Best Compressor For Guitar (2024 Update)

Worth big money? Yes, it is that good. Everything works like you'd think based on the 1170, and it's simple just to listen and dial in. I use it primarily on acoustic guitar in live performance, and it's done stellar work for me. High-end build quality matches the cost of entry—high dollar but also excellent results.Scott

Studio grade compressor in a pedal. Can be as subtle or extreme as necessary. The auto switch and Hard/soft switches are very clever and really work. Very well built. Small footprint fits easily on a pedal board.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

While some claim this compressor is an optical compressor, that couldn't be further from the truth. This compressor is an OTA (operational transconductance amplifuer) design, much like a Ross or Dynacomp. That being said it is an improvement in that design. A big one. If you're into great tone does it really matter whether it is OTA, optical, flux capacitor, or glow plug? No. The bottom line is that this compressor is awesome! It can do the Ross/Dynacomp thing where it DOES squash and color your tone, or it can be as transparent as you want it to be. The key is to put that blend knob to use along with the other controls.Guitar74

I have the Mini Ego on another pedalboard and I love the sustain knob on the big brother. The pedal has phenomenal versatility. The tone control is very interactive and when switching from single coil to humbucker pickups all is needed is a tone adjustment to dial things in. Built like a tank and the footswitch is as quiet as a church mouse.stillbillsmith

I was slightly influenced by a review video made by one of my favourite guitarists Brent Mason. He spoke very highly about the pedal so that, along with other reviews and comparisons, made me decide to go for the Ego. It is a brilliant pedal and does everything I want from a compression pedal.mike k.

I bought this compression pedal to boost my acoustic signal as well as fatten the sound a bit. I love the size as it fits on my board perfectly. I leave it on all the time so it neatly fits up top. I mainly lead worship at my church and was looking to make my Martin D-15 sound more like it is supposed to plugged in.Mark

The Xotic SP Compressor is without a doubt a 5 Star product! For many years I used a 1953 Gibson ES 175 or 1966 Telecaster plugged into a MXR Dyna Comp and grew to appreciate the warm squash this device had to offer as I lost the taste for most all distortion devices on the market. The Dyna Comp was a simple two knob device that squeezed my signal rather nicely to which I still have 3 of them floating about the house. I also have the more expanded version, MXR Limiter dating from the early 80s that also does a nice job modifying my signal. The only initial down side to the Dyna Comp was a little bit of noise. However the real down side to the old Dyna Comp was sometime in the early 90s, after Dunlop acquired ownership of the MXR Product, decided to reduce the cost of production by having all the jacks, pots, and switch connected directly to the PC Board via solder bath. Not only did this process of assembly affect the durability of this classic old compressor, it also compromised the tone and performance of a one great pedal. The vintage Dyna Comps wired point to point are far superior product. If you have one, keep it! In the wake of the cheapening of the Dyna Comp came the Keeley Compressor. I bought a Keeler Compressor somewhere around 10 years ago a noticed an improvement in performance over my old Dyna Comps with less noise. And with going into great detail, every guitar, from my old 1951 L5 to any of my old Fender sound great through this compressor. So now a new and somewhat revolutionary compressor has hit in the market by way of the Xotic SP. These guys are making some of the best pedals that I?ve run across in years. By the time I got my SP I was already the proud owner of an EP Booster and SL Drive. To later I have to say it is the only distortion that has come out in the last 30 years with a decent sounding tone that does not narrow the bandwidth of your signal path. Not to mention these pedals just happen to be the cutest looking signal devices on the market. What really makes the SP Compressor outstanding is the 3 position Hi/Mid/Low switch. The versatility to this pedal via of this switch is just amazing. In the Hi mode I can match the performance of my Keeley and Dyna Comp compressors for Jazz applications. However, I have taken using the Mid position for a great Blues/Rock tone. In this position the pedal allows me to play over the top of the compressor for soaring highs. This works in great combination with my 1960 Telecaster with Barden pickups. Anyway, I highly recommend the Xotic SP Compressor with its advantage in versatility over other compressors on the market. And here?s the bonus, this pedal is priced about $100 less than the Keeley. My hat?s off to you folks at Xotic for manufacturing a fantastic compressor at an affordable price that will thousands of guitar players sound better and better. Now if you can reinvent the Sola Sound Tone Bender in one of these small bud boxes, that would be fantastic!David A

