DOD 280 Compressor

Very easy to use, very compact and durable.

I have this puppy now for 4 years and I use it every time. Nothing is definitely perfect but the there is a strong factor that I like about this compressor. It makes the sound very thick and it really sustains all the way just like a big fat viola. Accompanied by a little noise as everyone mentioned and a mild slap-back on clean. I was able to eliminate the noise with the help a person that gave me an information about his pedal being the same and just a few parts changed and now its gone. Watchout for your jumper wires too you need a realy high quality low noise wires for the pedal is so strong it will tend to bleed if not shielded well. I was hoping to get another pedal to start working on the slap-back tone in clean mode so I still have the freedom to use the other one I have on my gigs. It is worth doing this for I had a ross compressor that I used for almost 5 years and it it delivers pretty much the same analog compression and sustain that I want plus I can afford to pay $300.00 for a used ross pedal. I use marshall plexi 50's, 2-custom made strats weights 11.5 lbs., 1980's gibson the V and V2. By this pedal I can easily replicate the early van halen sound even on the guitar volume set on 2 playing clean without the bright presence sound. pedal setting is volume 10:45 / compression 12 o'clock.

This baby is reliable. I can't go without it. The only thing that I replaced as far as maintenance is the switch.

Never dealt with them but I know the old dod's are in the range of better to best.

80's 90's rock, heavy metal. Seasoned music and basically concentrating on music with alot of tone. This unit is my favorite of all and definitely delivers.

Compression, level, on/off. No LED, though, and it needs a male type adapter plug with positive tip polarity, unless you use batteries. I'd prefer if it could run on Boss-type, female, negative tip adapters.

Overall this is a nice-sounding compressor. It can get a little quirky. As someone else mentioned, the volume can dip unpredictably after a sharp attack at certain settings. I'm not sure why that is. It seems to do it at some of the middle settings. At very high or low compression settings, the problem disappears, so I can work with it. I got a great deal on this thing.

With the compression all the way down, it's fairly translucent. It doesn't color your tone much, and it keeps your volume levels fairly even without sounding unnatural. As you crank it up, it sounds more and more squished, kind of "creamy," if that word means anything at all. Noise level increases with compression level, as you'd expect, but nothing too outrageous. Adds some nice sustain.

Plenty of volume, too. More than enough to drive your tube amp, if you wish.

Seems solid.

A nice-sounding, MXR-y compressor, with a few quirks. I love the paint job, by the way. Looks like an orange creamsicle. If I can find a mod to fix the quirkiness, I'll definitely do it. Good sounds overall. Kind of classic-sounding, like Andy Summers' clean tone (I have an Electric Mistress too, so that helps). I got gobs of sustain with it running into a cheapy Dano Fab Distortion, with volume and compression cranked, and the drive (but not volume) on the Fab cranked, with my guitar volume backed off some... it sounded pretty Big Muff-like, with a good 20 seconds of sustain. Fun to play around with.

If not for the volume dips, I'd give it a 9.

I bought this brand new in 1981 I have always liked it.2 knobs,I even use it for guitar,bass drums ,vocals, mix down and to 2 track

some times it can be a little hiss,but you can EQ it out.I have used this for every thing,I think it is a classic

This thing would never break,use it for any thing you want to squezee

Digitech is pretty cool,They will help you if you ask them They Never let me down in 26 yrs

I play blues Rock, Led Zep Hendrix,SRV,Stones,Little EVH,on top I have been playing since 1968,I would get another if it was stolen,This compressor is a Classic,Alot of people think they have a vintage one,DOD reissued it 10-15 years ago

How easy to use? Depends what you want from it I guess. I found it has a strange dynamic behaviour compared to most compressors I have tried and was difficult to set up so that the volume 'envelope' was natural sounding. Plenty of squish available but something odd going on there which made if difficult for me to dial in a good sound.

One minor hassle is the the external power is via a mini jack instead of a standard boss style opere connector.

Well it can be useful for lead solos etc but as a general purpose vanilla compressor I didn't like the unpredictable way the volume would dip after a sharp attack.

Also some slight noise from the compressor itself at high settings but not really a problem.

Well made, should last for years.

I play various pop rock styles and was looking for a dynacomp/ross sound but didn't find it here. I don't like this compressor much and have used far better.

2 knobs, simple, just the way i like it.

I have the orange version, its really very transparent sounding till higher settings, then you can hear the slow attack time. It not that noisey for a compressor at all. If you want color from a compressor then it's not your pedal.

Very rugged

DOD's website has nothing on it.

