CRAZY TUBE CIRCUITS (Phi) Golden Ratio

EFFECTS PEDALS

- MICHAEL ROSS

COMPRESSION MAY BE the least understood of effects. The easiest way to comprehend it is to think about turning a simple tube amp up. As you increase the volume, the amp gets louder and the tubes begin to distort. Past a certain point, however, the distortion increases but the amp ceases to get any louder. That is compression at work. The tubes have placed a cap on how loud the signal can get. This effect can increase the apparent sustain of your guitar, and a compressor pedal performs a similar function, but without the distortion.

Cutting my teeth in the clubs of Manhattan, where any kind of volume is frowned upon by the people who live upstairs, I relied on an MXR Dynacomp, the only compressor pedal available at the time, to supply sustain at low volume. While the Dynacomp offered only two controls - volume and sensitivity - the Crazy Tube Circuits Golden Ratio compressor offers the tweak-ability of a studio rack compressor or a sophisticated plug-in simulation.