to younger kids and loaned one to a student who's getting into playing slide for some songs how band covers. He doesn't have his technique down yet, and also plays on a Guitar that's not setup for slide (action is too low). the compressor allows him to sound good with the band, but if he keeps using it he'll never be able to develop the technique he'll need. This is where compressors can become like training wheels on a bike. If you don't take them off at some point, you'll be a 40 year old A-hole with training wheels on a bike. like I said, I really loved the Dyna Comp when I first started to use compressors, but when the batteries died one day I realized that not only didn't I improve Oct 7 the period I used it, I actually backslid and lost the technique I had prior (I really need to get a thesaurus to find a different word to use besides technique).

David D Yes they even out the volumes at bedroom levels, but they will always add "compression". That might seem r really obvious, but until you get one and experience it you won't know. The part where it evens out volume in regards to bringing quiet levels up; this is t where it helps cover up mistakes. if you don't fret the note properly normally the note will either not ring out, or ring at all. The compressor will make it ring out. the downside is when it brings higher volume down. I play a Strat 70% of the time. Single coils don't compress nearly as much as humbuckers,this is why many blues players like them. My main amp is a clone of an early 80's Dumble Overdrive Special. It's really the most touch sensitive amp I've ever played. I can set the gain so when I have the volume of the guitar at 8,it's full on overdrive at 4-5 it's squeaky clean. When I have the volume at 6-7, I can fully control the distortion by how hard I attack the strings with my picking hand. However if I turn the comp on and have it set at lower output, the amp will stay clean no matter how hard I hit the strings, set higher and it's going to have dirt no matter how soft. This can be a good thing, or bad if you want to control it with your pick. Incidentally, when I picked up my PRS which was the first humbucker guitar I owned in a few years, for the first week or so I had to keep looking at my pedal board because the compression the pickups had that the Strat didn't made me think I left through comp on. Anyway if you're looking for a comp to do what you said you wanted (lower vol ) you may want to look at the Boss compressor /limiter. The Dyna Comp is my favorite sounding, but it definitely colors the tone and isn't as transparent as others. You may want to get one that's able to run at both 9 and 18 volts. 18 volts will have higher headroom and be more transparent. Or you can look at an Ego Compressor from Wampler, BYOC 5 Knob compressor (sold as a kit but you can find them fully built for only $20 or so more). Both have a wet/dry blend. The Wampler may be a bit expensive though. the Pigtronix Philosophers Tone micro is an optical comp with wet/dry, and optical is what you find in a studio, however if you want that snap that compressors make an optical may be to clean for you. The SP is a really good compressor. It does what it does without changing your tone to much (compressors can take away some treble in single coils or add them in humbucker which you may not want). Plus it's small, well made and relative affordable. When you get one make sure you put it early in your fx chain, many say it should be first, though I have a Duncan pickup booster first to even out the difference in output of my guitars but more often I keep it off to act as a buffer to bring back the high frequencies that get lost with longer instrument cables