A great clean boost, I'm trying to learn slide and it sounds great with the compression turned up. Does anyone know if there are differences between the grey and orange versions? I know the red is a reissue and the grey is the oldest of the line, but is there tonal or internal component differences?

Very easy, Just compression and level controls. Figure the rest out yourself.

My Setup is:

Fender Mexican Jazz Bass>> Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner>> EHX USA Big Muff Pi>> Marshall Guv'nor II>> Boss TR-2 Tremolo>> Danelectro Digital Delay>> DOD 280 Compressor>> Behringer BX3000T 300W head>> Ashdown MAG412T DEEP cab.

It does create noise! No doubt about it but when this is used mid-song as I use it for when I have a slap part it is definatley not noticable. The noise increases as you increase the level of compression. Could do with more tone shaping controls but I can't complain for the price becasue it definatley makes my bass sound better and makes heavy playing and slap much smoother. The reason I can get over the noise is because it gives my bass a much mroe alive sound when needed. Also usefull as a volume boost.

I wouldn't loose a wink of sleep even if i knew it was strapped to the front of my nan's car in Baghdad.

I play all sorts of stuff. This pedal isin't for any particular style and definatley isin't a substitute for poor technique but is usefull for expressive (heavy heanded) players or smoothing out the sound. Considering it was so cheap its great. But I would not pay #90 for it as it costs over in the UK.

a 2 knob wonder the comp gets a bit noisy past 1 o'clock but tolerable
man this guy gets loud with the level cranked and it becomes a bad ass overdrive---very simple and will do a chicken pickin tone into a spankin low watt tube amp.

i tried it through all my amps and it worked killer!!
better than my ross and my ross sounds good but it just seems more aggro so now i use them together in the chain it reacts well with other pedals like the klon, HBE power screamer,ibanez fat cat, silver box 69, foxy lady and big muff's it's a very reactive pedal adding nice smooth sustain great with clean as well--
my amps are:
55 tweed bassman with orig. spkrs, 65 black face bassman w/ original spkrs, 61 brown princeton with a nice JBL, 68 marshall "plexi" superlead into a 68 straight cab with pre rola's, 69 traynor bassmaster with 69 marshall 8x10 loaded with blue bells,2 epiphone pacemakers circa 62 one with trem one not--naylor 10's in both.
a 55 les paul jr amp,70's musicman 150HD head into traynor vertical 4x12 and a 71 fender PS400 90 pound monster tube amp head into a boogie diesel king cab-yes for guitar, a ricky sounds like god though the PS400 and boogie evens out it's plinky ring and makes it sound tough - this guy worked great with every amp to get a nice full range drive--so sweet. these things are really under rated worth every penny

mines from 81 and looks brand new so i think it's "settled"
easy to fix my self if any thing goes south.

dod of old r.i.p.

it works well with old synths and keys
makes a clavinet sing with a wah and phaser
i want more!!

I have the vintage grey one (from '81 or something), but it still looks brand new.

Well, to me it looks more easy then how it reacts. Eventhough it's just 2 big knobs and a switch, it's pretty difficult to get a specified sound from it. It has a compression knob and a level knob.

But I am used to the more easy Boss CS-2, which is a different character of compressor.

I use it with a Ibanez S540 FM TTS (HSH) and a Fender '68 RI Strat CIJ w/ US Texas Specials.
My current fx-rig is guitar==>Vox V847 wah (TB-modded)==>Boss CS-2 Compressor==>Dod 250 Overdrive/Preamp==>Dod 280 Compressor==>H&K Tubefactor==>Engl Savage 60 amp (with in the fx-loop= Boss CE-2 Chorus==>Dod FX96 Analog Delay==>Korg 301dl Dynamic Echo) (Pretty good fx, AFAIC. ;-) )

It gets more middy with the Ibanez, because of the humbuckers, but when it comes to boosting, it really enhances the Strat's tone. It gets pretty noisy when diming the compression knob and also the long attack time (being an optical compressor) makes it necessary for me to keep the compression below 10 'o clock. It can get extremely 'squishy', but the squishyness happens a bit too late for my tastes. This makes this compressor IMO less useful for country-style pick'n than my Boss CS-2, but it has 2 feats that the CS-2 does not have.
1)It stays remarkeably clean and neutral, while the CS-2 colors your tone more.
2)It works fantastic as a level-boost, since its max. output (even with compression to '0') is much higher than the CS-2's max output. I use it to drive my H&K Tubefactor into more sustain/drive. And without the Tubefactor, it just does a marvellous job of boosting and enhancing my Strat's tone. I give it a 9 because of the noisyness with high compression values. I know it's obvious that more compression means more noise, but my Boss CS-2 has less noise, eventhough it's about the same age (late 70's/early 80's)

Looks pretty darn sturdy, the housing itself is even heavier than a standard Boss enclosure I believe. The innards are soldered a bit cheaply, but they should survive. I'm not a heavy stomper anyway, and if it looks brand new after 20+ years, it probably will remain that way for the next few years.

