Build Your Own Clone 5 Knob Compressor

The 5 knob compressor kit is an evolution of the original compressor. This kit is made to be somewhat close to the famous Keeley compressor that everyone knows and loves. It's basically a Ross compressor with tons of goodies added to it. It has an attack, ratio, tone, sustain and level control all housed into a small 125B enclosure that'll fit anywhere on anybody's pedalboard.

UTILIZATION

BYOC did a great job with this pedal. The instructions are wonderfully laid out, and anybody should be able to build this kit. It shows you where every resistor, capacitor, diode etc. goes and in which orientation. Should a problem arise, there is a helpful forum that can assist you in fixing your build. It's pretty surprising what you can fit inside a 125B enclosure. The fact that they managed to get all five knobs in there is pretty awesome.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound of the compressor is great. It's a clone of the famous Ross compressor, but it goes much further thanks to the additional tone controls. The tone knob is a bit different than the normal one. It's a high pass filter that's built into the actual compressor circuit rather than adding it later on. This allows you to really shape the tone how you want it to be rather than just trying to cut a frequency. The ratio knob allows for parallel compression, and it's actually transistor based instead of the standard IC based ratio knobs. This helps keep it as transparent as possible.

OVERALL OPINION

If anybody is looking for a “do it all” compressor and cannot afford the expensive Kelley compressors, I recommend checking this pedal out. Anybody who has soldered before should be able to assemble this pedal with little difficulty. If something were to go wrong, there are tons of people on the forum to help you fix it. Just be sure to take clear pictures.

The Build Your Own Clone 5 Knob Compressor is a do it yourself pedal for guitar and other electric instruments. I haven’t built this pedal myself, but it comes in pieces and you assemble it yourself. I have a friend who recently built one of these so I can’t comment on how easy or hard this is to put together, but of course it’s going to depend on how much experience you have with things of that nature. I’ll really just be focusing on the pedal’s sound and related issues here. The pedal is essentially a clone of the Ross Gray Compressor, but is modded a bit and added a few parameters. I haven’t ever used this and the original side by side, so that’s as far as I can go with comparing them really. The pedal has a basic make up with ¼” connections and needing nine volt power. It’s not rack mountable either since it’s a foot controlled pedal.


UTILIZATION

The configuration of the Build Your Own Clone 5 Knob Compressor is generally not hard to follow. It’s got five parameters – knobs for level, sustain, ratio, attack, and tone. I believe the attack and ratio parameters are not included on the Ross Gray Compressor. It should be easy enough to use without the help of a manual, except of course to actually build the pedal.


SOUND QUALITY

The Build Your Own Clone 5 Knob Compressor is definitely up there with the best sounding compression pedals I’ve used. I think my friend did a pretty good job building it because it sounds really good. He’s used it for both bass and guitar, but my use has strictly been for guitar and not in the studio or anything. The five parameters make sure that you’ll have endless control over the pedal, as you can get real crunchy sounds as well as a nice and sustained sound.


OVERALL OPINION

If I were going to build a pedal myself, this would definitely be at the top of the list in what I would build. I think you can probably buy this already assembled somewhere if you so choose, and if you’re not handy with building as I’m not, it might be a good option to look into if you can find one cheap enough. If it’s built well, it’s going to sound better and be more versatile than any pedal you’ll find in the price range it should cost…