Honestly, I don’t know the answer and I get asked often enough that I should have some kind of auto-response by now. Customers ask if I use compression and the short answer is no, but… before the “but” part, if you want to know what an audio compressor does and how it works, we will get into that in another article, but let’s stay on task here. Generally speaking, I personally don’t use compression. I like the wide-open sound of my tube amp and whatever natural tube compression I get from it. One of my favorite guitar players uses compression as a full-time boost (see Andy Timmons’ demo of his signature compressor limiter) and after watching it I’m definitely re-thinking my approach and use of compression. So, like all of us my approach to tone is an ever evolving work-in-progress…and I teased you with a qualifier so here’s the “but” part.
First, I started playing guitar in the early 80’s so I was all about the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (up the Irons!) and I was enthralled with Eddie Van Halen. However, there was a distinctive type of guitar tone that was inescapable, that saturated the airwaves and was a major part of the soundtrack/playlist of my N.Y.C. childhood. I’m talking about Andy Summers and The Police. The Police was the biggest band in the world at the time. Many accolades have been written about their post-punk, reggae-influenced song-craft so there’s no need for me to go into that here. Their music was everywhere and it was only a matter of time before I moved from the “power-chord” rhythm guitar that kick-started my early forays into playing lead electric guitar. It was when I started dabbling with Police songs that I discovered the compressor-chorus-delay combination that contributed to Andy’s distinctive tone and The Police’s sound.
This holy trinity of guitar effects is like a warm bath of saturated aural expanding goodness! This combination of effects is a time-machine to a style of guitar playing and chord voicing that I just love to venture to. Over-done and cliché say you? Whatever. It is this use of compression as related to the electric guitar that has defined its use and relevance for me, and like all things good tone and taste is subjective. If this is new to you and you haven’t played around with this combination of effects you’re missing out on an important part of the sound of popular music back in the day. It might inform and inspire you, especially if you’re using modulated reverb for ambient, spatial guitar parts.
I like the ability to blend the dry and compressed signal some new compressors offer, and a much-touted feature of many is how clean and transparent some of them are. They don’t “color the tone” of your guitar and I totally see the befit of that, especially in light of how Andy Timmons uses compression as a full-time boost. My Boss CS-3 compression/sustainer has a tone knob on it and I embrace that feature as part of the utility of the effect. It’s probably the most common and least fancy compression pedal out there but any perceived shortcomings as they relate to the features of newer more expensive compressors out there are exactly what I like about it. Like I said, tone and use of any effect is an ever-evolving process and I’m re-visiting compression based on Andy Timmons’ use of it in his rig. See for yourself! Click on the link below:
Let us know if you liked this blog:
