Boss CP-1X Compressor

I have a Marshall DSL40CR, and I felt like it needed a compressor for “smoothing” out the sound.

It wasn’t as much the cleans that needed smoothing out, but more the distorted single notes, for example when you play a solo and you need sustain.

My experience was, that this pedal is best at evening out the clean sounds. Removing the peaks from the volume out.
Although adding quite a lot of bottom end!

On the overdriven and distorted tones it didn’t add any noticable sustain.
Infact all it did here, was remove the dynamics from the tones.
It took part of the crystal clearness of the Marshall overdrive.

Therefore I returned the CP-1X…

I'm not much of an overdrive/distortion pedal kind of guy when you can do so much with just an amp and your picking dynamics, but I've always felt the value of a good compressor to give your amp a boost, smooth out your sound and add some clarity and sustain. I've been having a bit of a love-hate relationship with compressor pedals and I've tried quite a few (the old Boss CS-3, Wampler, Mad Professor, Keeley amongst others) but this one blows them all out of the water when it comes to handling, sound quality and low noise levels, especially when considering it's not the most expensive pedal around.
Pros:
- Handling is super easy. You don't have to be a compression expert to work this thing. Boss has done it right: just leaving all the knobs at noon will give most players an noticeably improved sound right out of the box -- without colouring your original sound -- and you'll have more than enough room to add or take away stuff and tweak your sound into perfection.
- Very transparent, and very low noise levels compared to other compressor pedals.
- The MDP technology works much like a power amp does and will give you tube-like sag across all frequencies; the pedals does a wonderful job of making a solid state amp respond more like a tube amp.
- Not missing the blend button of competitor brands which honestly adds nothing.
- LED meter is a plus.
- Boss quality build, should last you a lifetime.
Cons:
- Personally I would've liked it in pink instead of blue -- just kidding (but only slightly.)
Due to my experience with other brands' compressors I was rather sceptical before use, but after testing the pedal extensively with all my guitars/amps in different settings, I haven't come across a bad sound, and with the knobs at noon being the golden spot, you know you're holding a well-designed pedal. I've done the boutique thing but after using this I'm becoming a bit of a Boss convert. This one's glued to the pedal board in the always-on position. It ain't going nowhere.