Let’s face it: there’s not really a ‘Maybe’ vote when it comes to compression on your pedalboard – you either dig it or you don’t. Around here, we can’t get enough of it, and always look forward to another pedal sending us into the realm of sustain and tone-balancing, and we’ve got another one for you today. The R-Comp Compressor from Vick Audio recreates one of the most famous comps in history, the Grey Compressor from Ross, which was manufactured for a short time in the late 1970’s. Two knobs and loads on tone, this thing gets your funk party started.
As with the Ross, the R-Comp features just two controls. Sustain lets you control the amount of compression the pedal produces, from a slight amount to a super-squished sound, and a lot of variation within those two extremes. Level is the second knob, setting the overall output amount, working in conjunction with the Sustain knob to dial in the perfect amount of balance and smoothness for your rig. All you fellow Phish fans out there know how important the Ross is to Trey’s best tones, and the R-Comp helps you achieve those sounds in no time flat.
The Ross is well-known for two things: warmth and noise. While you obviously want the former in a compressor, the latter is not always welcome, and is usually the first thing that turns players off from compression in general. The R-Comp solves this problem, producing a low-noise effect, even when cranked, to keep your tone in tact without any unwanted hiss or hum. The warmth comes into play all over the dials as well, giving you a mellow, un-harsh blanket of sound that can either lightly cover your tone, or smother it in a fury of compression and sustain.
Simple to find a good sound with, and an important part to any rig that wants it, the R-Comp takes a beloved and cult-ish pedal and improves upon it, using modern technology and hardware to give you everything you want from a compressor, and keeping out everything you don’t. Thanks once again to Mike and the Vick Audio team for a wonderful reproduction of a great pedal, at about 1/4 of both the cost and the noise. Check out the demo below, and prepare to get into funk mode ASAP!
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