MXR Limiter

Excellent, vintage soft-knee mains powered limiter (not quite a compressor) that was one of six mains fx from 1970s MXR; those fx were - flanger, chorus, delay, distortion (II), limiter and the ultra-rare eq, and boxed first-issue good condition examples (no LED) fetch silly prices now.
I bought this off eBay. It has the LED, the quieter switch and is in pristine condition but no box. 4 knobs, simple to operate but see reviews below...let's sort this out; ALL the knobs work clockwise. The reason for any confusion is that the 'soft-knee' release (when the limiting stops) is almost inaudible; no pumping, hiss or sudden vol boost. And that is very, very impressive. Does what it says on the box, i.e. it's a limiter NOT a guitar compressor.

Despite the above comment, I love using this 1st in a guitar fx chain as it's so subtle; you can put a 'real' guitar compressor straight after it. However it is as much a studio tool as a guitar effect; MXR gear always had a warm, thick analog sound and this is no exception. Not noisy and most useful when it's doing what it was sesigned to do, limiting hot or harsh signals. Guitarists will think it sounds weak, but (I'll say it again) this is NOT a compressor. So the sound quality is very good, up to the usual MXR standard; they were way ahead of their time, weren't they?

I'm not really inclined to gig this as I have proper guitar compressors (Keeley) that work far better for that situation. I paid GBP65, which was very expensive compared to some of the reviews below, but the thing is in perfect nick and it's a lovely, quality effect. I used to have the MXR grey mains flanger and thought about starting a collection of these mains-powered units, but they are rare, pricey and the reissue units I've heard sound as good. But this won't be getting a reissue. The previous owner took care of it, I take care of it and long may it run!

MXR are long gone now, so no opinion here. If it needed rpair I'd ask Pedalmods UK first, as that guy is sincere and his work impeccable.

I play in a covers band and have been guitaring for 34 yrs. I am not going to list my gear. If this was stolen I'd miss it, but it would be near-impossible and unnecessary to replace it. I was never that keen on the side-by-side in and out on the RH side of the case, but there was a good reason for it; nowhere else to fit the connections as there's a big power supply inside which is the main reason these old MXR mains fx boxes sounded so good in the first place - every component has its correct voltage. I bought it out of sheer greed and opportunism, how's that? And it subtly enhances my tone. Not exactly a bargain for me but if you see one cheap, get it!

Very easy to use once you get use to the action of the controls. The AC version is nice. By cranking the output you can add some "overdrive" to the signal.

This thing is pretty quiet. The limiter is very smooth and takes the pain out of the guitar peaks in small venues. I used this with a Mesa Boogie Mark IIb and it really gave me control of the sound. I have used it with my Les Paul and Strat and it works well with both guitars.

This unit is rock solid. I have had it since about 1981. I tried it last week and it still works great!

Never had to use them.

I play blues and blues rock mostly. It helps give me control of my sound and can add decent sounding sustain if adjusted properly.
It controls the peaks really well (removes the pain) and that is very helpful in small venues. I think it works more smoothly than similar products. Back in the days when I was playing out all the time, it was a main stay to my set-up. Built like it will last forever!

kind of easy to use, sounds great... the four knobs let you really dial in any compressor/limiter sound you want, as in the last review the release knob still keeps me in the dark, it DOES change the sound but it is difficult to verbalize. oh, by the way i LOVE the attached power supply!

i'm running the pedal with a fender telecaster and a laney vc-30 not to mention about 10 boss effects (not all on at the same time silly!)and it sounds great. must say that i really hate the fact that they put the imput and the out put on the same side of the pedal--YUCK
i'm rythm guitarist for the band ANATUNG and the pedal gives me the compression that i occasionally need.

dependable---'nuff said it's an MXR

yeah right, they haven't made theis pedal for some 20 odd years.....

LOOK DON"T FREAK OUT AT THE PRICE, I PICKED IT UP AT A GARAGE SALE....OVERALL A NICE SMOOTH SOUNDING COMPRESSOR/LIMITER. WOULD RECOMMEND TO ANYONE...CONS: INPUT &OUTPUT ON SAME SIDE OF THE PEDAL..arrrrggGGGGGGG.

This unit is very easy to use owing to its basic control setup: Sensitivity, Attack, Release, and Output are the only knobs you'll find here. Because of this, it's extremely quick and intuitive to get this thing to work in just about any situation.

My only complaint has been the way the Release knob works. After 22 years of using this thing, I'm still not sure how this control works. As you would expect, the Attack control increases the reaction time of the limiter to an input signal as you turn it clockwise. But the Release control seems to work in the opposite way, "releasing" the limiting effect more quickly as you turn it clockwise. This has always seemed counter-intuitive to me?

