TC Electronic Sustain+Parametric Equalizer

This is a reissue of the legendary sustain pedal made famous by Eric Johnson and Bill Frisell. Easy to dial in, bigger knobs than the original. I miss the "is-it-on" distortion switch, the added "Q"-shaper for the eq is a nice touch but the switch is a little awkward.

I had high hopes for this pedal and really wanted to like it, especially when I opened the nice package and saw the "velvet" bag that it came in. I used to own one of the original t.c. Sustainers and their only gripe was that they didn't work well with humbuckers. You just couldn't get a slight compression out of them, let alone limiting. Other than that these were incredible units, these things really enhanced guitar tone.

None of that here in the new pedal. It's a fair sounding compressor, it does work with humbuckers but it does not deliver in the sustain category (where the original excelled) and it does not have decent level. That means if you dial in a slight compression effect the pedal might be softer engaged than switched of, even at cranked output volume. The overall sound is a little lifeless and sterile and reminds me of the T.Rex CompNova, just less versatile (except for the e.q. section). Anyway, I heard T.Rex is building these for TC Electronic. Not a bad thing per se, but this reissue has nothing to do with the original whatsoever. Instead of improving a phantastic design that would blow any Keeley out of the water they offered some watered down stuff that could IMO never justify it's steep price tag.

Can't say because I won't keep it. Bought it online and will have to send it back.

A good example for another sad reissue. As true to the original as a 1974 Les Paul. Keep your fingers off.

Tough to get the volume right with humbuckers. The eq settings (if you can decipher them) are effective but mysterious. Maybe if I could find the owner's manual...Souds good with Fender Telecaster.

It does the "swell" type of hard compression very well; think Loggins and Messina for ex. Very "80". Of course, sounds excellent with a chorus ce-1 for ex. Not noisy, but difficult to use live. The switch for distortion is quite subtle, like a slight overdrive.

No concerns

None required

I have an old Boss blue compressor (1980 something) and this one. For my taste, I prefer the compressor I have in my Zoom GFX-4. Easier to set-up and more dynamic. This pedal has a lot of Mojo, but I will sell it soon, not really any use for it.

If you have ears and some patience, you will love this pedal. If you understand the parameters that define a "parametric" EQ, you will get a lot more out of it. (The EQ reminds me of an Ibanez PQ-401, which has never been surpassed for analog sweetness.) I give it a 6, because you will need some time to unlock the potential of this pedal. The bandwidth switch provides two setting, so it is not as flexible as a Carl Martin parametric EQ, but still very useful (and much simplier to use). More on tweaking below.

This pedal is unique in that it actually does what it promises to do. It offers clean, low noise sustain. It offers great EQ. It has an adjustable noise gate -- very useful if you have noisy pedal upstream. It has a distortion switch (distortion lite) that I rarely use although it sounds fine going into a TC Chorus set on Pitch Modulation -- think overdriven Leslie.

For crunch, I use a Plosive May Booster (a very noisy, explosive treble boost) into a Retro-Sonic Compressor (an excellent, versatile DynaComp/Ross clone). For leads, I just click in the TC Sustainer in front and an ancient Ibanez AD-80 in back -- the result is unreal at any volume. For Byrd-tone, I push up the sustain, set the "Q" to a higher frequency, push up the EQ gain, and use the "octave" setting for bandwidth.

Yes, this pedal can "pump" like a cheap compressor. Yes, it can "squash" your attack. Yes, it can sound raspy at the extremes. But this pedal is designed well, and you can dial-in or dial-out these characteristics (strenghs or flaws, depending on your application) as wanted. It requires time to learn its full range. The tone is typical TC pristine and quiet. I give it an 8, understanding that nothing I've used (apart from the Retro-sonic compressor and the Axess Buffer) have earned anything higher in this category.

My unit is about 20 years old, but still going strong. If you use a battery, the LED comes on momentarily, then fades to preserve power. If you use external power, the LED stays lit.

TC is still in business, but no longer manufactures this product (a pity).

I've been playing since the 60s -- everything but metal.

I've tried dozens of compressors -- alone and in combination -- pursuing endless, uncolored sustain and any volume. I've also tried all the Byrds/Petty/AC-30-inspired boxes (including the Janglebox) looking for that sweet, high-freq squash and bloom on demand. I can downsize now, because this box covers the spectrum at far less noise. The pedal's EQ makes it work with all my guitars, all my amps, and all my pedal boards. Very versatile.

I searched for one of these at an affordable price for two years. If it disappeared, I would double-down on the anti-depressants and sell some plazma to fund another. If you can get it for less than $200, it rates a 10.

Pretty self explanatory however using a parametric eq could be complicated for some.