I tried the Wampler and it was too much going on and I could find a sound I like. That was my first compressor so i'm Sure it was me. With this one I set it to Humbucker setting per the manual and it was fantastic. I just made the volume a little lower so that it was the same as my OD and TS pedals so that I control the gain there not with the compresssor. I leave it on all the time now. I never realized how much better the sound would be from just this. I always thought of it just pushing down the high parts but the making the lower parts a little louder made a big difference. This is going to be on permanently. Crystal clear sound wise too.Mike CT

My first Keeley(s)… my first pedal board for a decade actually, after years as a Kemper user. Lovely thing, robust and progressively smooth in effect. As a pensioner I could have done with bigger writing on the controls though!Nigel G.

Awesome compressor and overdrive in one housing! The ability to flip a switch to determine effect order and to also tell the pedal which pickups (single coil or humbucker) you're using provides even more flexibility! Aesthetically, this pedal, bought in "mint" condition, has a great look with a sparkle finish;ranrob_4298

I've had several Keeley pedals from overdrive to modulations to compressor. This pedal is I think the best thing Robert Keeley has ever released. You get the best of the Red Dirt Pedal and the 4-knob compressor in one compact unit. I'm so happy I pull the trigger on it. I've owned the Keeley D&M and I think this pedal sounds better.805musician

I bought this pedal hoping to get the old Ibanez sound without spending a lot of money. Although it didn't cost much it doesn't get the old Ibanez sound. It's easy to use and fun to play with but I really wouldn't recommend it. You can get a different Behringer compressor pedal which is much better than this one. I would recommend doing that.motocross824

I have used Behringer effects for years now, and have never been disappointed. This Compressor does what it is intended to do, smoothing out the notes from guitar, and evening the output for a pleasing musicality.will_bush312

It is a great pedal except for the fact it's plastic. I wouldn't use my foot to stomp on it. But if you treat it gently it's actually really cool. Just use your hand to put pressure on its button and it will be gracious and give you exactly what you expect from a compression pedal.rmc.rtk.xrzsxdqx3

I bought this compressor intending to use it with both Fender Strat and my bass guitar. I am a professional music producer and listened to the unit carefully in the studio headphones. It is a great tool if you know what to use it for. When used with a strat it makes the sound crisp and places the funky clean tone perfectly in the mix. The tone is somewhat on the colder side, with bright fluid sustain added to the sound. Think about it as a sustainer first and then compressor. Great tool in the pallette. However, there are a few things to keep in mind: – the unit makes a sub low cut when engaged even with the minimum effect added to the direct signal. Bassists bear this in mind (unless you are a hardcore punk bassist playing with distortion and a pick and don't care much about your sub bass tone). It can also be felt on the clean electric guitar sound (if it's funky tone in the band setting you would cut off the low end of the strat anyway). – with higher compression ratio settings you get more sustain but some noise is also added. – if you want to use the 9V battery with the unit keep in mind that to change the battery you need to use a screwdriver for 4 screws to remove the back panel of the unit.J

