Marshall ED-1 Edward the Compressor

I don't have much experience with compressors. However, I was using a compressor effect on my pc multitrack program the other day, I loved what it did so I decided to get a pedal for my guitar. It is quite easy to get sounds out of this thing, even for a compression amateur like myself. The manual comes with 4 very good suggested settings to get you started, but it won't take long to get a hang of this thing.

I'm using a very simple setup right now. Playing a Schecter C1+ into this pedal, the ED-1, into a V-Series 1512 Tube Amp. I also own a vox wah, and an ibanez chorus/flanger... but I don't always have them connected.

There is a bit more noise then I would like to hear from this pedal, particularly when you turn the compression level up - I guess that's to be expected. It isn't too bad though. At low/medium volumes with low to medium compression, there is very little noise at all. This pedal sounds best with clean sounds, particularly minor barre chords... the notes glisten and almost seem to melt together. You can also get some very jazzy/funky sounds by plucking single notes and using jazz-type chords. Whereas most compressors I've heard tend to "pop"... this pedal kinda "clicks". However, I actually like the clicking sound! It's great for funk-type playing.
Overdrive and distortion isn't out of the question either, I've used this pedal to get some cool twangy power chord sounds.

I used it with my chorus/flanger pedal... and got way too much noise/feedback. I imagine if I had a better quality chorus pedal that wouldn't happen.

It's quite solid. I would depend on it, although I'd wanna have some kind of backup always.

I play lots of styles, but lean toward garage rock-ish power-pop/punk/metal. The sound I envision in my head is sort of like if the pixies, the white stripes and the queens of stone age got together and had a big psycho jam session.

I've been playing for around 4 or 5 years.
If this was stolen/lost... I would do some comparison shopping before I made another purchase, as this pedal was a bit of an impulse buy.
I do like it a lot though, the only thing it needs is a release control.

Simple - twiddle the four knobs until you find the desried effect.

Ive had 2 of these now - I shouldn't have sold the last! Dumbass. Never mind I got this one very cheap and its really battered but it looks great! I wonder if they will introduce 'relic' pedals. Ha ha. They should. I have comperd this to 2 different pedals and I must say I found it better than the Boss CS3 and I really wanted to like the CS3, however its not quite a pro sounding as the Route 66 comp. Still it is a nice squashy compressor and if you have a decent amp, guitar (and fingers!) this thing sounds great.

Marshall quality.

Marshall are the best at customer support. The unit had a knob missing - phoned Marshall and they sent one to me next day at no charge!

Comps are fairly boring pedals and should not be expensive. Tis one isn't and sounds great.

Four knobs and a well written instruction manual => no problem. Just the suggested settings in the manual sounded really bad, better think out your own.

My setup consists of a mexican Strat, the compressor, a wah pedal and a 65W Laney TubeFusion combo with a Zoom 505 processor in the effects loop (just for a bit of modulation and delay). With a clean or soft distorted tone, at lower levels of compression (max 12 o'clock) the stompbox sounds really great, it lets your tone breathe and come out. When you raise the compression and attack, the sound becomes too much "clicky" and the compressor gets very noisy, too. But I think that's what all the stompbox compressors do. With more distortion the tone becomes unclear and harsh, but I don't see a point why use a compressor with lot of distortion.

It's pretty new, so I don't know yet. But it seems well built.

Never dealt with them, no idea...

Well, I live in the Czech rep. and for the price it's the best you can get here. I have been playing for 7 years now (mostly some rock, blues, funky and jazz fusion) and although this is the first comp I bouhgt, I tried the Boss CS3 and MXR DynaComp before and in my opinion the Ed-1 didn't colour the tone so much as CS3 and it's also a bit less noisy. The MXR sounded far warmer, but it costs also two times more... If it was stolen or lost, I would buy another one.

My ED-1 did not come with any instructions, but it was very easy to figure out...Just play with the knobs until you like the amount of compression.

My currect setup is BOSS DD3 - BOSS CE2 - DigiTech DigiVerb - MXR Phaser 90 - Boss DS-1 - Marshall ED-1 - CryBaby 535Q

I find the ED-1 compression much better than the old BOSS CS-1. I heard so many good reviews about the CS-1, so I paid $104 and bought it. Unfortunately, I did not like it at all.

My compression knob is almost in the center...I don't like too much compression...I find it really helps with leads and solos.