Like all TC gear it has a pristine tone quality. It just reeks squeaky clean compression. Think 80's here. Nice for those clean chord arpeggio's. It has some minor pumping when you hold/sustain a chord no matter where it's set, but it doesn't bother me. It's very clean sounding. The Parametric EQ is great for getting that one boomy bass frequency out of the sound that always seems to be there. That gives it the 80's compression clean type of sound.

TC seems to be a reliable company I've owned many products w/ no probz. Except for a 2290 which blew out and took like 6 months at the factory... :(

I wish these TC pedals were still available I love them!

I have a Boss CS-2, a Keeley (Ross clone) and a Demeter. The TC wins out as my favorite piece and wins the sole compression spot on my pedal board. The Boss CS-3 actually sounds excellent with high distortion. But that's another review.....

pretty easy even with all the options on it-no manual needed...
the EQ can take a minute to tweak,but that's not a bad thing.

very high quality sound but the compressor is weird on this-it sort of swells the volume a bit dramatically even with the sustain down all the way...with stronger electric pickups or a piezo system it works better as far as compressing goes.the EQ is powerful and i sort of wish it could be used alone...the switchable preset distortion actually works pretty well for certain things...

well built-no probs.

don't know.

compressors to me are more for recording usually-i use a joe meek preamp sometimes which is known as one of the more drastic compressor circuits but it can get a lot more subtle than the TC can! i guess this is more for the purpose of actually sustaining as opposed to evening or 'levelling' (which it does well)but it could be a bit more useful in that department,i think.

Takes som time to get the sound you want and it's difficult to balanse the dry/wet volume. I found that if I use a very low output pickup it's easier but I like them HighGain pickups so.......

My mainguitar is a guitar I made myself using a piece og Mahogney for the body and buying a ESP Strat Neck. I have a Duncan Custom in the bridge, a cheap Washburn humbucker i the middle and a Paf Pro by Dimarzio i neck. I have a 5-way selector and a push/pull volume som that i can split all the pickups. My signal goes from the guitar into TC Phaser XII, TC Sustain, TC Booster/Distortion, TS-9 with 808 mod. then into TC Stereo Chorus and finaly into TC M-ONE but I'm thinking 'bout trading it in for a D-TWO or av Line6- DL4 The signal finaly goes into a '76 Marshall 50W superlead that has been "Plexied by Nez Tube" The pedal is great for single note things but not as good for chording. I have problems with the volume. But super clean tone.l

Just got it som time will show but I asume it's as good as any of my other TC pedals. A sure 10

Had to mail them 5 times before they replayed but they could not help me with a manual for the sustain pedal.

TC RULES!!!! simply the best pedals in the world. And there's almost no noise. I love it when it's dead quiet and then you strum a chord and a new world seems to apeer. Is there anyone who has a manual for the TC Sustain box??????Please contact.

For a stomp box compressor, it's a little tricky to set up. The noise gate takes some juggling to match to your own requirements (a separate gate might be better if you need it), and the parametic eq does a LOT. And it hacks more off the initial attack than most compressors. But the flip side is that you have a great deal more control than with any other compressor i've used. Another minor gripe is that the LED doesn't *stay* on. It blinks on when you turn it on, then fades out.

I've used it for years. Guitar is usually a Strat. The TC is first in line, followed by a Rat II, then into whatever effects, and then a tube amp (currently a pair of Trace-Elliot Velocettes). If sound were judged purely on clarity, i'd give it a 10. This is the cleanest stomp-box compressor i've ever heard. The EQ is very helpful, too, for balancing the change in tone from compression. But it takes off a bit too much of the attack for some purposes. I wish i could adjust the attack some.

I've had it for a decade, and it has never broke or glitched. I'd gig it without a backup. Not that i'd find a backup anyway. They are rather rare. However, i'd recommend an AC adapter. It chews through batteries like they were going out of style.

Got it used, never had a reason to deal with them.

Maybe someday i'll find a compressor i like better. But it is so good i don't have any real ambition to look... i suppose if it were lost, stolen, or broken, i'd try others.

The unit is pretty simple. I got it used so there was no instruction manual. Some of the functions such as distortion switch and EQ frequency switch are so subtile I can't tell if its working. One thing for sure thats working is the sustain. Even at its lowest setting it has more sustain than most compressors I've used. The Parametric EQ works well.

With the EQ you can pretty much dial in the highs or lows needed. The noise gate keeps it quite but also effects the attact if set to high. This really drops the volume of the beginning of a note and releases the note to a higher volume when the noise suppression releases. A lower noise gate setting will minimize this but may introduce some noise. I have problems using it with a live band due to the volume fluxuations mentioned above. The tone and the sustain are very impressive.

Metal housing built tough. It has always worked. I always have a backup guitar and effects. I figure if my amp goes out, I can run through the PA the rest of the night with a lot of my guitar in my monitor.

Never used them.