I love this pedal. I play an Epi Les Paul Classic, into my pedalboard, and into a 90's Peavey Bandit. The amp has a Jensen Mod soesker, not the original Scorpion speaker. The Bandit with this speaker has a great clean channel. I'm a long time Fender guy. Strats and Teles. I like a clear, bright fundamental tone. I found myself compensating with the LP and using the bridge pickup a lot. But still not satisfied with the clean tones from the LP. That changed when I put the Keeley Compressor Plus on my board. The conbination of the Blend control and the Tone knob gives me what I want. The Tone control is, to my ear, an exceptional circuit. I get the bright, clear tone I need and superb sustain. This pedal is a godsend for playing slide. The compressor goes before my dirt pedals with beautiful results-1-. I use a Boss SD-1 overdrive and a Donner Dark Mouse – a Rat clone. I'm very impressed with this compressor. I put all controls at about 12:00, which the manual recommends for humbuckers. Minimal tweaks from there to get what I want. I love that it doesn't squash the life out of my pick attack. It is always on. Works great with acoustic/electrics as well. Great, musical piece of gear. Well done, Mr. Keeley.Mister G.

I bought this compression pedal to boost my acoustic signal as well as fatten the sound a bit. I love the size as it fits on my board perfectly. I leave it on all the time so it neatly fits up top. I mainly lead worship at my church and was looking to make my Martin D-15 sound more like it is supposed to plugged in.Mark

The Xotic SP Compressor is without a doubt a 5 Star product! For many years I used a 1953 Gibson ES 175 or 1966 Telecaster plugged into a MXR Dyna Comp and grew to appreciate the warm squash this device had to offer as I lost the taste for most all distortion devices on the market. The Dyna Comp was a simple two knob device that squeezed my signal rather nicely to which I still have 3 of them floating about the house. I also have the more expanded version, MXR Limiter dating from the early 80s that also does a nice job modifying my signal. The only initial down side to the Dyna Comp was a little bit of noise. However the real down side to the old Dyna Comp was sometime in the early 90s, after Dunlop acquired ownership of the MXR Product, decided to reduce the cost of production by having all the jacks, pots, and switch connected directly to the PC Board via solder bath. Not only did this process of assembly affect the durability of this classic old compressor, it also compromised the tone and performance of a one great pedal. The vintage Dyna Comps wired point to point are far superior product. If you have one, keep it! In the wake of the cheapening of the Dyna Comp came the Keeley Compressor. I bought a Keeler Compressor somewhere around 10 years ago a noticed an improvement in performance over my old Dyna Comps with less noise. And with going into great detail, every guitar, from my old 1951 L5 to any of my old Fender sound great through this compressor. So now a new and somewhat revolutionary compressor has hit in the market by way of the Xotic SP. These guys are making some of the best pedals that I?ve run across in years. By the time I got my SP I was already the proud owner of an EP Booster and SL Drive. To later I have to say it is the only distortion that has come out in the last 30 years with a decent sounding tone that does not narrow the bandwidth of your signal path. Not to mention these pedals just happen to be the cutest looking signal devices on the market. What really makes the SP Compressor outstanding is the 3 position Hi/Mid/Low switch. The versatility to this pedal via of this switch is just amazing. In the Hi mode I can match the performance of my Keeley and Dyna Comp compressors for Jazz applications. However, I have taken using the Mid position for a great Blues/Rock tone. In this position the pedal allows me to play over the top of the compressor for soaring highs. This works in great combination with my 1960 Telecaster with Barden pickups. Anyway, I highly recommend the Xotic SP Compressor with its advantage in versatility over other compressors on the market. And here?s the bonus, this pedal is priced about $100 less than the Keeley. My hat?s off to you folks at Xotic for manufacturing a fantastic compressor at an affordable price that will thousands of guitar players sound better and better. Now if you can reinvent the Sola Sound Tone Bender in one of these small bud boxes, that would be fantastic!David A

I tried the Wampler and it was too much going on and I could find a sound I like. That was my first compressor so i'm Sure it was me. With this one I set it to Humbucker setting per the manual and it was fantastic. I just made the volume a little lower so that it was the same as my OD and TS pedals so that I control the gain there not with the compresssor. I leave it on all the time now. I never realized how much better the sound would be from just this. I always thought of it just pushing down the high parts but the making the lower parts a little louder made a big difference. This is going to be on permanently. Crystal clear sound wise too.Mike CT

