Tech 21 CompTortion

KISS. I like the fact that it's easy to use. No patch editing, no need for a manual. Just start turning dials and listen for a great sound. What could be easier?

I run from my guitar(s) to a BOSS TU-2 into this and to the front end of my Fender HR DeVille 2x12. As mentioned in an earlier post, without distortion, the sound is thin, but you only have to touch the distortion to get it full. And it's really not distorted. Odd? It gives my amp 6 channels vs. 3, so I enjoy the versatility. The 'fav artist' I'm trying to emulate? Randy Bachman.

It's made of metal and feels like it could fall off a bridge and live. I don't use batteries, so I gig w/out a backup.

No dealings with the company.

I play classic rock, and this pedal lets me reach my tone goals. I can switch from chords to notes to chords without losing overall volume and sustain. I would replace it if it were stolen or lost.

It took me two weeks to find the sweet spot on this pedal. The manual says it's passive. Like all passive units, you must find the right "balance" to achive a good sound. I think the comp sounds thin without some degree of overdrive. The tortion gives the comp a measure of tube warmth. Raise one and lower the other.
Balance!

OK... I am a bass player. I play a MIA fender jazz bass. I run it into a demeter pre-amp then to the Crown power amp. I got some bangin speakers too. With the compression to high, you get a nasty chattering sound as a note decays.
The knobs are dependent on one another it's passive. I turned the comp down to about 10:00. Now, I have room for more overdrive.
NOTE... If the comp is up high, you can bearly add any distortion without it sounding like butt cheaks. BUT, turn the comp down and you can raise the tortion to about 8:00 with nice results.
It sounds balanced and fuller with the right combo between the two. The initial attack is crisp and clean and if you dig in, you can hear sweet overdrive effecting the harmonics. SWEET.
The comp and tortion feed each other.
Balance!

I like Tech 21 stuff, i get the feeling this thing will last forever.

NO

I am a huge freakin fan of Geddy Lee. Listen to his Fender on "Diffent stages live". It has a cruel barking sound right.
Well With the comptortion, It bites and grinds with an agressive edge, kinda like a snarling dog. It's worth it to me to own this pedal. I always use it, never without it. This thing has a Tube sound for sure.

Easy to use, just takes a bit of tweaking. Depending on the guitar/pickups this thing will feedback uncontrolably. The manual says start at the 12 oclock position and work from there. I recommend starting with the compression and distortion at the 9 oclock position and tone and volume at 12.

Using a duncan loaded Paul and a Carvin VT-50. I run the distortion just cracked and the compressor between 9 and 10. It really thickens up the amp when its off its all but transparent. I have every intention of leaving it on most of the time and depending on the tune raise or lower the distortion.

I haven't had this long enough to know

I called to find out more about the pedal and advised settings. They put me in direct contact with a tech who gave me a crash course on compression and distortion and was perfectly willing to talk at my level instead of his.

Playing blues and blues based rock both covers and originals this was just what I've been looking for. Really beefs up and evens out the overall sound, the sustain is unbelievable. The distortion is a bit much for my taste but as a clean boost and compressor it's spot on. Lost or stolen I might look into a dynacomp but more than likely I'd purchase this again.

I agree with the previous reviews in that it's just as easy to get a bad sound out of this pedal as it is a good one. Think before you tweak, and you'll be rewarded.

This is one of the nicer distortion pedals I've played, and one of the only ones that gets me a "tube amp driven by TS-808" sound out of a solid state amp. The compressor is great- low noise, huge amounts of compression on tap. If you want sustain for days, you'll get it. This is absolutely the perfect pedal to stick in front of a Tech 21 amp.

Tech 21 builds quality gear, and I've been a fanboy of theirs for years now. I'll probably buy another one of these just to have a backup- I like the pedal that much.

Tech 21 is less than 20 people, and the attention to detail and customer service I've experienced from them over the years has been second to none. Personal attention from engineers that know what they're talking about and actually listen to their customers.

