Tech 21 CompTortion

4 knobs - turn and listen to. Good manual.

I use it for distortion between a Peavey Spectrum Organ and a Dynacord CLS 222 lesloid. Leslie goes into mixer. Stereo transistor amp.
Both left knobs full on, both right knobs at 9 o'clock. No noise. Sounds great: lets the character of the specific organ sound get through, makes a quiet, growling, warm, rich distortion. You can easily modulate the distortion by controlling the Peavey's output and by Your keyboard strike. Not very far from some recordings by Jon the Lord of almost all keyboarders. No "unwanted frequency events".
After having tried a Morley Overdrive pedal (which clipped so badly) and the drive section of a Digitech RPM-1 lesloid (noisy, biting): seems like a dream to me.
Sometimes I chain the reverb of a Kawai RV-4 after the lesloid. All together sounds rich, deep, warm, with a crystal clear sound-background "like a belly".
I like it very, very much.

No problems.

No contacts necessary - hope they are proud to read my lines.

I play - I told You above. Since 20 years I try to replace Jon Lord. The Tech 21 Comptortion is the device that brought me the biggest step forward to the sound I imagine. I will neither give it away nor lend it. I would try to buy it again same day when it would be stolen.
The only recommendation I would give to Tech 21 would be to spread the right (distortion, compression) potis in the way "six to twelve o'clock over the entire scale". Later than 12 o'clock the brick begins to effects become useless ... for my taste.
To all who like the same music style: do something good to You and test this plain "one amongst thousands" device with Your beloved machinery - I wish You the same pleasant experience I've had.
PS: So much ten's. Be critical, they advise. I am. It's not cheap.

This pedal takes some tweaking to get the best sounds out of it...It's not a "set it" and "forget it" kind of pedal....It's also hard to go from a clean channel to a higher gain channel because it's not going to sound right on both. It takes a while to get use to this pedal..You have to make different settings for clean, and then change them for the overdrive channel....In a live situation, I use my clean channel to play clean, then boosted with a little dirt in it with the Comptortion, then I footswitch into the higher gain channel with no Comptortion.....There's gotta be a better way !!

I play mostly Strats and Teles, with a few P-90 Gibsons in there for flavor..This is a very transparent pedal...It works extremely well as a clean boost...then add just a touch of distortion, and you have instant Stevie Ray.....Your notes don't hang long enough on the clean channel ?? Not a problem....Dial in a little compression and your clean (or semi clean) is singing for days !!...One of the big drawbacks of this pedal is the distortion...It's not bad if you don't go any higher than about 9:00 and that's just enough to put a little grit into your tone...Don't go too high with the compression either..A little dab l do ya, otherwise you loose the initial attack of the note. This is a great pedal for lead work...I've played around a lot with it, and I have gotten some extremely beautiful violin type tones out of it by rolling off the tone control on my guitar, and boosting the compression anywhere between 9:00 and 12:00....Any higher than high noon you loose the attack of the note........

So far so good....It's built very strong, and I've used it quite a while and haven't changed the batteries yet !!....I have an original Sans amp that's still working fine...I'll be happy if I can get as much use out of this pedal..

Both my Tech 21 pedals have worked without a hitch..I've never had to contact them for anything...

My rating is base on using this pedal for the Blues or for using it as a Clean boost....It's a great pedal for both uses

The manual is OK, with 5 sample settings various styles.

I plug a Jap Squire Strat (don't laugh, somebody was having a good day when they built this one) into this pedal. Next comes a Tech 21 SansAmp Classic set to "BB King/Fender" configuration, then the signal goes into a Mackie 1202 and a Carvin DC1000 (!) power amp. I've had the SansAmp for quite a while but just bought the Comptortion a few days ago after thinking about it quite awhile. The sound samples on Tech21s website convinced me to try it.

There's good news and bad news here. First the good; with tone and level set at 12:00 o'clock, "tortion" and compression set at 10:00 o'clock, my rig finally has the creamy singing tone I've been looking for. Oh Yeah! This pedal is great for blues, my fave. I'm not sure metal heads would like it as well though, and I suspect the guy who said they don't all sound alike might be right. Further, the fellow complaining about strange (read "bad") effects when turning up distortion and compression is right. When I turn EITHER control up past 12:00 clock it all sounds pretty ugly. But for blues, this pedal delivers a really sweet tone even used all by itself and straight into the board. Combine it with a SansAmp or PSA-1 you'll be in tone heaven.

The case and switch look like the usual level of Tech21 quality; not necessarily built to be the toughest on the planet but certainly adequate for pro use. I'd use it at a gig but of course, pack a spare 9 volt batt'y.

Tech 21 is great for support; when I bought my SansAmp used it came with no manual. I e-mailed asking for one, and got both a reply in e-mail and the manual mailed promptly at no cost. It doesn't get any better than that.

This pedal works great for the chicago blues I like. I've been playing for 25 years, and perform as an acoustic single. The electric stuff is just a toy for me to play with at home but I get a lot of fun out of it. With the SansAmp/Comptortion combination I can now get the Albert Collins/Albert King/BB Etc tones perfectly out of the same PA I use for my acoustic act without having to spend hundreds of dollars on a separate combo amp.

Pretty obvious controls. A knob for level, tone, distortion and compression. No need for a user's manual, really.