There is only one Artist Toneprint (by Rudy Sarzo) for bass. But I've been able to use it for both of my basses (a very hot pick up G&L L2000 and not so hot Sire V7 Fretless) with minor adjustments to the knobs. I've also been able to use knobs only to get good sounding compression for finger, slap and pick on the G&L. I had a go with the Toneprint editor with one of the templates. I got a usable compressor within an hour or so based on settings someone had given me – but I preferred the Rudy Sarzo one so stuck with it. If you understand compression, the toneprint editor is logical. It's cleaned up my tone. I'm very happy with it.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

This is a great compressor, with lots of options. If you're not very used to hearing compression, you can set it to be really unsubtle so your ears can easily pick out the compression effect – and then you can make it as transparent as you like as well. Really adds a bit of pro polish to your sound.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

First time with a TC product and apart from colour (which I love but is a personal choice) this pedal is bullet proof. No power supply but that's a small issue as my last purchase was a True Tone CS12. Pedal isn't a straight out of the box product as the overall tone benefits from experimentation, more with this pedal than some others I've used, but the flexibility and variety of compression somehow seem to make each string sound rounded and full of character. Will probably become a permanent part of my pedal set up.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Built like a tank. Clean sound (I have a good power noise filter). It's got many options that I like….a clean boost with the compressor turned down, makes a good smoothed signal, or make your signal percussive, can be set as more of a limitor….. If I use a digital effect, I put it in front of this, then through my tube distortion and to a tube/hybrid amp. I plugged my digital drums into this enhanced the sound as well. Like the big ehx pedals, you have more options to shape you sound than most other pedals. Their new digital octaves and delays make me wish that it could save settings, lol this a great analog comp.Anonymous

I'd used a Boss M50B for a few years, and it had the potential to everything one could ask… but in reality I simply used the compressor function and as a tuner. I also play keyboard and guitar, and real estate on my pedal board is at a premium. So I got this and a Peterson tuner, and I have to say the compresspr has exceeded my expectations. The tube setting provides a really warm sound, and the compression is better than the Boss. All in all I sound better, and have reduced the footprint of my gear in the process. Yes, I'd buy it again. Quality seems top notch. Value… its expensive for a single stomp box, but worth every penny.maineprivateer

Fantastic compressor with side chain. I'm using it for a live electronic setup where I want the bass synth to duck when the kick is playing. Basic really but since I'm using different machines for each sound the Emptess Comp has been a life saver. Great build and relatively easy to use although the side chain output needs strange cables. But you can get around it.Reviewed by SX Pro customer

Great compressor with LED lights to aid sound choices. Will have to be more careful with this one as the power input is a bit fragile.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Amazing compressor, super transparent but allows for some tone sculpting if transparency isn't your thing. Sidechain works a treat (you need a stereo breakout cable for it).Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

I’m more of a Keeley Compressor Plus fan, when you turn one of those in it’s like oh yeah! The Pulp n Peel, however is much more subtle and more of a tone-shaper. I have a Katana boost immediately after and they work well together. The dirt switch is useless for me. It has a strong bump in the midrange that colors the tone too much. Maybe if you don’t have an overdrive.. All in all it’s a great pedal, but given the choice again, I’d probably go with the Keeley again.Michael R.

I bought this compression pedal to boost my acoustic signal as well as fatten the sound a bit. I love the size as it fits on my board perfectly. I leave it on all the time so it neatly fits up top. I mainly lead worship at my church and was looking to make my Martin D-15 sound more like it is supposed to plugged in.Mark