(Do what you have to do to keep Lloyd happy, Tech 21- he's an asset to your company for his customer service and his technical knowledge.)

I play alternapop, blues, and surf. This pedal coupled with my Trademark 10 has gotten me as close as I've ever been to the perfect "slight grit" tone. I'm confident I'll be just as happy with it in front of my Trademark 120.

I've been playing for 17 years. I'm actually conciously trying to pare my gear collection down to saner numbers:

Fender Tele Plus, de-Lace-Sensored and Bardenized
Gibson SG Standard, stock and I like it like that

Tech 21 Trademark 10, Trademark 120, XXL, and Comptortion (it's a start)

Rocktron Surf Tremelo and Tsunami Chorus

(That's the stuff I'm keeping, anyway- there's lots more that isn't really germane to this review.)

If this pedal were stolen, I'd need to either hunt down another (it really is a great product) or spend much more money buying a high quality compressor and a high quality distortion pedal. I'd much rather hunt down another CompTortion.

I love the tones I get out of this box, and there's nothing I hate. The only things I'd change would be to tweak the circuit a bit so the full range of the Comp and Tortion pots are usable, and passive bypass.

I actually have piles of overdrives here, and a friend of mine brought his CompTortion over one night and left it here. I'd put this up against most of my other overdrives in front of a tube amp, and I'd actually prefer this to most of my other overdrives in front of a solid state amp.

Buy this pedal. Read the instructions. Tweak gently. There's nothing not to like, and I'm confident I'll find this pedal useful for years to come. I can't rate this pedal less than a perfect 10 for its intended purpose.

It's easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. It's also easy to get a really messed up sound out of it. The "comp" and "tortion" knobs have a really huge range. I expected no less from Tech 21.

I've been using this pedal for a year with different guitars and amps, and it behaves very differently with each. Like any compressor, the signal going in dramatically affects the compression.

This is not a weak pedal. Turn the "tortion" off and you get a very nice sounding compressor that ranges from subtle, slight boost to totally squished and noisy (please kids, keep in mind that compressors are noisy by nature--they boost the sound as it dies out; that includes ALL sounds going into them).

Start turning the "tortion" up and you get something along the lines of the infamous XXL--a pedal that is always in my arsenal.

I use this pedal to get sustained distortion, like when I'm playing leads and I want a note to go forever. But if I want a more bluesy sound with compression, I have to kill the distortion and go with a different pedal or just tweak my amp. I would love to see Tech 21 put out a standalone compression pedal with more controls.

The pedal is quiet in use and the switch is quiet. Extra points for the super-smooth action of the footswitch.

I've given this pedal a beating over a year and it's held up great. Same with my other Tech 21 gear. The pots are soldered to the circuit board, which scares me a little--like, if I destroyed a pot, it would be harder to replace it. Still, the workmanship is excellent.

I contacted Tech 21 once via e-mail on another matter and they were prompt, polite, and helpful.

I play many styles of music, from punk to thrash to lounge and disco. While I originally thought this pedal would save me space on my board by combining two effects, I was wrong. If I were only playing heavy rock, it would do the job, because the distortion is so heavy. But when I want a heavy sound with endless sustain, the Comptortion does a great job.

I've been playing for 22 years and have owned hundreds of effects--vintage, boutique, and crap. I went through a stage of being anal about my tone, but have since gotten over it. But my ear is good enough that I know what effect works with which guitar, amp, and other effects.

If my comptortion were lost or stolen, I don't think I'd get another. If I keep changing the settings during songs, I can get a lot out of it, but I'm not Eric Johnson. I'm more like Ron Popeil--I want to set it and forget it.

What I like the most about this pedal is the quality of tone. What I like least is that there is no mellower distortion setting.

My wish is that Tech 21 could make a compressor. I love their stuff and the prices are good for what they make.

