Boss Compressor/Sustainer - Sustain?

Steve Howard · From: High Ridge, Missouri, USA

Looked through the previous posts but couldn't find anything specific to this pedal. Anybody use this one?

I would obviously like to use it for the compression but anybody use the sustain functionality. I notice my steel doesn't seem to hold its sustain as well as I would like and was hoping I could kill two birds with one stone on this pedal. Any thoughts?

Any other sustain pedals or effects anyone recommends?

Joe Stewart · From: Way Out West

Hi Steve,

Although I've been playing guitar of various kinds for many-many years, I'm relatively new to "steel" applications, but I saw your recent post on compression and other effects, and it didn't look like there was much other traffic on the subject, so I thought I'd share my two cents on the subject with you.

Let me start by saying that I'm heading in the non-pedal (i.e., Hawaiian) steel direction, and also, that few players of such instruments here in Hawaii (or elsewhere) are much on the use of "effects" per se. Most seem to prefer tube amps over solid state, and most, save an occasional spring reverb, use very little if any effects.

But I myself have a keen interest in applying (and evaluating) the use of some clean (i.e., quiet) limited effects to steel guitar in the months ahead, including higher-end tube compression and especially a short (maybe 20-30 mSec), dynamic, digital delay.

As you know, when applied properly and sparingly, such effects can indeed make a "profound" difference in the overall tonal qualities of narrow-output (i.e., mid-heavy) instruments like guitars, but if nothing else, I'm confident that it'll be an interesting experiment or two.

I'm also anxious to try just a wee-tad of chorus. I have this super "cheesy" rack-mounted Boss 300 Super Chorus unit, but its used by a number of serious (albeit "conventional") guitarists whose string-works I greatly admire including former Dire Straits great, Mark Knopfler.

Anyways, I should be "deeply" into it all by early March (April at the latest), and if you'd like, I'll be happy to share with you what I've learned at that time via the forum or direct e-mail. Just drop me a line.

Until then, best wishes and full-sail braddah!

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Steve, are you using a volume pedal? What kind of guitar are you using?

Jack Francis · From: Queen Creek, Arizona, USA

I have never used a compressor live but I have had a few times where the recording engineer has used one in the studio.

It seemed to smooth some highs but I thought that it seemed to sound like the notes were kinda choked...(I hope that defines what I heard)

I doubt that I'll ever use it live.

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

Steve, there are almost as many flavors of compression pedals available now as distortion- it depends on what kind of tonal/atack change you're after which one might suit you best. Most basic compressor pedals have adjustment for both attack and sustain (sometimes called drive and level) but they operate within the parameters of the basic circuit design for that particular pedal. What I mean is, some pedals still really squash your input signal at the lowest settings, for a "bwarmp" kind of sound, where the attack is smashed down, and then the sound blooms up into whatever sustain you've set. Most of the Boss units sound that way to me. Others (the new MXR Super Comp, older Yamaha Y-CO-10MII, the high-end Keely) leave more of the original attack intact while bringing up the sustain characteristic. All of them will work well for an "effected" sort of sound which can be really nice occasionally. But if you're talking about reparing a defficiency in the sustain envelope of your guitar, a compressor works by raising the output as the signal decays, which is really a different sound than natural sustain. Almost all compressors tend to alter the tone a bit as well, making steels sound a bit darker to me. You can do a lot of research (try Harmony central) but keep in mind most of these are built for and reviewed by guitar players who may be after a different effect than you are. I would think the same things that get a country tele picker excited might be going in the right direction. Try the old Yamaha I mentioned, they turn up on ebay a lot.

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I play through through a rack unit and have a Lexicon MPX 200 in it. I like to use effect, but very lightly. On my lexicon, I use compression, delay, chorus and echo. I have a Tube Works spring reverb in my rack also.
Erv

Charlie Moore · From: Deville, Louisiana, USA

Steve i have (2) Boss CS-3's$40 each, cheap experiment....email me..CM.....

Mark Butcher · From: Scotland

I think you might find a pedal a bit heavy handed. I use a studio unit by Joe Meek (before the vol pedal) which is very clean and can be set so you don't hear the compression even at low 'at home volumes'. A Focusrite Trakmaster is good too and has enough EQ to work as a steel preamp.

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