The Big Squeeze Off

Hi Friends,
Well, doing something different for CSO, should be a lot of fun, Robert Keeley Electronics and Analog Mike pedals are each sending me one of their popular compressors to review and COMPare (sorry)(2 knob and bicomp)
I am looking forward to this. Compression is a big part of lots of music, but especially Country music. This will take me away from CD reviews for a bit, but CSO has a lot of reviewers now, so time to try something new. I will tell you right now, there is no comparison between that 79 dollar compressor in the catalog or music store and one of these boutiques, all of the big Nashville sessions players use one or the other of these pedals or BOTH.
So, coming soon!!
Best.
Jim
www.countrystarsonline.com
- really looking forward to doing this!!!!!!

guit30--is that Abington, PA? If so, we could probably arrange the loan of my Visual sound Rt66...it is, however, the previous model (totally stock and virtually new), which I've come to understand, has been superceeded by the newer one. If you're a local to the Philly area, and interested, say the word.

Looking forward to your comments.

Robert Keeley Electronics and Analog Mike pedals are each sending me one of their popular compressors to review and COMPare (sorry)(2 knob and bicomp)

Both are really high quality pedals. Currently, I'm using the Keeley two knobber at a rehearsal space, and the Analog Man mini Bicomp on my main working electric guitar board. The latter most often gets the call for the live electric guitar dates due to the flexibility offered by discrete "Ross" and "Orange Squeezer" circuits, with the option to cascade the two channels or use independently. Both have superior output, headroom, and fidelity. To my ear, the Keeley box has less midrange and slightly clearer highs than does the AM.

Folks often toss out the term "transparent" when it comes to pedals, and while I don't think there's really any such thing when adding circuits to one's signal path, I equally feel that the term is not without practical merit in a relative sense. When I assess how neutrally (or not) a circuit behaves, electric guitars and tube amps are not my guage - I bench test at my electric-acoustic jobs with acoustic-electric guitars and mandolins. If transparency is the target here, it's pretty clear (to me) in short order that neither really fill the bill, and that's not a slam (hey, they're compressors). If I want "neutral", I use a Mentaone JAC, which is based on the classic Urei LA2A circuit. It's not transparent either - it promotes a bit of sheen and presence in the highs, which, with an acoustic-electric instrument, is usually a far more manageable variable than something that bumps mids.

I will tell you right now, there is no comparison between that 79 dollar compressor in the catalog or music store and one of these boutiques,...


It's quite popular these days to champion the garden variety stuff and rag on the pricey models - and on my musician's salary, nothing would please me more than to join in with this line of thinking - but, in my experience, I could not agree more.

Tim,
I really appreciate your comments on the pedals , I can tell you know music, transparency is great in lots of cases,(have heard the keeley described that way, but the clips don't sound transparent) I notice lots of artists like yourself have both these pedals, I am not going to tube amp them myself, I have a Kustom 16R solid state and also am going to run them thru my 20 year old Fisher stereo which I use for practice sometimes, it is more hifi,
Also, I'm going to use my Alvarez dreadnaught with a Fishman NeoD pup. I can get both electric or acoustic sounds out of it. Have heard lots of good stuff about the Jac, I usually play thru a large PA, worship team at church
Jim
PS- Marshman, thanks for the rt 66, I have decided to keep the review to these two pedals, the Keeley is on the way, Actually, Zac at VS gave me this idea, he said his new Rt 66 comp sounded better than a Keeley he had, I asked him for a new one and told him that I would get one from Keeley to compare, but he said that he didn't have any in stock
PSS- Myself, I currently use a guyatone ST2 and a Hartman compressor(orange Squeezer)- the Hartman is my best, love that squeezer sound

Both are really high quality pedals.

And both are clones of pedals that already have proved their worth. What's the point here? :roll:
Is he trying to get ideas for his next compressor?
Really, there's a ton of information on here and the internet about both the original pedals.

The point is that I'm doing an assignment for the website I work for, compare the 2 compressors, I'm looking forward to it.
Jim

"I will tell you right now, there is no comparison between that 79 dollar compressor in the catalog or music store and one of these boutiques, all of the big Nashville sessions players use one or the other of these pedals or BOTH."

Although not a "session player" for guitar, Vince Gill gets good tones using a $79 Boss compressor.

I have owned and used both and differences are marginal but there. Ross clones compared my ears said exactly the same as Tim's, so for me the Analogman won out, plus it has the benefit of the Orange Squeezer which I use more than I thought I would. But I think to say one is better than the other is moot, they are both excellent products which excel at what they do and are built by people who care. Regarding comparison with the so-called 'cheaper' pedals, well when I went back to a CS-2 from the Analogman the CS-2 lasted about ten minutes before the BiComp was back, it was like someone had put a muffler on my chain and the difference was obvious to me. Anyone else's mileage may vary. That's the thing in all of this - our ears and our applications differ. That said, who are you going to pay more to see, me or Vince Gill? :smile:

I for one look forward to your review very much, and I think anyone's appraisal is valuable, but particularly a fellow TDPRI'er's!

