Bi-Comprossor

It is a true-bypass pedal, so if you don't need to use it on a certain song, you can bypass it without affecting your guitar's tone! And yes, when on, it truly does not color your tone....ABSOLUTELY TRANSPARENT, and that is the beauty of this pedal, you get YOUR TONE without any added noise or B.S.!!! And by the way, this pedal works wonderfully for bass too! No B.S. !!! My other effects pedals are a vintage ROSS R-70 phaser/distortion, vintage BOSS CE-1 chorus ensemble, vintage MXR M-117 flanger (not the crappy re-issue), Boss DD-2 delay, Morley JD-10, Digitech Whammy and Morley Bad Horsie 2 Wah (soon to be replaced with a Teese Real McCoy Wah) in front of a 1993 Peavey 5150 block logo amp (with JJ tubes), with a Furman PL-Plus series II, TC Electronics G-Sharp multi-effects, BBE 482i sonic maximizer, dbx 266XL compressor/gate (used for gate function only) and a Digitech TSR-24S multi-effects processor (rarely used) in the effects loop. Also have a Marshall AVT-50H amp head for a backup. My guitars are...1988 Gibson Les Paul Standard, 2004 American Fender Strat Deluxe with Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups and Warmoth compound radius neck, 1998 American Deluxe Peavey Wolfgang, 1990 Ibanez Universe UV7PWH, 1985 Kramer Focus 1000 (alder body) with Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups, 1983 Ibanez DT155BK X-series Destroyer, 1989 Ovation 1758 Elite 12-string acoustic, 1978 Gretsch TK300 bass, and an Ibanez TR Expressionist Fretless bass.

Analogman's pedals are built like M-1 tanks...damn near indestructable! No cheap, flimsy Korean junk here people!!!! If it was lost or stolen, I would ABSOLUTELY buy another one! In fact, I just might buy another one to stash in the closet for future value!!!!

The Bi-CompROSSor is extremely easy to use...Attack, Sustain and Volume on the ROSS side, and Volume on the Orange Squeezer side. The manual is straight forward, easy to understand, and explains the function of the pedal in perfect detail! For those of you who don't know, this pedal is designed and based on 2 of the most popular compressor pedals in history... the old grey ROSS Compressor and the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer.

I have e-mailed Mike a few times, and he has always responded to me quickly! After I placed my order, the pedal arrived to me 3 days later, US PRIORITY mail!!! Although I have had ABSOLUTELY no problems with my brand new Bi-compROSSor, Mike's reputation preceeds him, and I am completely confident that he would help me out with any problems should they occur!

OK, I can understand anyone having reservations over anyone giving a perfect 10 rating on anything reviewed here...but I cannot express how delighted I am over this Bi-CompROSSor! It truly lives up to the hype and reputation! If you are in the market for a compressor pedal, this is the only way to go!!!! Enjoy!

I played this hooked up through my Fender Prosonic (very under-rated amp), playing a vintage 1959 Fender Jazzmaster. (I haven't used this with my Les Paul yet as it's out getting some modifications. I can't wait) The sound quality is, in a word, amazing. Perfect transparency. There is zero coloration of the signal. This is true whether the effect is bypassed or active. Off, no coloration of you tone. On, it compresses as much or little as you want, but again it doesn't change the tone at all. Even though this is basically a hot-rodded version of pre-existing designs, much credit is still due to 'Analog Mike' and his crew. Unlike most compressors, somehow this doesn't seem to amplify much extraneous noise. It really only seems to boost what you want to hear. This can't be an accident, and certainly it wouldn't work this well if this were a simple copy. If you have much experience playing with effects both new and old, boutique and production, it'd would be very obvious to you when using this device that Mike did a very thoughtful case of re-engineering, going step by step and thinking about what could be done to this great designs to make them as near perfect as they're likely to get. I bought this as I knew I'd need a compressor now and again since I'm finally getting ready to record/perform alot of my stuff, and this thing is so much better than I thought it possibly could be, I can see alot of my tunes that I will want to use this on that I never though I'd have needed it for. The ross side is great for tunes involving many chords with open/ringing notes or alot of arpeggiated chords. Early Beatles/U2/REM/Sunny Day Real Estate sorts of guitar rhythm work are good examples. It also seems very great for indulging your Queens of the Stone age doom rock needs. The Orange Squeezer side strikes me as very good for percussive chording and quick leads. Up tempo rock, or mid temp poppy stuff that cold veer into funk/jazz/r&b territory. I don't see how it can't meet your compression needs. As a bonus, the Orange Squeezer side seems like a great clean boost for solos in a live context. I know I'll be using it that way too.

Having only very recently received this pedal, I can't give you the "I've dropped it out an airplane and went bungy jumping with it for 7 years" sort of badge of reliability approval. But, what I can say is I have eight years of experience with guitar equipment, synth equipment, and studio equipment (I have my own cozy and capable recording set-up in my home). I know the difference between top-notch and crap build quality. I can say this is built with the among highest quality footswitches, audio and power jacks, and shrouded ultra-high intensity LED's I've seen. If you see one in real life, it will be self evident to you that the only way this will stop working is from severe abuse, or a catastrophic accident. On another quality note, this paint work is the best I've seen on a pedal from anyone. I'm lucky to have a store nearby (Musical Arts Enterprises in Davie, Florida) that stocks alot of boutique stuff you'd normally only get to read about. You can walk in and play most anything from Z. Vex, a good selection of Fulltone, most everything new Electro Harmonix makes, and several other makers I honestly can't recall the names of. This really is the best finish work I've seen, I'd say only Zach Vex is in the same league.The pictures on Mike's site don't do it justice. This gray/black/silver hammerite paint really looks beautiful, the effect when looking dead on looks almost three dimensional. The white lettering and sun design is very impressive and beautiful, it's as bright white as milk or cake frosting, which is pretty impressive considering the thick dark finish it's layered on top of.

For the Orange Squeezer side, it couldn't possibly be any easier to use, since "Volume" is the only control you have.    The Ross side is a little more involved, but again, not quite rocket science. "Volume" for the volume boost, "Sustain" controls the amount of compression, and "Attack" controls how quickly the compressor reacts and clamps down on your signal. Since "Attack" and "Sustain" are pretty interactive and take some subtle tweaking to get where you want to go sometimes.

Simply put, Mike is a hell of a nice guy. In my experience, he'll respond to questions super fast, in 4-12 hours in most cases. It would be hard to imagine someone being more congenial and helpful. And this is before I even bought anything. What more could you ask? Considering the build quality, barring getting stuck in the middle of a rock club gun fight I don't see how I could need customer support. But if I did, I'm supremely condfident Mike could handle whatever problem comes his way. 

I hate to sound like some yo-yo just blindly singing the praise of a relatively expensive gizmo. I've read alot of that kind of passive bragging in product reviews before. I paid a little more for it than it normally is new. I bought it from a charity auction for the benefit of victims of Hurricane Katrina. To help those in need, get a great device for my artistic needs, and get to skip the one year waiting list, definitely worth the extra cost. All that said, I've never wrote a review for anything I've bought before. But since everything involved with this is so excellent, I just had to. So, it's kind of an active thanks to Mike/Analogman.com. Mike is a great guy, this thing has perfect transparent sound quality, and it's one of the best built pieces of gear I've ever seen. Truly an impressive class act. This guy deserves your business, don't hesitate to give it to him.