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Hatsubai « Keeley on a budget »
Published on 03/20/11 at 07:11The 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.
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.