I've used this pedal in countless applications and it has always performed wonderfully. My first use for it was as a recording limiter. I would usually run a mic, bass, or guitar through a pre-amp, and then into this box, and then straight into a reel-to-reel 4 track (I'm really dating myself here!). I've also used it as a guitar/bass limiter in live situations, and it has worked extremely well in that capacity.
For most signals, the Sensitivity knob never needs to be turned past the 2 o'clock position, and this box will stay quiet below this setting. If you start cranking the sensitivity up, you'll get extreme compression but some noise to go with it.
All I can say is that this box definitely imparts a sound on everything run through it, and sounds unlike any other limiter I've owned. It actually works more like a compressor at higher sensitivity settings, and therefore is well suited to guitars and basses. Lately, it's been serving as a "direct-box" between my guitars and my computer's sound card, and it certainly warms up the tracks that I use it on. I would heartily recommend this pedal for this use.
Overall the sound quality is very good, but its biggest limitation (no pun intended) is that it is not stereo. So forget about running your mixes through this thing. I'm not giving it a 10 only because its frequency response is not completely ruler flat, it tends to emphasize mid-bass frequencies. But for most guitars and basses this is what you're looking for.

This thing has been a real trooper! Only recently has it been developing problems, and that's the main reason that I'm submitting this review. If you're having problems you might want to try the following.
I had been noticing intermittent problems: sometimes the limiting would kick in when I would hit the effect switch and other times the output would "break up" or crackle. I attributed this to a loose connection somewhere inside the beast and decided to open it up and have a look. What I found was that the foam backing on the inside of the box (attached to the inside surface of the back plate) had turned into a sort of brownish fur/mush. This normally might not have been a problem, but the intent of this foam was to prevent the components on the circuit board from moving or becoming dislodged. The worst part was that this mush had a fair amount of moisture in it and COULD have potentially caused a short. This stuff was deposited pretty heavily on two of the main components, the CD4017 (used to bypass the effect) and another op-amp (a CA32500 I think). Luckily these two components were socketed, so I removed the chips and cleaned their leads and the sockets off with rubbing alcohol and Q-Tips. If you do this yourself, make sure to handle the IC chips carefully, static discharge could damage them; touch something grounded before you start. Also, clean the mush off of any other components on the circuit board and the back plate. I used rubbing alcohol and an old toothbrush, but you might think of something better! After the scrub-down this thing works great again.
Overall, in 22 years I've only had this one problem, so I would say that its reliability is excellent considering how many gigs its been on and how much I've abused it.

This thing is so old forget about it having support, but there are places on the Web where you can buy schematics and manuals for it.

I've played every type of music from Country to Electronica, and have used this limiter at least once on every project. It has been totally malleable; if you need good basic easy-to-set warm limiting/compression you can't do much better (well for a mono unit anyway). It has always enhanced the projects I've used it on, and always made sounds that I've heard in my head intuitively achievable.
I've owned a few other midline and budget compressor/limiters and they've all fallen by the wayside or have been sold. I had the little light green Boss pedal comp/limiter and it was OK but not as clean or "smooth" (the "knee" was too hard for my tastes) as the MXR. I also had an Alesis Micro Limiter and it had way too much of a midrange boost and was noisy as well. And although it was stereo, the stereo image seemed to collapse when a mix was sent through it.
If my MXR got lost or stolen I'd be pretty bummed, and I would definitely have to get another one. It has become one of my core pieces of equipment and I really couldn't do without it now (not that I'm in love with it or anything!).
What I like about it: its warmth, simplicity, and reliability (maybe I am in love with it; yikes!).
What I don't: the Release knob, still haven't figured it out.

This is the red box with four controls and has AC power. Not hard to dial in a good compression/Limitation.

Controls are: Sensitivity, Attack, Release, and output. First in my chain of analog effects. This unit works perfectly! Very natural soft compression. (opps!) I mean Limitation. This unit works for everything; from smoothing out individual notes in solos to full cords. If it is set to sensitive it can produce too much Limit, but the beauty of this box is that it is not sterile or harsh.

This was produced around the late 70's to early 80's and it works flawlessly today so I have to give a ten here.

Customer what?

I tried a DBX compressor/limiter but didn't like the sound of it. Then I was looking into getting the MXR Dyna Comp pedal because of the great reviews, but the prices for the originals were way to high. So seeing that the MXR Limiter appeared to be the big brother to the DC and less expesive, I figured I would give it a shot. It has turned out to be a great investment. I haven't played them side by side, but I really don't think I need to. This does what I want it to by evening out the signal in a natural sounding way. IMO some of the better features of the limiter are that it has it's own power supply and the fact that you have control over the attack and release of the effect. I would say if you don't mind spending more cash, than go with the original Dyna Comp. If your on a budget but want an original MXR product that produces a terrificly, soft limitation/compression try one of these.