Philosopher's Tone Micro Compressor / Sustain Pedal Review

Wow! GREAT sound! Incredible sustain!

When I ordered this I didn't realize a friend of mine got me a Boss Compressor/Sustainer pedal. So now I have 2 and decided to compare the 2 pedals. I will say both pedals are great, but the Pigtronics edges out the Boss pedal. Longer sustain (Especially coupled with distortion) and more punch when you boost the compression (Blend). Almost too much, but that's okay. Better to have… read more to back off than to wish you had it. My Pigtronics is my go to pedal that's always on my pedal board. The Boss, I use now if I need one with the battery option. Really, either way you can't go wrong. You WILL love the Pigtronics! I would definitely buy another Pigtronics pedal.

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Finally, the tone I've been wanting

I've gone through a myriad of guitars, amps, and effects over the past 55 years, getting close to the sound I wanted, but always looking for something better. From the minute I plugged in this pedal, I knew I had a winner! It's very easy to use: for my taste, I set Treble and blend to 12 o'clock, and adjust volume and sustain 'til my ears smile. After hours of research, the… read more Philosopher's Tone won out over the Truetone Route 66. My ears tell me I made the right choice.

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Top Line Compression in a Small Pedal

This pedal has become my go-to compression pedal. The 4 dials provide maximum functionality, to dial in the correct level of compression, as well as the correct level of signal mix, and allows me to place this pedal in different places in the pedal chain to optimize my guitar signal. I love this pedal.

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Excellent variety of functions in a compact pedal

To be very frank, I haven't had too much experience with compressor pedals overall. However, I wanted something that will give clean compression and allow improved sustain. This delivered on both expectations and then some. There are 4 knobs: Volume, Treble, Sustain, and Blend. Volume is pretty straightforward. All the way counterclockwise is no volume. Around noon is where the… read more input equals output. You can crank it up too, if you turn to 3 o'clock and beyond. Once it gets to around 3 o'clock or so, it may cause some clipping in the sound, depending on your setup. It was fine for my 50W tube amp though. Treble controls the high end, which offers a very nice variety of tones you can do. If you normally have a chunkier rhythm play, but want to hit those searing highs in a lead, having treble dialed in beyond 1 o'clock is a great option. Sustain will give you sustain (duh haha). I usually keep this around noon-2 o'clock for my needs, which adds a subtly noticeable duration in your chords and leads. Cranking it up can cause some overdriven tones and generate an acceptable level of background noise, easily mitigated with my Boss NS2 in the FX loop. Blend controls the presence of this effect. I usually keep it around noon-1 o'clock for my purposes. This is the first pedal in my chain, aside from a wah. It can act as an excellent clean boost, a cranked boost, something to switch on with your overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals to help you cut through the mix, a bit of extra sustain to get those Santana or David Gilmour solos, something to use in conjunction with your amp's crunch side, etc... I've also been using it as a tool for my ambience/atmosphere type music where it works well in the beginning of the chain, then run into pitch shifters, chorus, delay, reverb, looper, etc. Build: sturdy metal housing and knobs, compact size with small footprint Functionality: highly functional compressor and sustain options Ease of use: easy to operate and tweak. Plug, tweak, play. I didn't even read the manual. Noise: negligible, if at all. Only when you crank it is there accessory noise, which is common with any pedal where you can increase volume/gain Tone: true to your input. Can modulate to some degree using the treble, sustain, and volume. To be fair, I haven't tried running effects or drive into the compressor. I go guitar > compressor > drive > amp > fx loop Aesthetics: Sleek black, gold, and chrome. The LED is very bright though, it'll definitely let you know when it's on! I've considered putting a small piece of masking tape over it to dim it just a touch Overall: for me, this is a must-have on my pedal board. Small footprint, excellent quality, fantastic sweet tone and sustain. Highly recommended.

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Best Compression and Sustain Combo Pedal I've Ever Used

Hands down have never used a pedal quite like this one! It works so quietly and effectively in allowing me to discover and coax out all of the full tonal possibilities that I could ever want with my Acoustic-Electrics and Electric Guitars, either playing through amps and/or direct-in recording. Love it. Appreciate how quickly Sweetwater sent this to me and it arrived in perfect… read more condition. Thanks, Sweetwater and hats off to Jon Gillespie, my most capable and caring Sales Engineer, along with all of his "Helpers"!

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