Ibanez CP9 Compressor

This was a bit tricky at first, because it's very subtle, so dialing in just the right sound took some experimenting.

Sounds beautiful. Transparent with some highs in there. I don't think it reduces lows as others hve complained. You just don't get the "loudness" of the deeper notes due to the compression. Playing a Les Paul Custom through Buddy Guy Wah>CP9>Bad Monkey>Devi Ever Aenima>Small Stone Phaser>Guv'nor 2 plus>Behringer EQ>MXR Carbon Copy>Valve Junior. Guve the Humbuckers a slightly rounded P90-ish sound. Nice analog warm punch. Clears up all the pedals, and makes the Monkey sound almost identical to a vintage 808 Maxon Tube Screamer. Cleans are amazing. Nice glassy ring. It almost acts a transparent treble boost they way I have it set up. It doesn't suck any tone, and sparkles like an angel's song.

Built old school, like a tank. Hand wired Circuit Board. Sturdy switch. Tough as nails.

Haven't tried, but damn if people on this site all say they suck. I guess I'll give 'em a 2 for having such a ****** reputation.

Makes the guitar come alive. As others have said, it's not so much an "effect" as it is an enhancement. Awesome little pedal, and it looks cool as hell (think red TS9). These are rare pedals, and they sound amazing. I'll never take it off my board.

Despite ppl saying a compressor is easy to use, I still think you have to know what sound you want as compressor pedals are all different.That said, this compressor has 3 knobs for attack time, level, and threshold. With compressors you shouldn't have to dial any knobs past 3 oclock besides the level knob. Some ppl max the knobs out cause they're unfamiliar w/compression and they can't hear the effect, but it is a subtle effect. Dial in with caution LOL! It can act as a limiter, allowing you to keep quiet sounds quiet and louder sounds loud which is pretty cool.

Most transparent compressor I've used(I also own a Boss CS2, also a cool pedal). Unlike the Boss CS2, this thing compresses the sound without adding any additional color to your tone. In otherwords, it compresses, yet retains transparency which I love. It preserves your original guitar tone and you can dial in different amounts of compression as you please. I use this with my Peavey JSX mini-colossal. I honestly dont have any complaints with this pedal...absolutely kick ass sound quality.

I bought this thing from a pawn shop for a steal and its about as old as I am! I believe mines was made in 1981. I don't gig, so I'm not sure how water/beer-proof this thing is, but its pretty solidly built with a heavy zinc-metal enclosure. The pedal switch works fine. I would depend on it. Electronics that are as old as I am and still work count as reliable in my eyes.

Kinda hard as Ibanez doesnt make this pedal anymore. I hear Ibanez customer service sux, but I've personally never dealt with them

I play mainly metal, but I use the compressor to play clean passages. It helps add sustain to your solos as well though. I also like playing funk and this thing is PERFECT for strumming chords. I've been playing for about 9 years now and I love this pedal. If it was lost, I would try to get another one but these things are hard to find. I also have a Boss CS2 and the comparison is that the Boss adds creaminess/bass to your tone along with compression(which is still cool sounding). The Ibanez doesn't really add anything to your tone besides the compression and thats the main reason I love it!

First off,let me say this review is from a bass player. This older Ibanez 9 series (1981-84) Compressor Limiter has an attack, threshold & level controls. The pedal can give you some great sustain. Really even out the whole sound of your guitar, so every note is the same volume. I set mine : attack about 10 o'clock, threshold about 2 o'clock. No really bad settings for a bass. A 6 string will need more tweaking for your own personal taste. Battery replacement is very easy with a pop out door on the bottom, no screwdrivers needed. I don't have the manual.

