Sabine NEX-5400 Compressor

This is a quality compressor, it has the usual compressor controls of threshold, attack, level and ratio, it also has a tone knob which enables you to to cut/boost bass and treble. It has an effects and a clean output and the battery life is good. This pedal does not creat a lot of hiss but its better using a battery rather than a power supply. The whole control area lights up when activiated which is quite cool. The controls appear to have a narrow band of adjustability so it is easy to get a good sound.

I use it for bass, it gives me a good phat clear punchy sound...I generally play funk and like to slap, this baby handles it fine and give me great tone.

Built like a tank, just metal and rubber, the knobs are plastic but they feel quality. Never had any problems with it.

Not sure, never had to use them, like i said, it's built like a tank.

I've used a number of pedals in a vain attempt to get a good quality compressor which is easy to use and set up, this is just what I want. I've been playing bass for 10 years and this is the compressor I shall comtinue to use. It also comes at a good price. My brother used it on his guitar and that was also a nice sound.

I never have an easy time getting a good sound out of a compressor.
Whether it's on the floor or in the rack, I mess about quite a bit.

And Sabine should have more information on use in their pamphlet which comes with the unit.

That being said, this is a compressor with a lot of features, and tweaking is what it's all about.
So I will say it's pretty easy to use.

The manual is pretty much one two by four inch page of a pamphlet that folds out, mostly advertising other Sabine stuff.
It does give control descriptions and a four pics of typical settings.
So it does the minimum and well enough.

I'll give this a nine mostly because a unit with this many features and of this quality deserves a manual worthy of it. And so do the people who buy it.
(esp. beginners or those new to compressors)

Epiphone Sheraton II, loaded with 500T and 498R Gibson pickups, then the Sabine and that into a Marshall MG15CD.

It's not noisy at all, unless you are just cranking the dist and the comp level. And if you don't expect noise doing that, you're a very silly person. But it's not noisy compared to DOD or MXR or Boss, etc.

You can get good country clean sounds.. flat picked or fingerpicked..
and you can get gobs of sustain for anything you want.
Overall I'll just say that this compressor does it pretty well.
Sounds good.

Especially nice to note.. You can use the HARD BYPASS... which means your signal arrives at the amp as if there were no compressor there at all.. no tone coloration, no signal loss, and match it by using the tone control. In other words, with the compressors controls all at minimum setting.. off.. you nothch that tone control and the level control in so that you can't hear any thing more or less than your true signal.
Very Nice!

I'm going to give this a nine.
I think the only thing keeping me from giving it a ten is the diddly squat amount I paid for it. *g*
Maybe that's really an eleven score, then?

I have no clue to reliability.
It's made of metal, seems very sturdy throughout.
And has a two year warranty you sign up for online.
Good enough for me.

I'll go with a 9 again, since I have no clue as to how Sabine is for service and repair.

They have a website http://www.Sabine.com

and they take feedback etc. there.. as well as online registration for warranty.

I'm playing rock blues country pop folk.
It does what compressors do in those genres. *g*
I've been playing over 30 years, and I have lots of other gear.
If it were lost or stolen, I'd get another. In fact, Musicians Friend has the overdrive from Sabine also on sale, and I'm thinking of one of those, too.

The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that you have to unplug it in order to turn it off. But what the heck.. most of them are like that, I should quit being so cheap and just go buy the power adaptor.

What I like best about it are the things that we like about compressors in general.
It increases sustain.. it limits those peaks giving your guitar very clean clear articulate chords that are balanced..
it gives string to string balance for single note runs..
It does smooth and it does scream and it does funky.
And it does them nicely.

I've played a lot of other pedals, and as pedals go this one's pretty darn nice.

It has a full range of controls, and I like that very much.
threshold, attack, tone, level, ratio.
The battery is easy to swap out.
It has stereo output. One is with effect, the other is without effect.
Very nice!

I bought this so I'd have a bare minimum practice setup in my home.
guitar-->amp.
I found that though the little Marshall did a very good job for me, it lacked a little something and I dedided it was compression.
Now I have all I'd need to practice or even to rehearse.

These pedals are on sale at Musicians Friend and if you need a solid as a tank pedal, with a good warranty, and decent performance.. you're not going to do better than these.
Comparing these to other thirty dollar pedals, like Arion.. is just a joke. These pedals stand up with the top brands, not the lowest.

I had to send the first one back, it wouldn't work. And the second one I got had obviously been used by someone for a time. But I kept it, the warranty will cover me and it works right.
So even if you get a first bad one, MF will get you a good one eventually, and guess what.. a weeks delay or so is easily worth the fifty bucks or more you're saving over Line 6, or Digitech, etc.

If you dont buy one of these at this price, you're nuts.
If you have a preference for something else.. this is a great backup, or handy for home use, etc.
As a main unit it does very nicely, I've certainly played worse and have seen players using worse every day they gigged.

Comes with a nice little cloth drawstring bag, and a cable so you can run power off this pedal to another (when using a power adaptor, not batteries).

I have a raging sinus infection by the way, so if you read this send me a get well email.
god I feel rotten.

except for my new Sabine, that is. *g*