In relating to price paid, I traded a Boss Flanger and an Ibsnez graphic EQ for it. I found the flanger at a Garbage Dumpster when I was hauling off the trash. Somebody set it out on the ground in front of the dumpster as if to say,"come and get me". I took it home and put a battery in it and it worked fine. I paid $25.00 for the Ibanez EQ used so I guess I can safely say I got $25.00 invested in the TC Electronic sustainer. I play contemporary country/Rock/Blues style Gospel Music. I have done quite a bit of recording with the sustainer in my own home studio with very good results. I haven't been as happy using it live with a group. I have problems with the volume level. It's exactly what you would want for those long sustaining lead lines but the volume is always to low or to high. According to Barry Cleveland of Electronic Musician magazine on his review(Dec 1999) of the Carl Martin Compressor Limiter said that the TC Electonic Sustainer/EQ was the Holy Grail of vintage effects pedals and the Carl Martin is much like the old TC Elec line. Well as far as having a rare vintage pedal, I guess I've got a good one. I will keep expermenting with it and try to get the volume right.

I've used some compressors before, but this is the first pedal type I've used. I must say that the compressor realted knobs Sustain, Gain and Noise Gate could have been labelled something more useful, like Attack, Release, etc...

I'm going to have to depart from the rest of my coleagues on this one, I really don't like how it sounds on my clean sound. The thing that annoys me is that my unit seems to be set to hard limiting as oppossed to the soft limiting I was looking for. My setup is PRS Cust24 -> Silverface Fender Vibrolux Reverb. The initial attack is almost a third as loud as the sustain. It is very audible and very annoying. I was looking for something to take a little of the "pop" out of the SF Fender, not cut off the first 20msec of every note. The good news is that it sounds fantastic with a distortion pedal (FF clone for me). The odd swell effect described by my colleagues can be gotten around with a little judicious tweaking.

I managed avoid taking my unit apart almost a whole 15 minutes after I got it. A previous owner had sheared off the ext. bypass jack, so that was loose inside the case. I was also looking for some way to adjust the compression ratio or attack time, but to no avail. I found a volume trimmer but no ratio trimmer.

SO far I haven't gotten a response from my email looking for a ratio adjustment, but very few companies care about products bought second hand that are obsolete anyway. Shame they don't make these anymore, though.

Can anybody out there help me out here; what I need to know is: - Can I adjust the compression ratio? I'd really like to turn this down. - What is the Ext.Power spec? 9V? Inner ring pos or outer?
I'd be happy to pay for somebody to mail me a manual or even a spec sheet. I'd kill for a schematic. Help!

Very easy to use. Four big knobs (sustain, gain, function, center) which control levels and equalization. There is also a little noise-gate knob, and two switches, one for EQ setting and one for distortion on/off.

The first thing I noticed, or didn't notice actually, was how quiet it was. The first time I plugged my guitar in and switched it on, I figured the pedal must be broken. Then I played a couple notes and they held more than three times as long as they would otherwise. It sounds very natural. The noise gate doesn't slam on you, and though I usually have it most of the way up, my notes always ring out and roll off naturally...it seems more of an expander to kill the slight noise that creeps in at the highest settings(as the notes faded, the background noise would begin to get louder, not feedback, just a weird swell in the noise floor). The distortion switch adds a warm, meaty character to the notes played, very sublte and sweet. I play a strat through a few select pedals (EH Small Stone, Fulldrive 2, Sam Ash Fuzz, Colorsound SupaWah/Fuzz) and Roland GP8 analog processor into a Johnson Millenium combo. Next to pure playing style, this is as imortant a part to my sound as the guitar I play. I'd call this one of the holy grails of guitar pedals.

I use it in gigs without any backup (mainly because I can't afford to buy backups). It has never had a problem, and for that matter, my guitar broke before it did.

Never dealt with the company. I hear their support is worse than useless, though, and they give you the run-around forever. I wrote them and asked if they'd ever reissue these pedals of issue a new line, and they did respond failry quickly, however.

For the glassy, psychedelic blues/jazz fusion-rock I play, there is nothing that comes close. I use it for recording, in the studio, gigging, and it sounds great in every application. I use it in one setting or another in every song I play. If it ever died or got stolen, I have no choice but to get a new one (these are pricey and hard to find). No other compressor pedal compares (Dynacomp, any Boss CS pedal, Ibanez, etc.), and there's no way I'm dragging a rack compressor everywhere when this is as good as any of them. It's be nice if it could work as a limiter, but it's not an average compressor, and it's target is straight, natural sustain. They say that you know you have a good guitar when it seems to play itself...with this placed in your line, even a barely decent guitar has that feel. This is the pedal Eric Johnson uses both on stage and in the studio, and he allegedly has the best ear in the music industry, and the money to buy his effects regardless of price. I got my first guitar when I was five, and now I'm twenty, and in those 15 years this is the best single pedal I've ever used.