I'm using a model 3 Charvel neck through 2 pick up active bass. (Which sounds fantastic in the first place) into 3 Ibanez Soundwave 35's. For a compressor it is very quiet compared to all the others I have tried. But as with any type of signal booster some line noise is always added too.
As for the quality of the effect & sound it's the best I've found since I bought one new in '82. Then got ripped off at a gig 10 years ago. I then got a BOSS, DOD, Digitech, Behringer, and a couple others I can't even remember over the last 10 years. I needed to get another CP9. After getting one on Ebay & plugging in the first time (and tweaking the knobs a bit) it was like a rainy day when all of a sudden the it clears up and the sun comes out. The attack & threshold really do something on this pedal, which on most of the other ones didn't do much of anything. The level control can also give you up to a 12 db boost too. It gives a subtle midrange clarity, and evens out every note that ring longer when needed.I leave it on all the time at the same setting. It was worth every penny !!

This thing is built out of 1/8" thick metal with a thick rubber foot. An easy access battery cover on the bottom or 9 volt adapter plug. From my understanding this 9 series was made in Japan ,not Tiawan or Korea like a lot of cheap pedals. Also hand wired on thick circuit boards. Very solid & reliable. I've never had problem with my first one (that was stolen)or replacement. No back up required.

Never dealt with them, no reason to. They have a website.

Right now I'm playing classic rock '65-'80 mostly. But have played punk, heavy metal,country & even did that wedding band thing for a bit in the last 30 years. I also use a Tube Works overdrive for a Jack Cassady or Jack Bruce sound. But I do turn off the CP9 when the overdrive is on. The overdrive adds some compression & sustain by itself.
Like I told you earlier it was stolen & I did replace it. I like everything about it but the price I had to pay TWICE. These pedals are getting harder to find & the price is going up on them. I've tried all the rest and went back to (in my opinion)the best.

Compressors like this are not "effects." It's better to think of them as sound reinforcement. Applying them can be tricky. The Attack and Threshold knobs have very subtle effect on the sound. Turning the Attack clockwise will give a slower attack, or increase the amount of time it takes for the compression to kick in, creating the illusion of sustain and leaving your transients (pick attack) alone.
The sound gets punchier as you turn to the left.

The threshold control is harder to get a feel for. At lower settings, you have to boost the level to compensate for the loss in gain. This must mean that only stronger signals from hard picking and chords. At lower settings, everything gets boosted if its not squashed, so the gain (and noise) increase.

If it weren't for the LED I'd never know it was on, but I don't really appreciate the difference when it's off either. In order to get the effect I'm looking for, I have to sacrifice dynamics with increased risk of feedback.

The idea is to get more sustain and consistency from my Tacoma Archtop w/active EMG pickup. This guitar has a very acoustic sound, and can sound harsh when picked too hard. I can get a little more sustain, but loose the guitar's natural punchiness. Or I can keep the punchiness, and get lots of feedback.

The "presence boost" everyone talks about adds a nice sparkle, but it like everything else it just isn't compatible with my set up. My guitar, pickup and amp already have an overabundance of high-end and presence, so anymore from pedals is unwelcome.

With my G&L Legacy, that's another story. The subtle compression, presence and gain boost does justice to the funky tones of that guitar. Unfortunately it sucks tone when bypassed. I use it with a Z-VEX Super-Hard On for clean boost and fuzzy overdrive. The sound was very warm and complex, but not quite what I was looking for.

The best sound I got was running direct into a Pro-Tools mixer with my archtop. It make the sound thicker,and brighter, bringing out the complexity and character of my guitar.

My previous comp was a little green Guyatone. I was probably happier with that for it's darker sound, and blend switch but I had similar feedback problems with my archtop at gigging volumes. I'm about to give EBS' Multicomp a try.

It looks and feels like a little red brick, or fire-engine. Battery life is also very good, which is convenient because mine is missing the battery cover. I haven't had to change it in a year, but then again I rarely use it more than a few hours each month. Actually, I have only gigged with it once, and wasn't happy with the result.

For the type of jazz and R&B that I play, this box does more to mess with my sound than enhance it. Still, I like this pedal because it of it's subtlely and unique sparkling character. I'm reluctant to part with it, though I don't need it.

Well, this was pretty easy. It can take a little while to get the "attack" control does. Anyone not familiar with compressors might have some trouble at first. The knobs are kind of self explanatory.

