Boss CS-3 Compressor Sustainer

Easy to use. Turn the knobs, listen, done.

Sounds great, all of the wankers on this site who dont know how to use compression properly, will say it sux. It is very important that compression always goes first in your chain. Not last. Where you place the pedal has a huge impact on the sound. You want to feed a nice, clean compressed signal to the rest of your setup, not the other way round. I see this mistake all the time.

Boss. Tough, they dont break.

Never had to use it

Pop/Rock, studio work. Playing for 20 years.

Boss CS3 is easy to use. LEVEL increases the level, TONE enhances Bass or Low freq.. and Attack / Sustain.. everyone of us know what is Attack and Sustain in a compressor.

It sounds Bad. bad simply because u lose YOUR sound, sound of your instrument. the best way to play with CS 3 and your sound is the baypass mode! the sustain control makes noise if you pump it up above half position.

As all BOSS stomps

I play Bass guitar, my opinion is about bass. i play electro - pop music and I do love fat full bass, but MY fat full bass, not a fat full BOSS Bass!!

This review is for the Humphrey Audio Modified Version

When I first got the stock CS-3, I plugged it in and like a lot of you really didn???t hear a difference even after I played around with the controls for a while. The attack was annoying. As I turned it up, the effect seemed like it stepped up and it was very noticeable. I was ready to return it to the store where I bought it until I decided to send it to Humphrey Audio for the modification and I???m glad I did because when I got it back the controls actually worked.

After the modification it was unbelievable. The sound quality reminds me of the difference between a bad, noisy recording and a professional one, clear and crisp. I did notice a little noise but I know it???s from one of my other pedals, which I???ll probably send to Humphrey Audio for mods at some point.

I have other Boss pedals, which I???ve had for many, many years and never a problem.

I've never needed any customer support from Boss. My experience with Humphrey Audio has been great!

The stock CS-3 was not worth the money. At $90 I would expect an effect pedal to be able to make a major change in the sound and the stock version didn???t do that. I would suggest if you want a compressor/sustainer pedal buy one from Humphrey Audio. You really can???t believe the difference until you hear it. The modification was $50 and well worth it!

I understand what the controls do but can't seem to find any worthwhile settings.

What a poor pedal, especially for being one of Boss' higher priced single-effect pedals, which are usually good. I couldn't find a good setting that didn't kill my setup's tone or ruin the dynamics of what was being played. The only settings that don't do that are subtle enough to be worthless in the scheme of things (for rock anyway, maybe country players would benefit more from this pedal.)

On top of that, this pedal is NOISY. If you don't have a noise gate, buy one. If you already have one, turn it up.

This pedal is a paperweight. I'm selling it to buy something more useful.

It's Boss so you know it will last but do you really want this thing around?

Never dealt with them.

It's either too subtle or too overwhelming with very little middle ground. Your average rock player might benefit more from buying a different type of pedal altogether - overdrive, distortion, flanger, maybe a nice wah, whatever.

On top of general complaints about the effect itself, the thing is noisy! Unbelievably so. I haven't heard such a noisy pedal in years, if ever.

If you feel that you need a compressor, I recommend buying something else. I hear MXR DynaComp compressors are good. Personally, I prefer the basic compressor in my cheap DOD multi-effects board from about 8 years ago. That's how bad this Boss pedal is.

It's not terribly hard to get a good sound out of this, but to really dial it in it takes work

Compression is a MUST if you are doing any kind of delay work first of all and secondly if you are playing through a very "open" sounding tube amp like a Vox AC30 or a Fender Hot Rod series [I play through both], I like to run this pedal at all times.

All of my Boss pedals have been fantastic as far as reliablility goes.

Easy to use if you don't overdo it.

Produces a good sound as long as you don't go overboard with the attack and sustain. The stock pedal sounds so so, but it can easily be modded to sound killer. I did it, thanks to Brian Wampler, and this is always on my pedal board. The Les Paul sounds so much fatter with this, as though I really needed that!

I'm only giving it a 9 because it sounds great only after mod, otherwise it is so-so.

Built solid.

Never used.

Great compressor IF you have it modded. Otherwise it kills the bass. I'm happy with it, won't sell it. I'm giving a 9 because it needs some effort on your part to make it sound nice (modding).

Try to understand what it's made for/what the use of the knobs is and you'll be fine.
Try different settings to find your own satisfying sound. It might take a little while...