The Xotic SP Compressor is without a doubt a 5 Star product! For many years I used a 1953 Gibson ES 175 or 1966 Telecaster plugged into a MXR Dyna Comp and grew to appreciate the warm squash this device had to offer as I lost the taste for most all distortion devices on the market. The Dyna Comp was a simple two knob device that squeezed my signal rather nicely to which I still have 3 of them floating about the house. I also have the more expanded version, MXR Limiter dating from the early 80s that also does a nice job modifying my signal. The only initial down side to the Dyna Comp was a little bit of noise. However the real down side to the old Dyna Comp was sometime in the early 90s, after Dunlop acquired ownership of the MXR Product, decided to reduce the cost of production by having all the jacks, pots, and switch connected directly to the PC Board via solder bath. Not only did this process of assembly affect the durability of this classic old compressor, it also compromised the tone and performance of a one great pedal. The vintage Dyna Comps wired point to point are far superior product. If you have one, keep it! In the wake of the cheapening of the Dyna Comp came the Keeley Compressor. I bought a Keeler Compressor somewhere around 10 years ago a noticed an improvement in performance over my old Dyna Comps with less noise. And with going into great detail, every guitar, from my old 1951 L5 to any of my old Fender sound great through this compressor. So now a new and somewhat revolutionary compressor has hit in the market by way of the Xotic SP. These guys are making some of the best pedals that I?ve run across in years. By the time I got my SP I was already the proud owner of an EP Booster and SL Drive. To later I have to say it is the only distortion that has come out in the last 30 years with a decent sounding tone that does not narrow the bandwidth of your signal path. Not to mention these pedals just happen to be the cutest looking signal devices on the market. What really makes the SP Compressor outstanding is the 3 position Hi/Mid/Low switch. The versatility to this pedal via of this switch is just amazing. In the Hi mode I can match the performance of my Keeley and Dyna Comp compressors for Jazz applications. However, I have taken using the Mid position for a great Blues/Rock tone. In this position the pedal allows me to play over the top of the compressor for soaring highs. This works in great combination with my 1960 Telecaster with Barden pickups. Anyway, I highly recommend the Xotic SP Compressor with its advantage in versatility over other compressors on the market. And here?s the bonus, this pedal is priced about $100 less than the Keeley. My hat?s off to you folks at Xotic for manufacturing a fantastic compressor at an affordable price that will thousands of guitar players sound better and better. Now if you can reinvent the Sola Sound Tone Bender in one of these small bud boxes, that would be fantastic!David A

I tried the Wampler and it was too much going on and I could find a sound I like. That was my first compressor so i'm Sure it was me. With this one I set it to Humbucker setting per the manual and it was fantastic. I just made the volume a little lower so that it was the same as my OD and TS pedals so that I control the gain there not with the compresssor. I leave it on all the time now. I never realized how much better the sound would be from just this. I always thought of it just pushing down the high parts but the making the lower parts a little louder made a big difference. This is going to be on permanently. Crystal clear sound wise too.Mike CT

I don't usually like doing reviews, but this box is worth its price of admission, and then some! Its no secret that this chain is what I call "THE SAUCE"! Using the 76 side to tame the peaks abou mt 2 or 3 db and the using the 2a side so do the actual compression to taste, by setting the gain reduction and gain! If I wa limited on rack space and needed this exact chain I would choose this over an actual 1176 and and la2a and be extremely happy! Dont think about it, head on over to AMS and purchase yours today, you will not be disappointed! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MINE!MYSTA MYSTA SMOOTH

This is a very versatile and smooth sounding compressor. Don't let all of the knobs intimidate you. Two knobs control the pre gain and post gain levels. I really appreciate the pre gain control since it allows me to fine tune the output signal from my instrument. Turn it down for hotter output or active pickups or up for lower output pups. Then use the post gain control to set your overall level. Two knobs are actually just two-way switches for Normal/Squash and Lamp/LED modes. Finally you have knobs controlling the level of compression and sensitivity, which changes the character of the compression. Noise level is pretty low except at more extreme compression settings, which I don't normally use anyway. Excellent for both bass and guitar. Can do subtle "always on" compression or steamroller squish. One drawback is that it takes up a good amount of pedal board space. On the other hand, it does more than most stomp box compressors are capable of.stingrayslospecial