I use an MIM Strat (with a Maple Fretboard) with lace sensor pickups into a few other pedals (actually, three other Vintage 9 series pedals and a boss pedal or two), into an all tube Peavey Classic 50 2x12. The noise can get kind of bad when the level or threshold are high. The real problem is a treble boost. It can really kill your tone. I read some reviews and didn't think it would be a problem, but I plug this sucker in and it really messed with my tone. My bright, shiny tone turned nearly ear drum rupturing. Besides adding a lot of high end to your tone, I swear it sucked some of the bass out too. I really didn't like the change in my sound. This pedal is not transparent. At all. I can see how some might like this, and don't get me wrong, I love my high end, but there's only so much my ears can take.

It's a vintage 9 series pedal. It's built real well and holds up 20+ years later.

Except the switch. I got mine second hand, and after 15 minutes of playing, I found out I needed to step on the the pedal part a certain way (right in the middle) to activate the pedal. It works, it's just very specific in what it wants.

Still, for being that old it holds up pretty well.

Never dealt with Ibanez.

I play some varied stuff, from abrasive noise rock, to smoother experimental stuff, to straight up 4 chord pop, and I couldn't really find any settings that appealed to me. The compression itself wasn't that bad or anything, but that huge high end boost really killed my enjoyment of this pedal. I haven't really played enough compressors to judge this against others (the newest boss one once or twice, but not in a long time) so I'm not sure how it holds up. I'm thinking of selling with the one I had.

Really, the high end boost is annoying.

I believe that all the knobs are useful. You have to work to get the tone you like but with compressors, many times it has a different effect on different guitars and when used with different effects et. I allows you to work with different situations.

I use strats, a Lucile et. and a Fender Blues Deluxe
I have found the Boss CE 2 black label to be the best sounding stock compressor. The CP 9 has a disadvantage in that it changes your base tone by adding treble. I work on and mod a lot of amps and pedals. I love the CP 9 tone otherwise so I designed a way to have a small tone pot in the battery compartment that you can turn with a screwdriver. It is working great. I plan to market these on Ebay. Now my CP 9 whoops my CS 2. Right now I plan to give several of these away for others to try and to give me feedback on before I market them. If you are interested, please email me. I makes no perminate modification to the pedal and only reqires soilder in attatching one end of a wire to one of the lugs on the volume pot. Wham, killer tone! This thing is a ten after the mod.

10

N/A built like a tank. Most music store techs work on em.

It's great with the mod I mentioned above. Now my favorite compressor. Email me if you need advice or want a mod kit.

Very intuitive - most important control is the "Threshold" pot - regulates the level at which the compression kicks in. The lower this is set the greater the amount of compression, the higher the threshold level the louder your volume, but less compression.

I use this with a passive jazz bass going into a 300w Trace Elliot with Mesa cabs, and this little unit is always on. I used to rely on my old Boss CS1 which I like a lot as it has a very distinct character, but lately I've been using this pedal a lot more.

The CP9 has a very clean and transparent quality, and you can't really hear any distinct effect (which is the whole point for me), I just want to "notice" the difference it makes. It gives my bass sound a really powerful, clear punch, which makes the bass cut through without necessarily having to resort to adding lots of treble.

With regards to noise, this is a funny little pedal. When I first got it I tried it with a power supply, however there was so much hum that I decided to just use a battery. However, recently I bought a power supply and a splitter-lead with which to daisy-chain all my stomp boxes. I had a spare connector and so tested the Ibanez in the chain... and there was no hum. Since then i have been using it with a power supply without any noise at all. Weird. But good. No more messing with stoopid batteries.

Built like a tank, solid metal. I think it must be over 20 years old and it's still going strong. I expect it to last at least another 20 years unless I do something silly.

