Maxon CP-101 Compressor

Only has two dials: 1) level of compression and 2) sustain. Couldn't be much easier to use.

The key to this compressor is that you really can't even tell it is on! It does not change the tone of the guitar other than making the notes sound fuller. Of course, the major effect of this pedal is the sustain which is absolutely incredible. With a little bit of vibrato, it feels like a note can hang endlessly with little decay. I can bend the same note three or four times and not lose it! And most importantly, it sounds genuine and not artificial.

I've only had the pedal 48 hours.

I play blues and rock with a Gibson ES-335 and a Fender Scorpion Showmaster (similar to a strat but with dual buckers). What I like best about this compressor is that the effect is very subtle, but signifantly adds to the quality of the sound. This compressor is not only great with lead solos (at all pitch levels), it also improves the sound of chords. Its hard to describe but it seems to "clean up" any sloppiness in the chord. This pedal is so good that I will probably leave it on all of the time as it improves the guitar sound across the board. In this respect, it really isn't an effect, but a permanent improvement in tone.

Simple, though it's totally dependent on what you feed into it concerning levels and such. Every guitar has a sweet spot on the level knob, for me it's always somewhere between 12 and 1 o'clock. Also there's the possibility that you'll need to adjust the trimpot (I didn't but I see not all people are as lucky). So there's some tricks with it, but basically if you can't figure this out you're a dumb****.

Nothing's perfect but this is pretty close. I bought this a few years ago while I was on a major Pink Floyd kick... I was sorely disappointed that it seemed to get me no closer to getting that Gilmour squash as heard on The Wall and some of DSotM. If you're looking for that kind of compressor this is absolutely 100% NOT a good choice. It doesn't really squash anything except on extreme settings and even then it's unDynaComp-esque. So your dynamics are well intact for the most part. Despite being choked at the non-MXR or Ross characteristics of this pedal my ears were just starting to "awaken" as it were... and I could tell the pedal really did sound good, just not what I was looking for at the time. Over the last few years this pedal has made it's way into my setup more and more. It's not ubiquitous to my sound, but it's earned it's place above all other comps on my board. It adds a tonne of gorgeous sustain and overtones when I use it for a touch of a boost into my Bassman RI. The slight saturation it provides is a gorgeous thing. With the amp just breaking up (4-ish with my Firebird) I kick this on and there's shimmers and bleeding harmonic feedback in the background. The sound is thick as a brick and fills up a room (insert cheesy "3D sound" cliche here). It's a very inspiring pedal that plays nicely with other OD's and boosts. It's an exceptional unit, I consider it more of a finishing touch on my sound rather than an actual source of compression. It's very quiet on a relative basis to other comps, always sounds 100% and is overall a really tasteful way of thickening your tone. It will be way too subtle for country pickers and... well people who like to use compressors. But for people who think compression is a horse**** way of getting your sustain factor from point A to point B (like me) this is manna in the desert. I'd almost be tempted to give some bonus points for the awesome fuzzy-OD sound it has when you starve the voltage... but to rate this as a 10 is going too far. Very close though.

never a problem and the quality of the product is top drawer. No backup required.

never needed it.

I play some of everything. Nothing over the top, rarely gained out type stuff. Basically I play things you'd expect a guy who uses a tweed Fender to play... rock n' roll, psychedelic, new wave, blues, surf, jazz, post-rock, ambient, a little classic punk here and there. If I need to go crazy I plug into my VTM60 and blast it. But those days are becoming few and far between. I've been playing since I was 12... so a little over 10 years I guess. I've gone through the Metallica phase... gone through the "too cool for pop" noisemaker phase. There are some pieces of equipment you buy during these many phases that seem to transcend the genres and playing styles you bought them for; those are the ones that truly become a part of your setup. This pedal, for me and the other 40-ish guys in this review bank, is definitely one of them. But make sure you try it before you shell out, it's not usually all that cheap and I could easily see somebody being pissed at it's subtle nature.

Dead easy to use; plug and play, have a look at some sample settings from the Maxon web site and hey presto you should find what you want. But I did have to fiddle with the insides...see below

I bought the pedal from eBay; it arrived as described, with minor scratches and with a screw missing. What the hell, a screw won't make a difference. I plug my guitar and the pedal in my small Fender practice amp: great tone, everything became sparkly...but was saturating no matter the settings. Not good: I got the big brother out (Hot Rod deluxe), again it was saturating the amp...ok, let's get serious I said, Mesa Boogie Mark III out, same results. In the process I changed from a Strato to a Godin with P9 to a Les Paul. I was almost giving up when I read the comments about the trim pot and Eureka! turned it clockwise a bit at a time till I found what I wanted it, now we're talking. I must really thanks to the people who advised of that trick, I was already looking into reselling it. Great sound, it does not compress as terribly or plasticky sounding as other stomp boxes, definitely the best I've tried so far (Boss, Ibanez, Dynacomp).