VERY EASY TO USE... 4 knobs and the on/off switch is really cool because it doesn't make that freaking annoying pop/click sound... very quiet.

I just scored this pedal yesterday used for $47 bucks... pretty good deal I think and I've wanted one for a while.

I spent a good few hours messing with it. I basically just plugged my G&L RAMPAGE into the pedal and then put the thing straight into my Marshall stack (JCM-900 4100).

My FAVORITE guitar players are Hendrix, Clapton and Steve Gaines... and also Paul Gilbert, ZAKK Wylde, Jerry Cantrell and Dimebag Darrell. I can pull off some nice tones from this pedal to match all of the players tones listed above.

The distortion is pretty full sounding and very musical and the compression is great too BUT BUT BUT make sure you dial in just a small amount of compression otherwise you will get all sorts of wierd noise and feedback.

YES... seems like it is built very well. No backup.

don't know.

I PLAY blues, rock and hardcore metal...

I've been playing for about 9-10 years. If it was stolen I might try and track another used one down but honestly I'd probably look into something else as I seem to get bored with things quickly.

THE ONE THING THIS PEDAL HAS THAT I LOVE IS SUSTAIN SUSTAIN SUSTAIN!!! I chose this pedal because a few years ago I tried it out in the music shop and couldn't believe the amounts of sustain it provided. I didn't want to buy it back then for some reason probably because I was still in college and broke.

THIS PEDAL is great and TECH 21 did a really nice job with it. It doesn't sound like anything else I've used. I have played and tried everything out there. Rats, Tubescreamers, Tubekings, Bigg muffs, Metal Zones and Metal this and and blah blah... this pedal is in a class of its own.

CHECK ONE OUT AND YOU JUST MIGHT LIKE IT!

Cheers!

Very easy to use. 4 knobs? come on!

Personally I think this is a real cool pedal and a good value.
It really does about 4-5 different things such as clean boost,
comp sound,distortion sound,noise gate,clean/gritty sustain sound
(think bugget version of Kimock,Gerry,etc sound.) and although
a bit noisy if your not careful, it can really sound great! Works
beautifully with my Nobels ODR-1. This pedal is extremely transparent,
can be dail to be almost exactly the same as the amp sound-alot
better than most. The noise gate deserve a mention, when turning
your guitar volume down/with in about a second you here the gate
kick in and noise drops. Nice! Never chops off what I'm playing.
I got this for $40.00 and feel it's a great addition to my rig.

Looks good.

Never used them

I play Funk/Jazz and Jam Band style stuff. This pedal works
great for this style, but is so versatile it could be used
in just about any style of music. Think of it as a MORE button
more clean/more squeeze/more grit/And any combo of the 3 with
a sweet noise gate to boot! Nice!

Easy enough to use and the knobs are self explainatory.

Well, I got this because I was so pumped up about the sound of my Trademark 60, I just knew this had to be good...The only problem was I was wrong in my assumptions about this unit.......I did not care for the overly distorted sound that made my Trademark sound like early '70's Porno Music....I could buy a Muff Fuzz if that was the sound I was looking for......The users who commented before me are right....There is really a very tight margin of useage using the knobs....Too much creates excessive noise and unless you're doing something extremely creative and unique, it sounds terrible. The compressor was okay, but back to the small margin thing......What's the point of having the whole knob if only a small amount is worth using?.

Seems dependable and reliable enough

I had this only a week and knew I could keep it and tolerate it, but also knew I was better off (for me personally) with an individual compressor and overdrive pedal. If a company is going to do a "two in one" effect pedal, I recommend being able to use the two effects not only simultaneously, but also individually. Unless you have precision accuracy with your big toe, you can't do that with this pedal......Kind of defeats the act of running your amp clean with compression if you also want to be able to kick it into overdrive with the compressor on......Like I said, unless you're good with your feet and you are very very careful not to push the knobs above 9'oclock, this is not that great of a pedal.