Overall, an excellent vintage compressor that I picked up dirt cheap, I'd happily have paid ?100 for this given it's quality sound and added rarity value. It does just what a good compressor should do - it adds punch and clarity without colouring my bass tone. I just turn it on and leave it on for the whole session be it a rehearsal or gig, I pretty much forget about it. I'm a bass player and this pedal and my Aphex Bass Xciter are 2 essential pieces of equipment that go everywhere my bass goes.

simple compressor, easy to use if you are familiar with compression. i got it used no manual. this thing looks like its from late 80s early 90s.

setup like strat>boss harmonist>CP9>crybaby>filter queen>volume pedal> fender twin. its a compressor so it does raise the noisefloor, but if you know how to work with it instead of against it, its not bad. adds some nice high end bite to the overall sound which is cool since most compressors will kill the highs of your signal.

seems sturdy, it's built like the tube screamer think more solid than a boss.

ibanez customer support is nonexistant, but ive never tried to contact them about this unit.

i play jazzy/hip hop/funky stuff, works good for me. been playing about 17years i listed my primary setup above, but i also have a 1989 ibanez 540s and a marshall 1/2 stack. i might try a few more compressors if this thing was lost/stolen but if i could find this one for $45 id buy it again. id actually like to have a more fully parametric compressor, but those are usually rackmount and $$$$ and there's no way im gonna start lugging a rack around.

I've had some difficulty figuring this out, but even though I haven't been positive on how exactly it works, it's working for me. Saw some nice advice here that I'll try though!
A bit more difficult than your average pedal, and it's my first compressor, thus the 6. Didn't have any manual, obviously.

My first distortion device was a Mesa Studio preamp, my first distortion pedal was a Dano Daddy O, which is horrible! Anyway, I am very suspicious about solid state distortion devices. But this is a really nice pedal! it can give you compression from wild to mild and boost the signal enough to "change channel", and it also colours the sound a bit, making it slightly brighter, which I find perfect. I used this with a Gibson Les Paul Std, and a 1957 Fender Musicmaster with a Fender vintage noiseless pu along with a Mesa Studio .22 combo. And the sound is great! The Studio has only one se of tone controls, in fact the channel select is basically just a gain boost. In short, it's a great amp, ad this comp compliments it nicely. I tend to use fairly low gain sounds, and used the comp to switch beween rhythm and lead sounds. Sadly, I sold the Studio .22, thus the "used". But this little pedal is a keeper! Love it! I also love the colouring of the sound, but a good comp is supposed not to colour the sound, thus the 8.

Clean, it's great for that Red Hot Chili Pepper sound, crisp and warm bright, under the bridge sort of thing, if that is your ballgame. It's also great for pushing the Mesa to really Metalish sounds. Or lead without distortion, the possibilities are endless! Get a comp!

presently, I just finished my first homebrew amp (sort of Fender Champ-ish, but with less power), and use this comp to boost the signal or get smoooth lead sounds. Works great! I can recommend this pedal to anyone looking for a no-compromise compressor with good sound quality!

I feel comfortable with it, I don't think it will give up on me. And hey, it's a comp, so your sound doesn't depend on it. I have gigged it very successfully. Only thing to watch for is battery power, of course. I did have some trouble with the battery connection, but I got it going again. I guess it had just seen alot of batterys. An 8, nothing deserves a 10 if it isn't solid rock.

Nah. Mesa is the only company I ever talked to, they're great, but Ibanez... Well, all I know is that it's next to impossible to get a battery compartment lid (mine is lacking it). And that sucks.

Borrowed this from a friend almost a year ago... As soon as I see him again I'm buying it from him!

A great pedal, the only one I needed to double the possibilities of a two channel/ shared eq amp. Highly recommended, for any style of music!

very easy to get the sound you want very good compressor actually the besti own i do have a dod milkbox which was my favorite (dod can make a good pedal) very easy to get a good sound out of it

it not noisy and it does what its supposed to do i use it with a sd9 sonic distortion and ts9 and you get a great sound i use it with a marshall jcm 800 2203 through a mesa 4 by 12 vintage celestian 30 this compressor is awesome i dont know how to explain it any better than that

the 9 series can withstand a nuclear blast this pedal will last long enough so my childrens childrens will probeby use it

ibanez customer support does not simply excist it sucks they need to do sumthin about it

if you r going to buy a stompbox compressor get this one or the dod milkbox they are the best for this price range i have been playing for 20 yrs and own just about every stompbox known to mankind

Well it has three knobs...attack time, level, and threshold...so it takes a few rehearsals at your normal playing volume to find what you need, but other than that its just a pedal...you have to be smarter! This is from the original 9 series pedals so its pretty old, and getting harder to find. Oh...I never got a manual so...you don't really need one to figure this baby out!! Plenty of tweaking to it

Well my setup is> Fender/Rivera concert tube 83'=volume=wah=TS-9=CP-9=phase shifter=whammy II=boomerang=black cat univibe=guitar.

