Compadre Dual Voice Compressor & Boost Review

Rockin Ronnie on Compadre

Yep this was the one. Bought a Friedman Sm. Box and it was'nt quite enough for my solos. Tried the same brand pre amp, way too noisy. Sent it back to Ryan@ Sweetwater and got the Compadre. The perfect match. I almost didn't want to write this review cause it was so perfect, and I know you will go out and dial it up and we will all have the same great tone and righteous clarity,… read more but I felt guilty because it is such a great pedal. I have'nt even used the midi or other extra features.

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Strymon’s most Underrated pedal

It does midi, it has an amazing dirty boost and clean boost, it offers two types of analog compression that are both different yet completely useful. I recommend this pedal for all the above reasons and it works very well stacking additional overdrive pedals while engaging the dirty boost. Also, the three eq curve choices are are just as important to point out. The other option… read more is the volume control option for swells or to simply adjust your guitars volume on the the fly. The bottom line is it's not the typical Strymon that is sound-scape oriented but so useful with total quality.

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After a period of time, still my always on, first chain pedal

I have three pedals I would not part with that stay on all the time, no matter clean or uber gain level amp tones from my Synergy system. The Strymon Compadre subtle 12:00 studio compressor w half dry mix, Xotic XP Booster end of amp in chain little or no boost (internal flat switches), and the Dept. 10 Clean boost tube pedal after my synergy preamps before SCF Gold, IK delay,… read more IK reverb. Killer tones just killer. I've had many compressor pedals over the years and if you find a good one and learn how to dial it down to be more natural with parallel dry it just fattens and thickens the entire tone without losing the sparkle high end. You don't notice it is even on until you switch it off and you won't want to do that. This pedal is a great buffer for the front end as well, it also helps reduce any noise floor having it's buffer on.

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Just get one

Hesitated to get a compressor for the longest (and probably still can't explain how they work). All I know is adding this pedal is like going from cheap ear buds to a high quality stereo system. Everything in my rig just sounds better. I finally have a clean tone that actually sounds good and not just wimpy, and the detail when I kick in the overdrive is just unbelievable. Certain… read more pedals are must have...you have to have a tuner, and now I'm convinced you have to have a compressor.

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I finally believe…

I've tried the others - you know…the usual suspects the masses rave about that have hundreds of 4-5 star reviews on the internet…Sometimes I wonder if people just rave about stuff because others raved about it…Honestly for me, I couldn't decide whether I preferred the others on or off most the time (though to be fair, I've found some useful settings - but they never did "the… read more thing"). Well, the search is over. From the first time I plugged this up, I could actually hear and (more importantly) feel exactly what had been missing all this time. The combination with the boost is magical, particularly with a fender - it brings those things to the highest possible echelon of fat, round, soul-moving spank a fender was meant to muster. I never thought a compression/boost pedal could be inspiring, but I can no longer live without it, nor even turn it off. My newfound "sound" just vanishes. Blues, grunge, prog, punk, funk -whatever. I can't imagine a scenario or music style this wouldn't truly enhance in a way the others just don't seem to do. Pair it with a strymon DECO and an American Fender…trust me, this is the real deal.

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