MXR Super Comp...anyone ?

[JohnK24]

How does it compare to the Dyna Comp RI box ?

I probably should wait for a Tone Press, but I'm interested in the Super Comp.

Comments ?

John

[armybass]

Bump, I also would like to hear comments on this pedal. My local shop has one for a great price but would like to know how it functions in live settings.

[lenny]

i saw one at my local shop too, i'll give it a test run next time i'm in there

[studio1087]

I was very excited to buy my Super Comp after playing a Dyna Comp for years. The Super was very dissapointing.

A. It was very hard to dial in good tones with my Tele, Strat, Les Paul or Martin. The added knob did not help one bit. It reminded me of the Boss Compressor in that it had more knobs and less tone.

B. It wsa really noisey.

I sold the pedal on e-bay after one month and took a $25 loss. I have a Dyna on the pedal board and a Marshall ED-1 for back up. I also keep an Alesis Nano-Compressor in my little studio rack.

The Super was far from Super; buy a good old Dyna.

John

[armybass]

Thanks John, that is all I needed to hear.

[Johnir]

I read the rather negative feedback about the Super Comp with interest and I like to add my experience.
I bought a Super Comp two days ago to replace my Boss CS-3 which I have never liked. It's hard to describe why I don't like it, but I feel it looses some tone, like a velvet carpet over the sound... :?

Yesterday I A/B tested it against the CS-3. I played it into a POD 2.0 with headphones. A Fender Nocaster Relic with (an almost) clean country tone on the Black Panel setting.

I didn't find it more noisy than the CS-3. but YES, it adds noise when you turn it up, but so does the CS-3. This is not a noise from the pedals, but noise from the guitar and cabels. Singlecoils are noisy. Compression adds noise by nature. So if you want a really compressed tone the noise increases on the Super Comp and the CS-3.

I found the best sound by having the level at 1 o'clock and sensitivity at nearly 11. After that it compresses too much and the noise starts to hum...
The attack level can be balanced to slip through the attack and thus don't squish too hard down on the bass.

My experience is that I found it much easier to get a good sound from this than the CS-3. It just sounds right (too me...)

This might not be the ultimate compressor and the music store will soon get the Barber compression pedal so I'll try that one to when it arrives to see if it's better... :)

[PSWoods]

I have a Super Comp. Just this week I re-hacked my pedal board to address the noise thing, which I think would happen with any guitar-type compressor. I put mine absolutely first in the chain, isolated in its own bypass loop. I did have it first in the chain after a homemade box that sends the signal out to the pedals in loops with an FET buffer, but you can guess what that did when I turned on the compressor. Now it's before the buffer/boost and it is totally acceptable.

I think the sound is totally competent/usable/whatever, but not quite inspiring. I will try to build a Ross clone at some point. I.e. I'm looking for another, but not very hard. Super Comp is not horrible, it just doesn't have much character IMHO. When I switch it on I say "Well, okay," instead of "Hell yeah!"

Another thing: this is a Jim Dunlop product, so switches will fail, it is more or less unservicable/disposable, low quality jacks, etc etc. Some PCB pedals are easier to work on than perf board (Rat, Big Muff Pi), but Dunlop MXR are difft kind of manufacturing - it is super hard to get components out of those, and the traces are tiny and sensitive. All components - even jacks and footswitch - are dug into the PCB tighter'n a tick. If you try to hack something, you will spend more time fixing bungles than experimenting with components - at my skill level, anyway...

Originally Posted by studio1087

I also keep an Alesis Nano-Compressor in my little studio rack.

I got one of those for my church when I was trying to get them to do their sound a little smarter - got it off eBay for like $35. I tried some guitars thru it when it arrived and I thought it was ideal until I tried it with humbuckers and it totally pegged the input meter. It wasn't distorting at all at that point, but I couldn't make the mental adjustment to use gear out of range like that. Does yours ever distort? Do you have anything in front of it to attenuate the signal? What's the hottest pu you use thru it?

[studio1087]

I don't really run PU's through the Nano. I use the Nano;

a. For my Alesis SR 16 Drummer
b. For Vocals
c. For a Marten OM16GT and a D-15 that both have K&K Pure Western Passive with a Pure Western outboard active preamp. The Nano makes my fingerstyle sound smoother on home digital 8 Tracks.

I use a Fostex MR8 and burn CD's through an optical cable into a rack burner - the Nano makes everything sound more polished; I also have a Micro Verb.

I had a Boss Compressor years ago, perhaps mine was a lemon but it sounded like an air conditioner was running in the background and the sounds it produced were very flat.

The Dyna Comps have a bit of noise but Fender guitars tend to sound great with a Dyna. Many Bob Keely fans on this site have praised the Marshall ED-1 so I bought one on E-Bay as a back up and it's a very nice sounding pedal - If you like the 4 knob configuration, the Marshall is better than the Boss in tone and noise levels.

Just my opinion - I could be wrong,

John