I have only had it for about a month, but it seems to be well built.

N/A

I got this pedal in like new condition for $50 & it sounds great!! If it was stolen I would definitely buy another one.

See it all below in other reviews, especially the 'emphasis' control (I'd call it the 'flab' control) Also, knobs are rank, try and see your settings on a dark stage.. impossible.

Just dumped this off my pedal board because of the 'clicky-ness' of the notes. I've owned it about 2 years+, and have monkeyed with it from time to time, but I just keep being totally put off by the clicks. It also colors the tone quite a bit when on, but I expected that.

Like a tank.

no idea

Wound up using it just for a volume boost, and still didn't care for it much...

My Setup: Epiphone Flying-v -> Volume Pedal -> Attax Preamp (Ed-1 in Effects Loop) -> Crate Combo (Just Poweramp).

I know It's unusual to set the Compressor after the the Preamp section but I use it just for clean settings, and they sound awesome with that setting. Distorted it's crap, but I don't use it that way, so what...

The Compressor gave me tons of sutain, single notes never sounded that brilliant and fat the same time before I had my ED-1.

Built like a tank. You can't destroy it if you use it how it's supposed to. No backup needed.

It has true bypass and it's an improvement to everyone's sound.

Fairly easy to use, as long as you can figure out what "Emphasis" and "Attack" do. "Emphasis" controls which side of the EQ spectrum gets compressed, and "Attack" controls the delay before the compression kicks in. I got it used on eBay and it didn't come with a manual. A friend had to help me out, but once I figured it out, it's easy to adjust and tweak.

I play an American Tele through a true-bypass Vox Wah>>ED-1>>TS-808 modded TS-9 (might be replaced soon with a Fulltone Fulldrive 2)>>Keeley BD-2>>Boss NS-2>>Ernie Ball Volume>>Line 6 MM4>> and Dan-Echo (delay). I primarily use the ED-1 as a clean boost, but also for mild to moderate compression. It's very UN-noisy and really does wonders for keeping the guitar's tone. I play through a Behringer 210 right now (simply for pratice usage and for small venues) but find that this pedal is fantastic. It replaced a Boss CS-3 in my lineup because the CS-3 was coloring my guitar's tone far far far too much. I didn't like the compression characteristics of the CS-3 either but couldn't be more pleased with the ED-1! Being true-bypass (this is argued both ways) is simply a bonus, too! Fantastic pedal all around! The true-bypass (actually called "passive bypass" by Marshall) helps give it a 10 in my book.

Built like a tank. Almost literally. It's HEAVY which shows what it's made of. The knobs are a little tall and I'd almost be afraid of them breaking off in the event of me dropping the pedal. Luckily, it's on my pedalboard and I don't have to worry about dropping it. Seems to be built much more sturdy than a Boss pedal, too. I wouldn't really have to worry about using a backup as I don't STOMP on my pedals. Stepping gently does the trick and helps prolong their lifespan. Great pedal. I'll give it a 9.

Never dealt with them.

I didn't want the Dynacomp because of it's individual tone and more "country" type application, and definitely didn't want my Boss CS-3 anymore because of how much it colored my tone. I couldn't afford a Keeley/Ross/Analogman compressor, and didn't want a big ol' one like a Carl Martin with it's own hard-wired power supply. The ED-1 does the trick with ease, functions as a GREAT clean-boost (with or without much compression), and the passive/true-bypass is a total bonus! For the $80 it costs new at most places, it's well worth it. I'm honestly surprised it's not more popular.

I guess it's simple, we're talking about an effect pedal with 4 knobs (emphasis, volume, attack, and compression). It's impossible to get awesome tone out of it. Manual is simple with basic settings. I'd rate it a 2 overall but the ease of it's operation is included so I'll raise it a few points to a 5.