I think its where you put it with regards to your pedal setup. It can get noisy when it is working with the ts9, but its not too bad when your playing..only when you stop, but if you tweak it right you can fix that easily...at least I did with mine. Also, it is a great compressor and I will always keep it, but it sligthly alters your tone. It adds a little color if you know what I mean. Not as transparent as some can be, but like I said if you tweak it just right you can fix these problems easily. Lastly, it sounds better with tube amps, don't ask why, but when I used a solid state it was much more difficult to get a nice sound out of it. With a good tube amp it give great sustain and really does the job of putting balance to your solos. I use it on almost all of my songs. Its a must have for any guitarist while soloing.

Well, its 20 years old, so I would say the reliability is extremely high on this one. I have taken good care of mine though. It has no paint chips or anything, so this helps if you take care of it. I don't use a backup.

Nevery dealt with them, so don't know, but if it breaks down I don't think I would use Ibanez, thats what you find a local tech for anyway. Besides this thing is discontinued...good luck

I play jazz, funk, rock, and reggae so the versatility is fine for me, but can't speak for everyone. I have been playing for about 8 years so I don't know everything, but I know good quality when I see it. It sounds great and costs much less than an overpriced Ross, so you do the math for yourself, your ears will know whats best. If I lost it I would try to find it again, but they are getting harder to find, so I hope its not stolen. I love this pedal a lot, and I don't use a backup so I have much confidence in it. I have used Ross, Carl Martin, DOD, etc...and they are all noisy and sometimes a bit overpriced, except the DOD and dynacomp, but its much cheaper and works just as good. I don't think of playing without this thing on gigs anymore so....I give it a high rating, and because it fits my style perfectly.

3 knobs, if you don't know how a compressor works you might find this a bit tricky otherwise quite easy. Didn't get a manual bought this used.

Noisy i fyou set threshold to max then again if you know how to use a compressor you shouldn't be doing that in the first place.I used it with bass and a tele and regular H-S-H ibanez sounded good with all. Helps get a good clean sound, you can get really close to a Andy Summers sound with it and a whammy II in detune mode(wich is what i use for all chorus sounds) add a delay to that and you can have lots of Andy' sound dial in without much effort. I didn't bought this to get a Andy Summers sound tho this is nice since I'm compared to his solo style from time to time(when I'm not rocking hehe)

I'd use it without a backup as I prefer getting different pedals instead of 2 of each... again I don't really gig but this is pretty solid stuff (ibanez most reliable serie if you ask me) the switch issue some people get with this pedal is beyond me... might be because they're used to Boss wich doesn't switch in the same manner. If it breaks it's an easy fix parts are easy to get and to replace... some might be harder to find but still it's already "vintage" and still working

no more email service so...

It's a good match when I feel like playing some texturing (wich I do a lot) great on clean sounds, usefull on distorted one. Been playing for 10+yrs gear I own: http://www.angelfire.com/pq/glorbz/BunkerStudio.html If lost or stolen I'd try to replace it... they're getting harder to find. I love its sound, I only hate the non true bypass but I'll live. Favorite feature it sounds great on many guitars and good on bass. I bought this mainly cus I got a disease about collecting Ibanez pedals :) but I needed a comp in a pedal format so that was an obvious thing to hunt for. This pedal has been seen on various artists pedalboards over the years one of them being David Gilmour(not really a favorite of mine...) I suspect many other of having one of these in their setup at one point or another... as mentioned earlier by others different than a dynacomp and better in some ways depending on your taste.