My guitar is an Ibanez RG450 and my amp is none other than the Tech 21 Trademark 60 combo. The Comportion is a brilliant combination of distortion, compression and noice gate. It works well, unless you set it to extreme levels (such as maximum distortion and compression at the same time) but this can be said for most effects.

I found it to be pretty sturdy. I've only had it for a week now. Haven't played any gigs with it yet.

Haven't had any reason to require customer support.

I play classic rock and 80's-type metal. This pedal does a lot for my leads. You could play an entire gig with just this pedal and an amp with good reverb. I chose it because it's 3 essential effects in one.

This is a very practical pedal. The controls have a wide, usable range. One reviewer said the compression got overbearing past halfway. I would agree with that; except, the compression sounds fantastic below that. This box offers both subtle as well as radical tones

This is one of the most neutral sounding pedals out there. It has the ability to leave your amp's eq intact. I like using it as a clean boost. Just hit the amp a little harder, maybe a little compression, or maybe a little dirt. REAL cool. You can get real gainy with this one too. I just can't get over how good it sounds as a boost/overdrive

haven't had it long enough. Doesn't seem as sturdy as a Roger Mayer or Fulltone. Of course it doesn't cost that much either

If you like overdrive, you'll dig this. It colors the sound less than a Klon or Fulldrive. But that's the strength of those pedals. If you want a pedal to leave your amp's eq how it is.........try this one.

This is a very easy pedal to use. I have tried almost every pedal on the market and this beats them all. The manual was easy to read and gave some good jumping off points to get the sound you're looking for.

I run this using either a Mesa Boogie or Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a Zoom 4040 or Digitech processor. The Compression was weak on the Zoom so I stuck this on it and what a difference. I put the level on 12:00 or less, tone all the way up, distortion off and the "tortion" knob at about 10-11:00. This thing will make your guitar sing and sustain for days, but does not color your sound - it lets the natural sound of your guitar come through, plus - there is virtually no noise - even with single coils. As I said, I have tried literally everything and my quest is over. This is a great compression pedal.

I've already used it at several gigs and it has never failed me. I would not hesitate to use it without backup.

Never had to deal with them.

I play rock, jazzy type fusion and blues - but am more of a blues player. For those natural super sustain notes - you can't beat it. It will literally hold a note for over 30 seconds or more if you get it just right - it does a great Santana sustain imitation. People always want to know how I get that "sound." I will say though, try out several in the store. I tried out three of them and there is a difference in sound. Mine is very "smooth" sounding if I use the distortion (I rarely do with this) but some had more fuzzier distortions. If it were stolen or lost I would definitely get another one - It has become a main part of my playing sound.

Pretty easy to use, 4 knobs- level, tone, distortion, compression. Yhe manual gave several suggested settings for different styles of music and this was found to be a handy starting point.

This thing took some getting used to. The Level and tone controls are pretty much a no-brainer. Turning up the comp or the 'tortion to high levels individually or beyond the midpoint when using both comp and tortion is noisy. Also, where you use it in your effects chain can have a good or bad effect. I settled on using it on all the time with low dis'tortion and comp around half way. This is the first box in the chain, next comes a Vox 810 pedal for the overdriven tube simulation , then the ART multi effects pedal for reverb, flange, delay, etc. This seems to help my Rickenbacker 380 Laguna achieve effortless and eternal sustain at low volume on the Vox Pathfinder for the low volume and my Crate gxt100 for higher volume levels. It really gets the AX7 pre amp stage to emit that warm tubey sound.

Have only used it 2 weeks. Seems to be built like a tank, but it is physically very small- a plus for going to rehearsal, just put it in the guitar case or throw it into the back of the combo amp. I will gig with it, the 810 will back it up with a little knob fiddling.

never dealt with 'em.

I play mostly a pop/rock sound of all original tunes. If I had to emulate a guitarist I would say Tom Scholz for the rock sounds and Pete Anderson ( dwight yoakum) for the 'billy tunes. My rig can approximate the signature tones of these guys. ( I said approximate!!)
I chose the comptortion because I want to use as few effects as possible and it was becoming obvious that I needed a compressor for the extra sustain at low volume and the nice clip for the country twang. the distortion was a plus as is the tone control to help brighten the 380's humbuckers.
I would probably buy this toy again if it was lost or the thief got away alive.

There are only 4 knobs: Level, Tone, Distortion and Compression.

I bought this last week and used it yesterday in a "basement band" jam. The distortion, to my ears, was not as good sounding as some of the other Tech21 distortion sounds. The compression, anytime I set the control knob past 12 o'clock, amplified every touch I made to the guitar strings, even miking every touch I made to the pickguard area, in a "microphonic" type way. It certainly compressed as advertised, but was essentially useless because of the unwanted sounds. (I was using a Fender Deluxe on 3-4 volume, with a Paul Reed Smith bolt on EG guitar).

I would not use it on a real gig- too noisy. I returned it yesterday afternoon.

I have talked with Tech 21 on other product questions. They have been extremely helpful, in general, and make some other great products,

The idea of making a pedal that has both distortion and compression, able to be used independently or combined, is great. For me, the compression seemed almost too "hot", making every touch to the guitar body microphonic, even at low volumes. I was not able to get to the "sweet spot" of the pedal, assuming there is one.