What exactly will a compressor do for my tone?

[comfortablynumb]

I bought one of these a couple years ago for $25.. Bought it because it was cheap and looked good.. but I really had no clue how to use it so I took it off my board.

 

 

I'd really like to start using it again (assuming I can find it.. it disappeared some time back ) but I'm still not sure how to use it.

 

What effect should I be going for with this thing? Could someone give me a rundown of what I can do with it, and how?

 

I don't play any one specific style of music, but I usually use just a nice fat clean with chorus sometimes, and for distortion I use a "Soldano-ish" high gain.. same with leads. What could this pedal add?

[ryant]

a compressor will basically even out the level of your sound a bit, so you can make your notes sustain a lot longer, and you can also get very saturated lead sounds when using a compressor. if your playing clean you can get a more funk chord sound when using a compressor. The thresh control controls at what volume it will start compressing your sound, the higher you put this the more it will compress your sound (playing more quietly will be compressed to be the same level as your other notes), the attack is how quickly it will change increase the volume of quiet notes

[comfortablynumb]

Thanks for the info..

Could this thing add that extra "oomph" to my solos? Maybe help them cut through a little better?

[machine gunner]

Use mine to add some volume/attack/chunk to my clean solos. Boss CS-3. Works wonders...

[freeridstylee]

I usually liked using my compressor the oppostate of a boost pedal for heavy rythm. A compressor controls your dynamics, so if your playing really soft or really hard it'll come out of the amp at the same volume. Using it with high gain it sounds a lot heavier, and sustaining. You can hold a power chord for like 20 min with one of these things. But watch out, it'll be feedback city when your not playing.