Two knobs, level and sustain.

This is where it shines. Imagine an MXR dynacomp but without the additional bass boost. Works very smoothly and musically. Excellent for bread-and-butter usage.

Very sturdy. It doesn't get top ratings though since the knobs are exposed.

I was recently told this is Ibanez second ever compressor. Obviously very rare though I didn't buy out of it's collectibility but rather because it sounds downright awesome. I would definitly try and replace it if it was ever lost.

Three dials, doesn't get much harder than that.

Gives bright, punchy sound even to my Boss OC-2! Definitely gets a chicken-plucker sound regardless of what quality your amp is, I have a Fender Frontman 15, so I know what crap is :) On my effects chain,
Mexi strat w/ EMG DG20 pickups -> Boss CS-2 -> Ibanez CP-9 -> Boss MZ-2 -> Big Muff Pi reissue -> ProCo RAT II -> Hendrix Dunlop Crybaby Wah -> Electroharmonix Electric Mistress Flanger -> Boss OC-2 -> Boss CE-2 Chorus -> MXR Digital Time Delay rack unit. It definitely brings out the bright tones regardless of the length of the chain. Warm gain, much more pristine than the Ibanez CP10 which I used to have, (could hardly tell I had that thing on). Almost an extreme in punchiness (is that a word?) to the CS-2 Boss used to make.

I've found batteries last much longer on this than on my Boss pedals, but then again I've had to spend $15 each on the damn adapters for the Boss stuff. Its made of weighted metal, superior to the CP10.

Never had to deal with them.

I play Pink Floyd primarily and this definitely gives the kick I need for almost anything off The Wall. I wish Ibanez would continue to make rugged, quality pedals the way they used to! If stolen, I'd take my ass to eBay ASAP and start buying!

I think it's pretty easy...

I think this pedal is great! I use it for Jazz, Funk, and Blues. I think it gets a nice punch and even things out very well. With a good Tube Amp at the end, the tone is just what I am looking for...

I'd say so.

don't know

I think this pedal is great and well worth it (even though compared to these other users I suppose I didn't get a great deal)

I've tried every other compressor save DynaComp and CarlMartin. I've heard good things about the DynaComp but I don't know.. and the CarlMartin is really expensive and hard to find..

If you know how compressors should be used, this is a piece of cake. There's only 3 knobs; level, treshold and attack time. Set that treshold to desired comp/limit level and same goes for level (volume). I prefer that attack knob is almost off, because it sounds unnatural if every sound you get, sounds the same. You know, always very sharp. Allthough, I found that CP-9s attack knob does have very small range in sound.

Not noisy if used right. If you turn level and treshold all the way up, noise is very bad. I assume that readers know how compressors work, so i'll make this short. CP-9 does comp/limit work very nicely, BUT there is one major thing that bothers me. CP-9 changes the TONE very much! At least mine does. It changes the tone lot brighter than the original tone is. This sucks, because there's no tone knob. If there are pedals without tone knobs, in my opinion they should keep the original tone! Because of this tone problem, I'll give 5, but otherwise this deserves 8.

Attack knob broke once and it had to be replaced. Took a lot of money.

Boss CS-3 does the same thing and it doesn't have that tone problem. I recommend newer pedals (even if I like old, beaten gear better).

You need to know how a compressor/limiter works in order to use it correctly. 3 knobs, attack time, level and threshold.
I can't comment on the manual though, because I bought this unit used (it was produced in ~1984).
I give it a 6 but not because this special unit is hard to use,but all compressors kind of are.

Once I found a good setting it helped my tone a lot. Especially clean sounds get much clearer and balanced. But it's also nice with distortion. I have it turned on all the time now.
Wouldn't wanna miss it.

Well,it's already lived for about 15 years without having been damaged,so,yeah, I can depend on it.

Sucks,they don't reply to emails, the Ibanez website sucks big time too.

Damn,the price I paid is a joke !
I've been playing for 5-6 years now, though I've never thought I'd ever really use a compressor I am now. The CP9 is just a great unit.