I think this pedal sounds great. I play death metal with a lot of distortion and with the CS-3 between my guitar and amp it makes a lot of difference. It makes my sound less muddy and makes the dist. a bit more defined. The sound of the amp comes out a bit clearer.
It is noisy but I use a noise gate and it works excellent.
!! Set the gain on the level that makes the sound OK for you > then put the CS-3 before your distortion with the following settings: level 6/7, tone 5, attack 4, sustain 6/7. This will make a difference! but you have to crank your sound/put the volume up !!! (otherwise it will not work)
I use a Marshall Dsl 100 tube amp

uhhh built like a tank
I play many live gigs and it will never break down.

It really makes my sound better and even with a huge distortion like I play with. I want my sound to be tight and awesome and without muddy s*#. I love that it pushes my amps sound a little bit further into something I'd call "oooooww yeaaaahhhhhh"

IMPORTANT ! >>> If you use it on low volume it will not sound good enough !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and get a noise gate)

Mine is a Humphrey Audio version.
Dead easy to use too. The tone is active and adds to the gain of the pedal. The attack is subtle and just right for guitar.

He's here:

http://humphrey.4.googlepages.com/humphreyaudiopedalmods

Great sound quality compared to the mundane and noisy stock version.

I use an EJ strat, a PRS, a John Suhr classic, and an old ES 35 Gibby.
I'm currently playing through a Mesa Roadster 4 channel tube amp.

I use all Humphrey Audio pedals now.
His modded GCB-95 wah, this compressor, Humphrey home made Tranni-Booster, Humphrey Modded Boss MT-2, and a 'Badder' Monkey for low drive tones.

Happier than ever with my live tone. ELATED!!

I depend on this gear, and it's largely bulletproof.
I gig without backups currently.

Not a problem dealing with him at all.
He answered all questions and emails promptly and to my satisfaction.

I Play primarily high production Blues-Rock stuff.
The gear I currently use is perfect for what I do.
I have a pretty good collection of old stomp boxes and guitars.
Humphrey is modding my old pedals a few at a time for me, so I can play them at home and in the studio. It's great to have them sound better than ever, and perfor more quietly as well.

If any of my Humphrey Audio equipment were lost or stolen, I'd do whatever it took to get them replace with the same exact pedals ASAP!
I really don't care to use anything else.
I've played and/or owned most of the funky expensive 'Boo-Teek' stuff. No thanks. I have my very own pedal guy just an email away.
What could be better than that?

It`s simple like it should be, it`s a stompbox!

Well, when i was bying this thing I wonted to make my sound a little biger then it is, but trust me, if you have a good tube amp you really don`t need this thing. If your in possession of a some week tranzistor you`ll need this to get a good distortion and fat clean out of your amp. But again if you have a tube amp it will crash your tone.It dosen`t make any noise or enything like that but it wont do any good for it as well. So I`ll give it 2 when running with tube amp and I`ll give it 8 when running with tranzistor small power amp.

You can depend on this box. It`s built like a tank. Never failed me(used on gigs,home etc).

Don`t know, never had to deal with them.

I play all kind of different stuff, mainly heavy. Like I said before when I was running it thruogh a tranzistor it did a good job, but when I get a powerfull tube it sounded crapy and really disturbed my tone.My advise: get your ass to your local music center and try it out on a gear simillar to yours it will do the best.

This review is for the "modded" Humphrey Audio "Atom Smasher" used on a bass guitar rig. I've always thought the CS-3 was a good pedal and pretty easy to use (keep the sustain between 10 & 11 o'clock and you're good to go). The modded version is just as easy and gives you some versitility as well.

The original CS-3 does "slightly" color your tone, especially on the lower notes. For the duribility, price, and convience of a pedal, I feel it's worth it. With the modded version your tone is not compromised what-so-ever. I ran the pedal in front of an Ampeg SVT-3 pro with two 4 x 10 cabinets and more recently with the same head but two Ampeg classic series 1 x 15 cabinets. I'm running a 72 p-bass into it.

I use it without a back up. Long term I don't know. I do trust that if I did have problems Humphrey Audio would be more than accomidating.

The guy just does this on the side from what I'm told. He imediately answered all of my questions in much detail. Everyone I've talked to speaks very highly of him.

The CS-3 is a very good pedal on its own (I'd rate it a 7) The "mods" done to it by Humphrey Audio make it great (10). The guy that does it is only a couple of hours away and I'd heard some positive things about him already with his "mods". Since this is the one pedal/effect I use it was worth taking a chance. I am very happy I did.