Well, it is a bit battered and haven't used it for more that 2 hours, but it look alright and solid; I'm sure in hot gig gone wrong I could defend myself with it!

I play all sort of music and bought the pedal to even out some heavy strumming; well, I'm sure this will be always on, the nice, sparkly and fat sound that comes out of it will have to be there all the time.

OK, I should not have touched the trim pot (no issues with warranty, gosh it must be 2 years old), but if I hadn't done it I would be that entusiast about it. Thanks again to the reviewers who mentioned the trim pot.

Simple to use. Two knobs: volume and compression level. Nearly plug-and-play.

Gibson Les Paul > CP101 > Mesa Road King > 4x10 V30 cab
I can't understand the good reviews on this piece of garbage. I own a Maxon AD-900 analog delay, and it is the bomb, which is why I bought this pedal sight unseen. The compression's only 4:1, and Maxon claims that the optical effect is transparent on tone. HAH! That's an utter joke. Dial in compression all the way up and level the volume and you will notice that your amp's tubes are being driven harder producing more saturation. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING. Next I played my acoustic through it, and it sounded OK. Compresses the signal? yes. Alters the tone adversely? yes. If it did a fantastic job of compressing the signal I could understand the trade-off to loose a little tone, but this one goes nowhere near this territory. And the inability to adjust the attack leaves plenty to be desired. In other words, everything you play gets stuffed into this one size fits all pedal.

Seems well-made

Good suppoort

If I could get the pedal for free and just pay the shipping charge, I would pass on the deal. As a matter of fact, if someone offered to hand me the pedal I would still not use it. And I'm not even very picky! Maxon, you really blew it on this one. It goes without saying that this puppy's going back to Musician's Friend. I played a friend's Barber Tone Press. It was nice but not exactly what I'm looking for. I think I'll try a Keeley.

Very easy to use. There not a bad setting anywhere to be found on this pedal.

I was looking for a compressor that would give me all the tonal characteristics (i.e. punch-through & shimmer) that good compressors deliver but without all the noise. The CP101 delivers these results very well. Although the CP101 is more subtle and can't deliver total squash, it can deliver great sustain and a nice transparent enhancement that can be left on all the time if desired. Works great with overdrives to thicken up and saturate my overdrive tones for rhythm and soloing and I really like that it doesn't mess with my picking attack. I've been a player for 28 years, I own (or have owned) the 70's dynacomp, cp-9, supercomp, keeley (4-knob), many others, and the CP101 is what's on my board.

Maxon pedals are well built. I like the fact that the interface components are not board level so if a component (i.e. input jack, switch, etc) needed replaced or mod'ed, that could be done easily without de-soldering from the pc board (unlike current day MXR). I also have other Maxon pedals (CS-9Pro & FL-9) that have been rock solid and never given me any troubles.

I have never dealt with them.

It's a very musical compressor, transparent, smooth sustain, works great for both clean and overdrive tones, and adds no noise. It's all I could ask for in a compressor. The CP101 is a permanent part of my live and recorded sound. I highly recommend it!

Two knobs , classic, "sustain" & "level". there is also an internal trim pot

well, i love this sound. i haven't messed with the trim pot, in fact, i don't even see mine, as this is a first-generation vintage pedal. could be behind the circuit board & i don't want to take it out. BUT, it gets an awesome mid-70s squashed sustain vibe EXACTLY like the dyna comp, in my opinion. no, it's not transparent, but that's not what i'm using it for. GREAT for sustain and squeezing extra sweetness & tone out of solos, evens out chords great. haven't tried it on my acoustic yet.

i play an american standard strat & this gets some good gilmore tones when paired with the right pedals. there is a lot of tonal possibility with this, which is why i like it's slightly-less-than-transparent qualities. i don't see too many 70s originals around, so had to grab it.

reliable. in an mxr casing. considering it's about 35 years old, not a problem yet!

godlyke is the us distributor. they don't have a ton of info on this, the original compressor, but they do reply in a couple days to queries. since it's way out of warranty, i was just writing for tech specs, which they are happy to provide.

a great little pedal. i would definitely go for the original over a reissue, but that's just me. haven't heard the reissue. the originals were red with white stripes as well, just like the dyna-comp. think they were being made at roughly the same time as the script logo dyna's so there ya go. anyway, a much more affordable way to get a similar classic sound!

