HomeBrew Electronics Arizona CPR

Sustain & Level.....pretty easy

I have owned a Keeley & Barber Tone Press, ....both top notch. The Tone Press is more transparent, if that's what you want, but the CPR has more compression. This thing can go from Ross-style sustain to Boss CS-1 pump. Pretty cool. Noise is minimal. I like it better than the Keeley, but the Tone Press is really in it's own league with transparency. I dig a little color when using compression, so I don't mind this at all. Again, I would label this compressor as transparent, don't get me wrong, but nothing like the Barber. Different strokes.

Looks pretty solid. Cool color as well.

Hope I don't have to find out

Of all of the compressor's I've owned, I would rate them as follows:

1a. CPR
1b. Barber
2. Keeley
3. Maxon CP-101
4. Guyatone ST-2
5. CS-2
6. Milkbox

Easy to use, 2 knobs, sustain and level, it doesn't get easier. Came with instructions, but don't need them.

I don't know how I got by all these years without a compressor. This thing sounds awesome. Very quiet. I have several guitars, 2-Strats w/ Bill Lawrence PU's L-280(neck)/290(bridge), Schecter C-1 E/A w/Bill Lawrence L-450's, Guild Bluesbird AAA, Reverend Slingshot Custom, and a Gretsch New Jet(great guitar, sounds a lot like the Bluesbird). You can get all those awesome blues tones, with lots of sustain with this pedal. I thought at first that I lost a little of the highs, but when I turned up the level, it seemed fine. I run it about 3/4 of the way up.

Just got it, opened it up, looks solid. Should be able to depend on it, but I can't leave a opinion, too soon to tell.

Answers e-mail quickly. I asked for different "chickenhead knobs", and they offered to send them to me for free!

Matches the style of music I play perfectly! You can get all the SRV type tones you have been looking for, providing the rest of your gear is the same quality. I have been playing 15+ years, and should of bought one a long time ago. I would buy one again in a immediately if it was stolen or lost. Compared to the price of the Keeley and the Analogman, this is the better bargain. Buy one!

Its pretty much the same as all vintage comp clones (I assume thats what this is...). It's a two knob setup. If you can't figure this out, go drink bleach.

I'm using a Martin DX-1 with a fishman single coil installed into an MXR 10 Band EQ and the CPR going direct. With this setup I can get an acoustic sound, a clean-jazzbox type sound and a ringing chimy clean-electric sound. I mostly go for the jazzbox type sound: pretty heavy compression with the CPR and a serious high end roll-off with the EQ. My style is best described as (to use the cliched explanation of cross breeding two artists I have no hope of ever being as good as to describe myself) early-mid period (Small Change/Heart Attack & Vine) Tom Waits meets late (Oh Mercy/Time Out of Mind) Dylan. I play with an upright bassist and a conga drummer, and this sound works well for what I do. The CPR is excellent and does everything I could ask a compressor to do. The only better compressor I've ever used is the Summit Audio TLA-50, a $600 rackmount tube levelling amplifier, and its not really fair to compare the two.

Feels really solid. It's made out of high quality parts, the construction is clean and stable. I give it a ten.

I haven't ever needed to deal with HBE...

I hate to be lame and give it all 10's, but I can't see anywhere to dock it points. Its a solid, affordable compressor that sounds fantastic. I use it in a sort of weird way, but I'm positive that it could be used for standard (ex. Tele=>CPR=>Champ) uses. My only compaint is that when I ordered it through www.pedalgeek.com, it took forever to get to me. I'm pretty sure it was just a fluke, I can't really blame HBE. If someone stole it, I would buy another in a second. The only thing I wish it had was an easy access battery compartment. By the way, I'm not posting my e-mail, but I'm not some company stooge flooding the board with all-10 reviews. I actually use and own this beeyotch.

Simple two knobs one for sustain one for level.

Best quality out of all the compressors I have ever owned, built myself or tried out. Very smooth with no rough edges to the attack. When you really hit the strings hard it allows for great clean sounds. I like it better by itself than in combination with other pedals.

Built like a tank. True bypass switching. Bright LED.

Never dealt with Joel on service for the compressor cause its brand new. However he is friendly and responsive thru the Emails and has provided customer supprt on another pedal that was not broken but need a mod to allow for singlecoil/humbucker guitars. Who does that?

I play blues, country, rock using a variety of guitars dano 12, gibson les paul, dipintos, fenders, st blues, surfcastor etc thru a 1959 guild 20 watt amp with built in tremelo. This works great with my sons fender twin also. Stop your search for the compressor that really works and get this from HBE.

