All user reviews of 2/5 for the Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer

Compression, Analog Sustainer.

A IN A OUT, a power supply input.

Non pedal true bypass.



USE

Simple general configuration: an output volume, overall tone, a knob controlling the attack and a knob "Sustain" manager makes the compression ratio and thus, increasing the sustain of the instrument.

The manual is enough to get to know the beast, after, like any self-respecting compressor you will need to spend time on it to find the sound you and for each instrument with which you use it. And that these are things that can not be found in a textbook.

We would have liked a compression type LED indicator light.

SOUND QUALITY

As often with Boss they wanted to be too ambitious with a setting of "Sustain" that can grow in compression and holding extreme rating, and a knob of "attack" can transform your notes at submachine guitar with unrivaled sharpness However the quality of the electronic'm not, resulting in the generation of steam and Feedback before reaching half of the race on these knobs ... I have friends playing punk, grunge and the noise that love it and are using this pedal just to generate Feedback and parasites controls ... For my part I serve mainly pop, funk, hard rock and thrash metal, as you say that these parasites out of my ears in styles where you need to be precise and sharp.

NOTICE GLOBAL

I made changed after shelved 6 months and 3 months tried helplessly drawn.

I had and played with EBS Multicomp, MarkBass Compressore, Okko Coca Comp, they all have their peculiarities.

I love the opportunities and guidance big, violent compression of the pedal, I hate its sound and quality far from commensurate with its ambitions.

The price / quality ratio is zero for the nine at the quality of the pedal, however buy one secondhand and do change becomes very interesting, you can also buy directly changed, and there, it becomes very very interesting.

In short I will never buy a new original pedal, it's not worth it.

Compression, Sustainer analog.

A IN A OUT, an input power supply.

Not true bypass pedal.

UTILIZATION

General configuration simple: a volume of output, a general tone, a knob controls the attack and a knob "Sustain" manager makes the compression ratio and thus increasing the sustain of the instrument.

The manual is enough to get to know the beast, after, like any self-respecting compressor you will need to spend time on it to find the sound you want and what each instrument with which you are creating it for. And that these are things that can not be present in a manual.

We would have liked a compression type indicator LED.

SOUND QUALITY

As often with Boss they wanted to do too ambitious with a setting of "Sustain" that can grow in compression and keeping notes extreme, and a knob to "attack" can transform your guitar into a tommy gun in notes with an unrivaled sharpness However the quality of electronic'm not, which leads to the generation of steam and Feedback before they even reach half of the race on these knobs ... I have friends playing punk, grunge and noise that love it and use this pedal just to undesirable feedback and noise controls ... For my part I officiate mainly in pop, funk, hardcore and thrash metal, as you say that these parasites come out to me by the ears in styles which must be precise and sharp.

OVERALL OPINION

I did it change after shelved 6 months and tested three months with nothing to draw.

I had played with and EBS Multicomp, MarkBass Compressore, Okko Coca Comp, they all have their peculiarities.

I love the possibilities and direction of large very violent compression pedal, I hate its sound and its quality far from commensurate with its ambitions.

The price / quality ratio is zero for the nine given the quality of the pedal, instead buy a secondhand and do change becomes very interesting, you can also buy directly modified, and then it becomes very very interesting.

In short I would not buy anymore the original pedal new, it's not worth it.

i bought this for about $85.00 from Guitar Center..i bought it cause i THOUGHT it would be useful once i messed around with it...

hmm....have to think about this one....its good for playing a lot of legato..but thats about it....oh, and i guess if you like a low signal then its good for that....

Basicly the fact that i bought it pisses me off...i rarely play legato, and i like my pickups with a nice hot output so this thing does nothing for me but waste my money......i want it gone soon....

Well BOSS effects are tough as hell...but i dont know about the quality of this perticular one..ive found no good enough use for it...

If your thinking of a compression pedal..rethink it...wait and maybe consider it as some rack gear, but otherwise dont waste your money, you will be disappointed, you will have more fun with some modulation effects, such as a flanger : )

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The BOSS CS3 Compression Sustainer is the third generation compressor pedal by the company and it basically is designed to do what the name implies. It compresses the signal going into the amp to give it a bit more punch and sustain to the sound. Lots of country and other real tone gurus use them and so I figured I'd give this famed unit a try. It features four controls which are level, attack, tone and sustain. It's housed in the typical BOSS casing and is powered by either a 9v battery or a power adaptor.

