NPD, a pleasant surprise

JezWynd

My go-to comp, after a long search, has been the Maxon RTC600; it's seen off the Origin Tx, Keeley Compressor Pro and a lot of other comps and has been a constant for about 18 months. (it''s not necessarily better, it just works for my needs). The only problem with it is it's large size and its heavy power requirement, so it would be nice to have a smaller footprint, less power draining backup. I've demoed quite a few for this, including retrying some I've had in the past now that I'm playing a hollow body P90, which reacts to comps differently than the Tele I used to play.

Enter the Nine Volt Pedals 1927. I didn't hold out a lot of hope for it, seeing it as possibly style over content, but it had always piqued my curiosity, so when one came up used I thought I'd give it a whirl. Very pleased I did - this thing sounds great! With the Comp control as per picture it  gives me the squeezed sound and feel that I love. Plus it has an EQ control which works very well to boost or rein in the high end and an LED to show when compression is kicking in. As a bonus, stacking it with the Maxon gives a fabulous super compressed sound.

I'd scored a used Ego Comp a couple of days previously and was quite happy with that but the Nine Volt means it'll probably be up for sale. I'll give it a couple of weeks to get over the honeymoon but I usually know quite quickly when a comp works for me - it's as much about feel as sound. Happy Easter.