I play American Deluxe Fender Strats with Vintage Noiseless pickups through Marshall tube amps (heads, cabs & combo). I'm not big on effects so my 'pedal board' is fairly small. I have a Clyde McCoy Vox wah, a limited edition Fulltone Fulldrive 2 S-FR, and a Fulltone CF-1. I bought the Marshall ED-1 compressor and the Marshall SV-1 chorus pedals because they looked like quality gear at a cheap price (I had to special order them because the store didn't stock them). Well, both of the Marshall pedals are absolute junk. They are very solid and really decent looking but the sound is terrible. Now I know why they are only $60.00! Mine are for sale and I only hope I don't take too big a loss on this garbage. Keep in mind that they were farmed out to a half assed company in India that uses an assembly line process with manufacturing gear that we would consider really outdated. The 'tech' at Korg / Marshall told me that though he liked them, he understood they weren't very well recieved and that Marshall HQ in the UK really didn't have much control over the pedals (more of a Korg forced sales plan). He asked me to keep in mind that they were only manufactured to compete with Boss (I admit, compared to Boss, they look, sound, are built, and seem much better) and that he admitted they wouldn't begin to compete with the leaders (i.e., Fulltone, H & K, Robert Keeley, Klon, etc). I agree, these are pathetic and a waste of money. What a mistake... I would never put this crap alongside my Fulltone pedals, my music is too important to me.

I can't answer, I won't be using this thing for one gig.

Marshall amps are legendary and pioneering, the company stands behind their amps (though the JCM 2000 DSL 401 seems pretty poor IMO. Plastic circuit boards right next to the burning hot tubes, cold solder points adversely reacting to the unusual heat, the spring reverb tank bouncing around against the speaker, etc). These pieces of junk are trying to cash in on the name ol' Jim built for himself. They are made in India which doesn't make me feel any better. All my Fulltone pedals are handmade in the good old US of A, I guess you get what you pay for.

Bottom line. Stay away from this fraudulent piece of crap. If your looking for an average $60.00 pedal that sounds ok, buy this. If your looking for tone that makes you giggle and motivates you to play another 6 hours straight, buy something else. Preferably, an American made unit that is handmade. It's unfortunate, I expected way more from Marshall than to slap their name tag on lower than average garbage and I told them that. It's very telling that the guys at Marshall agreed. I'm surprised to read here that several people proclaim this pedal to be the best thing going. Obviously, these people have never heard the top quality gear that costs three to four times as much as these 'kid toys'.

Hey, if you know what a compressor is for, you would not have trouble working with it. However, It comes with a nice manual and sugested settings.

I play a rockwood guitar trough a Fender Deluxe 90 amp. I also own The Jackhammer and it matches pretty good with this unit. I guess it is one of the mos versatiles compressors out there (for guitars).

I use it gigging, recording, practicing and for my electric and acoustic guitar too. it is built like a tank, exept for the knobs that could be broken if you trow it from your second level window.

I have never had trouble with is so far. I konw that Marshall would do whatever to make costumers happy again.

Hard rock, alternative, blues. If stolen, I would buy it again certainly. I hate that everyone wants to try it out, so I get a little pissed off. I don't like someone to touch my stuff like if it was a toy. It is a proffesional thing.

If you need a compressor for your guitar, this would be an excellent choise.

For me its not exactly streight forward enough and needs tweeking to get best sound out of it. Manual is similar to all manuals from marshall easy to read and diagrams of recomended presets to help you get the sound your after.

Im currently using it like this. Cry Baby Wah - Marshall Jackhammer distortion - Edward Compressor - Blues Breaker 2 - Marshall AVT150 head through 1960A cab.

With the actual compression, anything over half way and it starts getting noisy. but dont they all.

Good thing is the volume knob. When playing live, If you want to keep you level in line with others for a more rythm guitar sound without comp then go ahead. Just switch the Edward on when its time for your solo and extra volume is applied without altering your distorted sound or tone although now its compressed for extra sustain. Another way I have used it although only once (maybe I should use it more often) is through the FX loop in my pre amp. So I should get the sound distorted going in to the amp and compress the signal on the way out. This should reduce the backgroud noise level but sustain may suffer. But with the distortion from a Jackhammer sustain isnt realy a problem.

If it wasnt for the marshall badge you would swear it was a shiny metal brick. God help you is you stub your toe on one of these things. as for the insides, its marshall. Itl still work after youve stopped.

Not been in direct contact with Marshall since they refused to produce custom Dave Holmes series of amplifiers. Whose Dave Holmes they said.... pfffft.

As for in regards to this product. Not yet I cant see it dying on me any time soon.

First Compressor Ive tried thats an individual stomp. Apparently its one of the best but it does require tweaking a bit to get right.

This thing will probably last forever unless it was stolen in which case I think I could find another 45 pounds to buy a new one.