2 knobs, a switch and an LED... does it get easier??

TRANSPARENT!!! the most amazing compressor pedal I have used or heard. will not color your sound.

so far so good

yep its a great little unit for the money!

Two knobs, clean layout. easy access to trimpot and spdt switch.

At first it was hard to tell what the sustain knob did-- more on that later...

**If you have a crappy sounding CP-101, try turning the trimpot. But be warned, according to previous poster this will void the warranty!!!!!!
Turn it clockwise, and you get that transparent sweet sound; counter-clockwise makes the compressor sound even worse. These pots are supposedly adjusted in the factory. BS! my pedal sounded like total garbage until I changed it myself. Maxon has some quality control issues to deal with...**

(btw, can anyone explain 'biasing the photocoupler'? how dangerous can it be?)


I bought a used cp-101 4 years ago based on Maxon's reputation for quality and value. What a dissapointment. As others have already stated, the highs were fake and plastic sounding, and the sustain knob didn't seem to affect the sound. The unit added no noise (unlike other compressors for the $), but the tone was unsuitable for any style.

So for a few years, the pedal inconspicuously sat in my closet. People on this forum seemed to be getting a good sound out of it, so I opened it up to check for anything suspicious.... 'hmmmm a trimpot right smack in the middle of the PCB....'.

Adjusting the pot brought an expressiveness to the sustain knob which controlled the amount sweet 4:1 compression. I now use it at the end of my chain ( sounds good for both rhythm/lead clean or after ts-808 or fuzz into crybaby wah-> vox AC30 and a fender twin). It almost always stays on. That's why I haven't modded the SPDT switch to true-bypass. It also sounds brilliant with Acoustic guitar straight into a PA.

HOWEVER, the pot isn't a magical cure-all by any means. My pedal now has a small volume swell, about a 1/3 second after i strum and hold a chord. It isn't noticealbe live, but still, high-end compressors shouldn't do this.

I don't know yet. The components seem high quality, and the switches and jacks seem durable.

If Maxon isn't taking accountability for some of these terrible sounding CP101's, well, then they have some problems.

Either the compressor has a design flaw and shouldn't be sold, or there are QC issues and the pots aren't being biased right at the factory.

The transparent subtle compression is a perfect fit for almost any style I play: blues, rock, funk, or noisy synthy stuff. I don't need 10:1 squishiness, although extra features like 'attack' would be nice.

Not too versatile, but if you can get one for cheap, it's worth it. If I lost mine, I would probably get a Ross-clone instead.

What could be easier than two dials?

A huge step up from the DynaComp; you get what you pay for. A very subtle effect, clarifies fingerpicking, adds presence to rhythm playing, pulls out sustain from overdrive sound. Changes EQU just a touch and is a tiny bit noisy -- hence 8 rather than 10. I am one of those people who "hate to use compression" but I am learning to use this pedal and I really like what it adds to my live sound.

It's a little on the light side; I'll try not to kick it across the room accidentally. I'm very careful.

No idea.

Have played guitar for 38 years. Play mostly church worship music (tele or Heritage semi-hollow to CP-101 to FullDrive to analog delay to Fender Twin); the presence and clarity added by this pedal really help my sound. Also play blues and rock/folk -- am still experimenting with the CP on this front. Would replace if lost, but I'd also try the other pedals in this price range. I like Maxon overall, "made in China" notwithstanding.

Very easy to get a very good sound out it. 2 simple knobs. Smaller size is great especially when you have limited real estate. We don't need no stinkin' manual. Just take your time and tweak a little. It isn't hard at all.

I feel the key to this stomper is, "LESS IS MORE". I have mine set at probably one pubic hair higher than 9:00 on the left side (sustain) and almost straight up on the right(level)side. I know that it really does smooth out my overdrive sounds. When using it clean it does wonders for my 12 string Rickenbacker whereas single notes seem to fall away quickly without it, the CP101 allows them to ring nicely and hang around awhile.

I can depend on it. It has never let me down. Not noisey either.

Never needed them.

I like this pedal so much that I bought two of them. I play classic rock 63 Beatles and up to some modern rock and it essential to my overall sound. You could leave it on and, it always sounds great. I bought my first one based on a Harmony Central recommendation when I was looking for an alternative to the much more expensive Keeley pedal and, had already dealt with the lousey Boss CS-3 compressor. For about $127.00 retail (or less used on ebay) the CP101 is a hit!