VICE GRIP COMPRESSOR
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| $180.00 USD |
to be honest when it came out it was ignored in general because it was neither considered cool or cheap.
The layout is straight forward. The Attack, Volume and Sustain controls are the standard deal. Where it gets interesting is the switch that works with the blend control. In the center is your full signal that you can blend with the compressed signal but you can choose to just blend in the highs or lows. It is a 'Soft Knee' type studio compressor
so the attack's compression do not have any artifacts ...like a soft thud or worse still when it sounds like a paddle hitting a ping pong ball along with every note you play. With everything at 12 o'clock it definitely sounds like a very pricey studio comp. Impressive.
Well I have owned all the hot cheapies and trendy ones and to be fair they are good. I still have a Keeley 4 knob, the new Keeley Compressor +, the still hot Wampler Ego the Xotic SP, even the classic Pigtronix Philosophers Tone. I sold my MXR Dyna Comp but still have a Boss. I have wanted to swallow hard and just get a $450.00 USD Origin Cali 76 Deluxe. It is the fullest and the sweetest but the sustain is just average.
Most critics picked up on the myth that 'a compressor must be invisible and sound almost like it is not compressing' vibe in their reviews. All compressors have a 'sound' pleasant or not it will change your tone. Hell the whole idea of a box is to improve your sound. Once improved it has been 'changed'.
So what's my problem ????
Nearly all guitar comps only give you a 4 to one compression. It is the go to compression ratio for guitars in the recording studio.
The trouble is it a 4 to one dies usually after about few bars of the average tune. Fine for a lot of chord work or a few riffs ...BUT if you need more sustain for long power chords or soloing ...forget it.
Some bass comps give you 10 to one or even 12 to one. The Vise grip goes from zero to a mind boggling 20 to one. YES!!!!
Yes that is a damn heavy amount of unnatural 'squish' and 'squash'. lol
BUT !!!
You get infinite sustain even some feedback. Hell ...it just simply works.
Check the video starting at 5:20 ....damn impressive.
Now I have 4 loops on my board and each one has it's own comp ...in fact one has 2. lol
They all have a different sound and work and sound great where I use them. The thing is that one of my loops has both Fuzz and heavy high gain OD's and I use it for parts with a lot of power chords so this pedal has me hooked!
SO ....I ordered one!!!
The Duncan showed up today. (Apr.11/19)
I took it to rehearsal and swapped out another compressor for the Duncan. I put the knobs on 12 o'clock then opened up the sustain to 3 o'clock and jumped into the intro for the first tune. Whoa!!!! Way too much sustain so I pulled it back to just less then 1 o'clock. PERFECT!!!
Dimed my Wampler has less then that and I was virtually only half way up on the Duncan!!!!
The tone was very full and warm but zero mud!!!
Total winner!!!!
A FEW DAYS LATER
With a bit of heavy compression my Strat PU sounds so good I can use it straight to my amp and get a great sound for a solo ...better then four light gain pedals I bought and sold.
Good review. I like my Vise Grip, which I use as a solo boost after all my gain effects, with just a little limiting dialed in, but your review has made me feel like doing some more experimenting. It's such a hi-fi pedal, especially at 18V, it really does feel like a studio compressor.
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