UTILIZATION

Setting up this pedal to get tones happening is pretty simple. BOSS has a great way of interfacing their pedals intuitively, which is great for first time users. That being said, I don't care for the tone of this compressor at all in its stock form. It has a very dead and lifeless quality to it that I just cannot get into. It might have been my particular pedal but I just found it to sound fairly anemic and not add the punch that I assumed it was going to.

SOUND QUALITY

Perhaps I'm spoiled by the boutique and vintage pedal market, but I honestly find it rare that BOSS makes a pedal (with a few exceptions) that sounds legitimately good. As I stated prior, I really just found this compressor to sound pretty bland and dull. I didn't hear any real chime or sparkle in the clean tones, nor any real increase in punch or sustain. The drive tones lost a lot of clarity and definition and overall I just ended up taking the CS3 out of my rig after about a week of fighting it to get it to sound good. It actually turned me off the idea of using a compressor for a long time and that didn't change unil I tried and subsequently bought a Diamond Compressor. I hear the nodded BOSS Compressors sound better than the stock ones but I've never tried those personally.

OVERALL OPINION

All in all I advise you to stay away from the BOSS CS3. it really doesn't improve the tone all that much and when put next to a REAL compressor like a Diamond, Keeley or vintage MXR, it's all but totally outclassed. I would personally much rather save up extra and get one of the above three comps as they sOund far superior to this BOSS unit by far.

bof, very useful .. it has been used against the varieties of the 80's, the typical "My Legionnaire" Gainsbarre awful song, it's that sound in intro (pun intended) and some titles DURAN DURAN ..

UTILIZATION

My boss who likes the same is not worth it, except for sounds weird .. By against it gives a good sustain for a guitar pickups very low .. but hello breath!

SOUND QUALITY

if you find japan is ok, you have a good sustain, but the breath + feedback are awful (yes I repeat myself) with a powerful amp. (Especially lamps) is prohibited.

OVERALL OPINION

I do not recommend it.

digital pedal that adds sustain. Indeed very much thinking.

UTILIZATION

Hyper complicated configuration should be to equip a monster patience. Pedal blows a lot! buying a noise gate with this effect is required to take advantage of this effect.

SOUND QUALITY

The effect itself is very good and think but the breath is unacceptable because it is a monster from the middle of the knob is making it hard to master effect but if you have a noise gate jump on it a very good effect.

OVERALL OPINION

Try in the store yesterday I did not catch. But if you have the best noise gate take this effect is worth it but if you do not have noise does not even think about this effect.

- Controls for level, tone, attack, and sustain

- LED battery indicator

- Easy access battery compartment

- Powered by 9v battery or Boss style adapter

- Solid enclosure

- Boss buffered bypass

UTILIZATION

Quite a bit of control actually. The volume knob is self explanatory, as is tone. Sustain lets you dial in how long you want your notes to ring. Compression dials in the extent to which you are squashing the signal volume, boosting lows, and bringing down anything loud.

The Battery change feature actually really nice, a lot of pedals require unscrewing the bottom of the pedal, this is quite a bit simpler.

Generally, I've found the buffer to be very low quality, and really does a horrible job of preserving your bypass tone.

SOUND QUALITY

To be honest, this is one of the very worst compressors that I have had the pleasure using. In a nutshell, it turns your guitar into a rubber band. Some compressors will do a pretty good job of retaining some dynamics. This one pretty much steamrolls your playing, you get one one volume, that is it. The higher up the compression and sustain settings, the more noise you get. And forget about using it with anything high gain, that will take you right into the land of feedback.

Very little that I like about the sound of this pedal at all. I found it to be pretty much unusable.

OVERALL OPINION

Save your money. Compression isn't really an effect that you ever want to cheap out on. It can destroy your tone far too easily. At this price point, look into the MXR dynacomp. For a little more, the Barber Tone Press is killer. And for a little more than that, the Diamond Compressor is hands down the best I've used, topping an $800 BJFE compressor in my opinion.

There really isn't any budget or setup that I would recommend this under.

Pass.