Fairly easy. You don't need to know much. I'm not much of an effects expert so I have no understanding of what Attack Time and Threshold are; all I know is turned all the way up with the neck pickup it sounds killer. Really, I'd be real happy if someone could email me and give me some 411 on what the knobs actually are.

I like it, not with distortion though. Clean, it almost fattens up the tone and is real transparent. Think Chili Peppers' "Under The Bridge" and "Scar Tissue." I'm really trying to find a good setting with distortion but when I think I find one it just sounds really weak compared to the straight TS-9 (what I'm using)Actually if you're soloing, it's fine. Better actually. Great sustain that resolves into awesome feedback. It's also noisy. Not by itself but with my tubescreamer there's a lot of hiss.

Seems real reliable. I love the whole Ibanez 9 series. Looking for a flanger. Really, it seems strong likes batteries; but don't all effects?

Never dealt with em. I should to get a manual though.

Overall it's a great pedal for clean sounds and it's actually good for soloing because you can get a rad sustain. I really want to try a carl martin compressor to see if it's better but for right now, this is great. +Mike+

Pretty easy. Has 3 knobs: Attack, Level, and Threshold. This looks like a TS-9 in a red case. For that reason I get a bit confused, as the level knob is where the TS-9's tone knob would be. Generally, I'm a DynaComp user. I bought this to have a comp with a quieter footswitch at live shows. I feel there is more control than my DynaComp, but it doesn't have quite the same tonal characteristics. On the other hand, it's not nearly as noisy as the DynaComp. No manual (used).

This is a fairly new purchase. I used it at a recent city festival in front of about 2000 people. I played a 40th Anniversary American Standard Strat through a Seymour Duncan Convertible 1 12" combo. I used an ME-X effects processor (has 3 slots for stompboxes) with the CP-9, TS-9, and a Boss Harmonist.
I like to use compressors for a combination of solo boosts and dynamic level control. I found the added control of the CP-9 worked better for the live setting than previous experiences with the DynaComp, though I like the DynaComp's sound better. Those differences are lost on a live crowd though. I thought the CP-9 responded more graciously. That is to say, the DynaComp would sometimes be too loud if my guitar volume was down, or squash too hard other times. The CP-9 might (?) be a little more natural or transparent. I'm still sorting this out. It seemed to push a little more articulated mid-brightness out of my guitar, which was not unpleasant, but surprising. Mild volume & tone adjustments on the guitar compensated for this.

It's the same design as a TS-9: 3 knobs, and electronic footswitch. I know the 9-series footswitches tend to go bad over time. This is an easy, cheap, and common replacement (had it done to my TS-9). Since they degrade over time, rather than break, you'll know it when it starts to go. Yeah. I'll use it without a backup. I think the 9-series pedals are pretty dependable.

N/A

I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades player. Been at it for 19 years now. Other gear I own? Too much to list. Since this is a compressor review, I'll narrow it down to comps. I an MXR DynaComp (reissue) and/or the on-board compressor on my Boss ME-5 for live stuff. Oh, and now the CP-9.
I had heard that the old Ibanez comps were nearly as good as DynaComps, so I wanted to try one out. I just wanted something that would use a standard Boss 9v adaptor (unlike the DynaComp) when I was using stompboxes, and something that wouldn't make so much footswitch noise (like the DynaComp). The CP-9 is older. though not rare, and they're well-made. Yeah, I'd replace it if it went missing.
I think it's a pretty natural sounding comp. While I'll probably continue to use the DynaComp for studio work, the CP-9 has become my live comp choice.

Pretty easy to use, three knobs only: Attack Time, Threshold and Level.

Definitely noisey, but that's one of the reasons it sounds so great. I run my bass through it and there's no distortion or fuzziness. Works fabulously for guitar also.

It's solid.

Never needed it.

This is the BEST compressor known to mankind. My bass sounds fuller, more agressive and clearer when run through this thing. The harmonics leap out. It gives you so much sustain as well, without dulling your sound like almost all compressors do. It sharpens the sound of my bass so much. It's prettymuch amazing.