With the Sustain and Level controls it was easy to dial in exactly the kind of clear and clean compression I wanted. There is a 3rd control "Decay" which seems to be a kind of fine tuning on the duration of the note and can dial out any unwanted distortion if you use higher output pickups. This control is adjusted with the edge of your guitar pick. I tend to keep the Sustain at 10 and Level at 11 or 12 and the Decay mostly at minimal settings (can't tell where it is since it has no knob). LED is thankfully bright and easy to see. Easy to get great sounds instantly. Mine is a cool aqua green with cream barrel knobs and consumes reasonable space on my board. I power it with a VoodooLabs PedalPower 2 full time.

Using the Decay and Sustain controls you can fine tune the CPR to work with humbuckers, but my main purpose in hunting down compressors was for my Fender Telecaster. I'd been through a few other compressors-there are tons out there--and listened to lots of samples online and read tons about the choices. The CPR absolutely nailed the sound I wanted-clear, rich boosted full tone-with no masking of the original tone, or grainy distortion or uneven "pumping". It's a very transparent sound that wakes up sleeping amps and adds richness to my Tele without changing the character of the tone. It's impossible to play the Tele without the CPR now! The other bonus is that the CPR is dead silent; others are not. I am using it primarily with a SonicCord Bantam (1x15 2el34 combo) and Sloan, my Cage head (2 kt66 into a 2x12 cab). I had read plenty of reviews where people describe getting a compressor they like and then leaving it on full time - and getting so addicted to it that you only really notice it when it's off. I couldn't really appreciate that until I tried the CPR. With single coils, (Danelectro lipsticks, Tele, or MusicMan MM90s, or Gibson P90s) the CPR is on throughout the set.

It's been trucked around but not abused on my pedalboard for several months - build quality on this pedal seems very high all around. No worries about performance at a gig.

Joel at HomeBrew was great with fast responses to my questions about the Decay control. He's clearly cares about his products and is making very high quality pedals for a great price. American craftsmanship the way it should always be.

Flume plays modern jangle pop (www.flumetheband.com). Been playing for 20+ years. I would certainly replace this if it was lost; it's now an integral part of my sound, especially with the Telecaster. It sounds especially great in front of the AnalogMan Clone Chorus -seems to add more brilliance along with the full boost that I was looking for out of a compressor but without all the unattractive qualities of distortion and other "artifacts" from compromises in the circuitruy in the other compressors that I considered. While AnalogMan, Keeley, and Maxon all had good candidates, they seemed overpriced compared to the CPR. Outstanding value.

Very easy to use, 2 knobs, one switch, has a DC jack too. But as with all compressors, you need to understand what they do, and how to approach using it. Manual is very helpful. This is a pedal, so it's very straight forward, and easy to use. It took me longer to find another patch cable in my bag o' stuff, then it did for me to get a great sound out of it.

Sounds great. I am using this with the Homebrew power screamer (Killer!), warmoth strats and tele's ( always Rio Grande Pickups ) a Startouch A/B box to a/b to the tuner ( best A/B's Ever!) a Fender Reissue tube reverb, and a reissue '59 bassman. (Old School can you tell?)

Great sounding compressor. Very quiet and smooth. You can get that squished sound if you like it, but I use it rather subtly. I tried it in and out, and found I just really missed it if it wasn't just on all the time. Level very useful as well, you could probably use it for a lead boost. Really makes the notes come alive, and helps to get the chicken picken sound I love when playing country. Helps get that Brad Paisley / Brent Mason tone I dig for those occasions. Again I use it all the time, and it sounds great with blues, and anything else. Joel says it's modeled after a famous old design.

This thing is built amazingly solid. Clean wiring, solid switch and jacks, I would use it without backup with no worries. I definately depend on it, it has become such an integral part of my kit already. Built like a tank!

Joel answers questions immediately via email, and is such a great guy to deal with. Absolutely perfect service. We should all buy 2 of everything he makes so we can keep guys like this in buisness!

I play all styles of music, and this works great for everything. Again, I miss it when it's not on, so I couldn't live without it now! I have played for 20 years+ and play mostly homemade (Warmoth ) strats and teles. But play Les Pauls, and a great Wahburn Semi Solid Sammy Hagar model ( great jazz and blues tone with a pickup change). Amps are Bassman Reissue, Silver Face Super Reverb (non master late 60's ish?), and I have a Marshall DSL 50 for the rock gigs.

I would have to flat bawl my head off if something happened to this. I would replace it in half a heartbeat, and put out a voodoo curse on whoever took it. I really love the sonic blue paint and cream knobs. Really has that cool retro look ( it fits, it's full name is the ComPressor Retro = CPR). Sounded way better than the MXR or Boss stuff I compared it with. I was even thinking of getting an Alesis for compression, but this sounds better.

Again it's a compressor. They don't reach out and grab you like a new overdrive and slap you in the face. They are NOT supposed to. The test is when you miss it if it's gone. This is the one! Without it my tone is like a Hamburger with no bun. It tastes fine, but it's just missing something, and then what's the point.

Bottom line. If you need a compressor BUY THIS ONE. FORGET ANYTHING ELSE!!!