Tokai TCO-2 Compressor

Simple. 3 knobs, level, sustain and attack. There isn't much difference between the minimum and maximum of the attack, but what you need for live guitar performance is in its range.

You can use 9V battery or stardard pedal adaptor.

Compression is a subtle effect and so shouldn't change your guitar sound too much, and this doesn't. It does its job very well with no change to the tone of your guitar. It goes well in front of my overdrive to push it a little harder when needed, and there isn't much noise at all, until you crank the sustain and level knobs up to max (but then you wouldn't do that, unless you were into experimental music with wierd noises).

This pedal sounds way better than the Boss CS-3 which is too over the top for my tastes. The Tokai is a traditional compressor with ample scope for most styles from country picking to metal.

Solid as arock, despite being made out of plastic. Switching is smooth and the red LED is very bright (great for outdoor gigs). Mine is made in Japan, and is quite old. However it is still going strong and is good for a few years yet.

Never used it. They don't make effects any more anyway.

A very good, down to earth, no nonsense pedal. Considering the price of some of the nasty sounding digital effects in the shops, these old analog Tokai's are fantastic value. I got mine off ebay for ??30 and was very pleased not to have to go to the shop and buy the Boss, or the utterly useless Danelectro pedal. I used to have one of the early Boss compressors and this compares well to that.

Also known as the Z-II compressor. Three knobs: attack (ie amount of compression), Level (volume) and Sustain (self explanatory) Not difficult to use as such, but it does require some initial tweakery & trial & error to find the best & most useable settings. Once you hit the proverbial sweet spot you're laughin'

Like most compressors it adds some noise if any knob is past 12 o'clock, particularily the attack & sustain knobs, but I play fairly primitive caveman rock'n'roll most of the time & so only use this sparingly as an occasional lead boost or to add a bit of colour to solos etc, so bottom line, the noise isn't even heard 'cos I'm playing over it, dig? I tried a Boss CS-3 & it was noisier AND sounded cold, sterile & generic, which this old Tokai definitely doesn't. Put it first in your chain before a decent OD or distortion pedal & it'll tighten and polish the sound nicely and not too much. It can even make a DS-1 sound good. Not much volume, however. Be prepared to leave the level switch on at least 3 o'clock for parity with your amp. Yeah, I know, ridiculous. At least Boss always got that part right.

Battery wire needed to be replaced when I got it. Otherwise dandy. Has been played hard over the last 20-odd years & has the scars to prove it, but it's in a very tough thick plastic casing. That's the only difference between this & the earlier TCO-1, which was in a Boss-style metal casing & looked slightly less 80s-dated. Plastic be-damned, you could still brain someone with it if you needed to... Sound & build quality on Tokai pedals is comparable to the old MIJ Boss jobs. It'll run perfectly on a Boss adaptor too

Tokai have long been run out of town on the pedals front. A shame in truth....their guitars still rule though. Well, the Japanese ones anyway

17 (and counting) draining years of trying to master the axe, 12 of fronting, backing & siding bands. Used to be a believer in the Gibson legend. Went Jap & have never looked back. Owned a fair amount of stuff which I won't list, as personally it bores the eyes clean off me when I read reviewers rattling off what's in their rig. For the price I paid, this old Tokai pedal is a winner. Does what I need it to w/ no fuss.
I like the rarity factor too. Nothing I hate. They're still reasonably priced on the used market, but don't seem to come around very often, so I'd probably bite the bullet & pony up for a Maxon CP-101 if this went tits up or was stolen.