compression on the brainz

In my opinion, yes. I would pretty much always use my Boss CS-3 for ringy Johnny Marr-ish type of stuff where I want individual notes to ring out among half and full chords. I'd say it does make the overall sound fuller and less tinny, and you get a nice attacky 'pop' with the single notes.

**i wish i could get sounds that would wash over everything else in a more sustained kind of way than i'm used to**

I don't know the YLT song you refer to, but I'm guessing the sort of thing you're after is a shoegazy wash of sustaining chords? If you're thinking of using a fair bit of overdrive or distortion on the basic sound, I'm not sure that a compressor-sustainer is ideal. You can certainly get massive sustain, but you tend to lose a lot of detail. I guess this isn't surprising when you think about what a compressor does.

As a disclaimer I should add that I am only familiar with the CS-3 and there may be other pedals that would get you there.

the thing i have found with compression is that it's subtle, but easy to over-use. too much and everything's flat, with no dynamics. spend a while playing and finding the sweet spot, once you do it does impart a nice ringing sustainy fatness, it's like adding MSG to your tone or something

good. my tone DEFINITELY needs some more umami.

brooker: yeah, right now i use a fulltone fulldrive 2, and its pretty dope. in certain settings, it does help to get the sounds i'm talking about (like the cleaner distortion setting with tone low and overdrive high gets nice ringing high notes, or putting on dirtier "vintage" distortion and turning the tone down on my guitar, i get a decent but not great sludgy, shoegazer sound). but I feel like chaining the fulltone with something else, I could beef those sounds up and not lose the ability to add more distortion later in a song.

and so the cs-2 is just the old version of the cs-3? why are they priced so disparately on ebay (i see one about to go for like $20 and another hitting $135) what do you think i should be willing to pay? that kind of seems like a good option, becuase the only complaints i read about the cs-3 is that it's not that transparent and real touchy.

brooker: yeah, right now i use a fulltone fulldrive 2, and its pretty dope. in certain settings, it does help to get the sounds i'm talking about (like the cleaner distortion setting with tone low and overdrive high gets nice ringing high notes, or putting on dirtier "vintage" distortion and turning the tone down on my guitar, i get a decent but not great sludgy, shoegazer sound). but I feel like chaining the fulltone with something else, I could beef those sounds up and not lose the ability to add more distortion later in a song.

and so the cs-2 is just the old version of the cs-3? why are they priced so disparately on ebay (i see one about to go for like $20 and another hitting $135) what do you think i should be willing to pay? that kind of seems like a good option, becuase the only complaints i read about the cs-3 is that it's not that transparent and real touchy.

one helpful way to get your upper chording more solid is to run through fingerings in all their permutations. I mean to 'make' the chord one finger by finger, in all different orders possible. most people make each shape in one way, which is a lot of times not the most efficient way to voicelead to the next shape. gah this is making me want to rant on about a hundred other things to do. well, not really wanting, but feeling like a should. I guess every bit of advice could easily be summed up by saying 'get a decent instructor'

whatev

the preamp is cleaner than vc1 - the controls are interactive so your guitar vol defines how hard you hit the preamp, the preamp gain defines how hard you hit the compressor etc. you've got full variables not just one knob so you can tweak it right into ye zone

it does it all, sustain (8 miles high), wind off the attack and you get to hear the pick on the strings, w/fast release on aggressive rock music it sounds like explosive energy :) i was worried at first that it might be more polite than the vc1 but if anything, it's even sicker at it's extremities.

my spies tell me there's a stompbox version coming up.

What the pedal does is lower the volume of the louder parts at the beginning of the note so the sustained part sounds louder and seems to last longer by comparison.

What you will get out of a compressor in your situation will always be a little less than optimal sustain. As has been mentioned before, a Les Paul will outdo your strat every time. The problem is the fact that the energy of the strings is not transmitted very well to the resonant structure of the body of the guitar. This is due to both the bolt-on neck and the tremelo bridge.

LPs may have fixed bridges, but their bridges make less firm contact over a smaller area(unless you're floating a 2 point trem).

A bolt neck can actually make firmer contact than a set neck depending on the quality of either connection.

many factors involved there...