Very easy to use; didn't use the manual. Took about two minutes before I had the sounded that I wanted. Great pedal (BUT PLEASE READ THE "RELIABILITY" SECTION

Great sound - grab the tone and comp knobs, you'll find any sound you want (within reason) - Played lots of things with it; Pink Floyd, Bowie, etc...great pedal (BUT PLEASE READ THE "RELIABILITY" SECTION)

I've played gig after gig with this thing, with no back-up (thank God because the only other pedal I owned was crap), no Plan B - it never let me down. Very good battery life. HOWEVER - one day in the studio, it's working beautifully, never a problem. Only thing out of the ordinary that day was a recorded a bass track with it. Next day, DEAD. No power (plugged in, tried 5 different power adapters, and numerous batteries), no sound (well, a distant hum, but it might've been my teapot), DEAD. It's still being looked over by the smartest electrician I know (I have a problem with physically shipping it out somewhere for an indefinate amount of time).

Like I said, I have a strange problem with sending anything away...makes me feel like I'll never see it again. Kinda brings a tear to my eye, I loved that pedal.

Great pedal, I miss it very badly, but no worries - I WILL BUY ANOTHER ONE (should my old one be beyond repair, still awaiting the diagnosis)

It has four knobs, effectively: volume, tone, distortion, compression. It's easy to use, but finicky as to which equipment it will work well with, just like most of the pedals and effects I've owned.

I tried this pedal with numerous amp/guitar configurations, but I wasn't happy with it until I put it in the present sequence: Carvin Koa DC135 or Schecter Custom Strat > Boss tuner > Morley Bad Horsie2 > Comptortion > Fulldrive2 > Yamaha DG Stomp (preamp off) > Dr. Z Route 66 amp > 1x12 (or any speaker combinations I feel like using). I find that I leave the Comptortion on all the time with the compression at 9 (o'clock), the distortion at 7 o'clock, the tone around 12 and the volume at around 11 o'clock. Just a little compression/boost, really. The amp itself is so beautiful that I don't need much of anything, but the Comptortion just gives me the litte extra juice to play the classic rock stuff I do. I like the boost that happens when the compression is turned up, I can find just the right combination of drive and compression, and then use the volume knob to match it to my amp. I was going to sell it until I tried it in this combination. Now it's gonna stay. I use the Fulldrive2 for added gain and lead volume. It actually gives me four distinct tones to have these two pedals together. I only use the wah and the DGStomp (delays, choruses, reverbs, etc) for the songs that need them, but I use the Comptortion and Fulldrive2 on everything except really clean stuff. We play a lot of ZZTop, Bob Seger, Santana, etc. and I can easy get what I need in tone from this setup.

I've had it for four years and it hasn't broken down yet.

Never dealt with them

For what I normally do, the 60's, 70's 80's rock thing, it fills the bill. Like I said before, almost all the pedals, effects boxes and rack units I have or have had work great with some amps and not with others. I've been playing for 37 years, I own a lot of amps, guitars and effects (Marshalls, Boogies, Ampegs, Sunns, Peaveys, Polytones, Gibsons, Fenders, Deans, Schecters, Carvins, Hamers, DOD, Boss, Akai, Fulltone, ADA, Morley, etc) and I play through a lot of different combinations in the search for the elusive holy grail of tone. Right now, the Comptortion suits me fine and I probably would buy another one if this one disappeared. Now that I've gotten this close to heaven, I'd be foolish to not try and stick with it for a while. I've spent a lot of years chasing "THE TONE" and the Comptortion allows me to dial in a little compression and a little dirt and a little gain all in the same box (which is a big consideration when you're trying to fit all this stuff on one pedalboard). The only thing I wish it had (as well as some of the other pedals I own) was the jacks on the top instead of on either side (pedalboard consideration again). So, in closing, I'll just say that I went from almost selling the unit to being VERY happy with it, just by the combination of gear that I used it with. Let that be a lesson for us all.