Never dealt with them. I'm from the Netherlands and my other Dod pedals' warranty cards both say that warranty is only valid in the US.

I play classic rock, hardrock, heavy metal, speed metal, blues, funk and surf. Even a tiny bit of jazz, but no britpop, country or nu metal. I like how it boosts things, i love its old looks (this is real vintage, not some 90's retro-design), I've been playing for more than 10 years now, done several bands (ranging from death-thrash metal to funk/disco covers). I own a pretty fine amp (Engl Savage 60 all tube with Engl 2x12" cabinet w/ Celestion Vintage 30's) and a nice little home studio, along with several guitars and a bassguitar (Cort NA-4 Artisan). I'm still doubting whether it has right to stay on my pedalboard, as I already have a great compressor; the Boss CS-2. But the Dod does things that the Boss can't.
If it were stolen, I'd try to find it, since there aren't many in the Netherlands, and check Ebay if I could find another one, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.
I wish it had a quicker attack, or an attack control knob. Ofcourse a LED would be helpful as well, to see whether the pedal is on or off.

It sure helps me making music, because I love to play more when my Strat gets boosted. It's just a different flavour of boost compared to turning your amp louder.

Typical two-knobber guitar compressor, similar to a Dynacomp (though it's a different circuit). Plug in, turn up and stand back.

I think it's easier to understand what it's doing, than a Dynacomp. With the DC's "Sensitivity" control, I'm never sure what it's actually doing. With the DOD's "Compression" control, you turn up the compression knob and guess what? It's more squishy.

Great compression. I would use it anywhere I would usually grab a Dynacomp. Really fattens up a clean guitar tone. Drives a good amp nicely. Can get really squishy at the highest compression settings. Lots of gain. Sure, it's a tad noisy, and it's a gain device, so it's going to bring up any noise you have before the chain, but it's a compressor. That's what they do. I wish it was true bypass already to save me the fifteen bucks and the twenty minutes of putting in a new switch, but whaddya want?

The compression tone is very nice. Nice attack and a smooth squish. Country and steel players will find that it's a great compliment to the Dynacomp and Orange Squeezer. It's different from both, yet can do their jobs in some cases.

By the way, it's an optical compressor, if that means anything to you. It's not a VCA comp. No, it's not an LA-2A, but it's still cool.

I haven't yet, but I will surely try slapping this on a drum track in the studio for some aggressive squish.

I never know how to answer this question unless I've had a problem with a unit. Typical 70's/80's pedal construction.... case-mounted jacks (more reliable than PCB mounted) and a ribbon connector for the controls. Seems solid enough.

Not sure if DOD has anything to do with these old analog pedals, so I would exactly call them if it stopped working. I'd just fix it. Simple enough.

I read someone's review that mentions swapping out the op-amp. I may try that and see if I like it better, but as it is, I don't mind it.

Try a tele through something class A with it and see if it don't make you sound perty.

I'm reviewing the reissue version from the late 90's. As mentioned in other reviews, this pedal sounds cool but is plagued by noise and distortion at higher level settings, especially with high output pickups. The modification detailed below will eliminate most of the noise and all of the distortion.

To eliminate the noise and distortion, I replaced the stock opamp, a KA4558, wih a low-noise LM833 (about $0.55 through Mouser.com). The KA4558 is a variant of the venerable JRC4558D but is noisier and less refined. The LM833 is a low noise, high bandwidth chip that works well in audio applications.

I also resoldered a few loose connections. Most of the solder joints on the switch and jacks were inadequate. I was able to pull the battery ground wire off the input jack with just a slight tug. I reflowed each joint, applying additional solder as needed.

This pedal now sounds MUCH better. With both controls all the way up, it remains clean and only adds a minimal amount of noise. It's also more transparent sounding. The only other change worth mentioning is the onset of compression is a little quicker. This may be a concern to you if you really dig that country twang...

Check the solding to the switches and jacks!!! Other than that, it's put together reasonably well.

Great. From my personal experience, DOD has provided excellent support for their products.

This is a classic pedal for one reason - it provides a classic squishy compression that's great for lead work. It won't sustain a note forever like some other compressors, but it will accent your leads and keep everything nicely under control.