Make sure and throw a link up here when your results are published. You sound excited. If you like the work, I hope you get more assignments like it. I'd love to see your AC30 vs Twin Reverb face-off.

I wonder if Vince's Cs3 is stock? He is one of my favorite guitar players,
Jim

And both are clones of pedals that already have proved their worth. What's the point here? :roll:
Is he trying to get ideas for his next compressor?
Really, there's a ton of information on here and the internet about both the original pedals. The Ross is noisy (big time at high comp levels) and the Keeley is not..... That much I DO know for a fact.

I've seen loads of working players' boards with garden variety stomps, loads with boutique stuff, and loads with a combination thereof. The only person that the nuances really matter to is the player, of this I'm reasonably certain!

This will sound like an oxymoron, but a primary consideration for myself with a compressor is that there's quite a bit of output volume and a reasonable amount of headroom on tap. For my personal applications, the garden variety stuff always seems to fall short in this respect.

Guit30, I hope my previous comments were not spoken out of turn as to "color" the tone of your assessments... but I'll bet that you'll be listening with your ears anyway, regardless of who says or plays what! Congrats on the assignment.

Tim,
I will write everything from my own listening, just appreciated your comments, listening to the Keeley already, the bicomp will be in tomorrow
J

A little update, I am comparing both now and of course I can't mention anything, but one of the two has a big lead in stage one of my testing
Jim
PS- What's a good overdrive or clean boost to use, want to try something
J

A Boss Blues Driver or a VooDoo Lab Sparkle drive.

A little update, I am comparing both now and of course I can't mention anything, but one of the two has a big lead in stage one of my testing


Why not? When do we get to the point?

I have to send Mikes pedal back because of a problem, i don't know what he is going to do, I have bad sinus problems and always tell folk, if they are going to send me something, please check for strong odors, don't know what it is, but after I got the frozen screw out of the bicomp and took the back off, there was a very strong odor that I had already noticed.
If he has a problem with this, I will just review the keeley, I suggested that he send a pedal closer to the keeley, even though they are both Ross clones, the Keeley does not sound like one
Best
Jim

Mike has offered to make me another pedal and send it to me without this smelly goop that he uses, I don't know if i want to start over again, but I feel that is only fair? Right?
Jim

Well, aside from not letting us, your devoted and waiting-with-baited-breath-readers down, if you hope to post reviews as an assignment for work, I'd think you'd HAVE to do it, wouldn't'cha?

Marshman,
My Boss is pretty liberal about what i write, I could just review the Keeley I have which I am falling in love with. I am getting a bit frustrated with the unprofessionalism of some booteek pedals, I ordered a Meat jr boost from Toadworks, had a horrible smell, cheap plastic knob that someone could easily step on and break .Plus I thought the paint job was not too good, I sent it right back to pedalgeek. The point is, if you are going to spend a lot of bucks on a pedal that is supposed to be great let it be great.
Companys which have sent me above the bar pedals include Keeley, Hartman and Kaden.
Jim
PS- I probably will get another pedal from Mike, he e-mailed me today,I love my Hartman Compressor, great orange squeezer, that keeley is great too, just what a country guy needs

Nathan from Keeley's thought it would be a better article if I compared the two, it was odd, I was just going to send Mike an e-mail.
So, I have 2 parts of Keeley's pedal listen done, but I will start over ,when Mike's new bicomp gets here, always thought that there was something wrong with the 1st bicomp, the squeezer side was good, but on the Ross side, it sounded muddy
Jim

I'm surprised there's been no mention here of the Barber Tone Press pedal.

I got one a few months ago - having got fed up waiting for 6 months for a Keeley comp to arrive in NZ!

The Tone Press is truly one of the best compressors out there. It's silent, true bypass, can be tweaked in so many ways that there are an infinite variety of tones in the box.

And the real bonus is that it doesn't give you that horrible (to me anyway) processed sounding tone that even the Ross, Keeley and MXR pedals give you when they are maxed out.

Truly a unique pedal and one worthy of consideration by anyone - like me - who doesn't like compressors!

The Ross is noisy (big time at high comp levels) and the Keeley is not..... That much I DO know for a fact.

I own an original Ross and it's not noisy. It may be time for yours to be overhauled?

Analog Mike seems to be wavering about sending me another comp to review, he sort of knew I favored Keeley's, He asked what I was using to review the pedals, guitar and amp, If he does not send me another, I will review Keeley's.
We had some bad news, one of our top reviewers at CSO is dying,
Jim