Having an out-of-town guest is great, but by Day Three I was itching to get back to work and pick up the prize that I knew awaited me there – the latest addition to my growing HBE collection, the Compressor Retro, or CPR. (I already own a Big D overdrive and Dos Mos dual buffer/boost)
The first thing that greeted me when I opened up the box was the familiar hefty weight common to HBE pedals, and the knowledge that the weight is caused
not just by a fancy metal cover, but by the quality of the components within. I could see the colour of the pedal peeking out through the internal bubble wrap.
(Side note: The CPR I have is in a custom black/blue checkerboard pattern. The paint job is amazing!! It’s very Cheap Trick!!)
THE OUTSIDEThe external dimensions of the CPR are the same as the Big D and Dos Mos -- approx. 4.5” wide, 3.5” deep and 2” high. The right side of the pedal contains the input jack as well as the jack for the power supply, and the left side has the output jack. The top of the unit has only 3 controls on it: an ON/OFF switch (with the brightest LED I’ve ever seen!!), and two vintage chicken foot style knobs, labeled Sustain and Level. The paint job on my unit completely wraps around all 6 sides of the pedal. The bottom has the serial number sicker and 4 low-profile rubber feet.
THE INSIDEI eagerly removed the bottom screws to see what was inside the pedal; I’ve come to expect certain things when opening up a pedal from Joel Weaver (the brain behind HBE): point-to-point wiring from the input and output jacks (no PCB mounted jacks for HBE), thick power cables from the power supply jack, and premium components laid out on an immaculate circuit board. The CPR did not let me down in this regard – all of the oversized parts and layout I’ve come to expect were present in spades. The bottom plate also contains the battery clip (the 9v jack also connected to the circuit board via heavy duty red and black cable).
The actual circuit layout for this pedal seemed pretty simple compared to my other pedals; just a handful of resistors, capacitors, and a single IC. The large audio taper pots for the Sustain and Level controls could be seen bulging around the PCB.
THE TEST RIGI used the following system to test out the CPR: my TOC guitar (ESP body, Gajic Custom neck, OFR, Bare Knuckle Miracle Man in the bridge and Irish Tour in the neck); for gain I used the gain stage in my Rivera Knucklehead half stack as well as a mild OD from the Rivera and the HBE Big D overdrive pedal. A THD Hot Plate resides between the Rivera head and 4x12 cabinet.
HOW DOES IT SOUND?In short, pedal sounds
A M A Z I N G!! Even with the Sustain maxed out, there is very little noise from this pedal.
I began by playing with the gain maxed out on the Rivera and both controls at 9 o’clock. There was such little effect from the compressor, that I had to turn it up for a more dramatic effect to even hear what the CPR is doing; this is a VERY subtle, transparent compressor!
I ended up settling with both knobs at 12 o’clock, where I could easily discern between the effect being on and off, and then rolled it back to where the effect was transparent again, then back up, in an attempt to quantify what I was hearing.
When I put the Big D into the chain, it became much easier to hear what the CPR was doing.
So, what, exactly, did I notice with the CPR? Did I discern any improvement in tone?
The CPR is probably the best compressor pedal I’ve ever encountered; it’s very quite, very transparent, and does what it claims to do. That being said, I did notice that with fast riffing, the transient edge of the notes was dulled slightly. Of course, this is what a compressor is
supposed to do; however, I prefer to really hear the pick attack when playing fast, precise riffing.
(
Definition side note: transient means “sudden, sharp signal increase often referring to a sudden increase in sound volume or power”; in other words, the ‘attack’ of the pick on the string is a transient)
When playing leads, however, the CPR is a god send! The notes got slightly thicker, sustain was increased (of course), and harmonic content increased; getting screaming pinch harmonics was totally effortless, and I had a silly grin moment as I played entire passages with nothing but pinch harmonics!
COMPARING THE DOS MOS TO THE CPRI was very curious to hear how the tone changed by swapping out the CPR with the Dos Mos in buffer mode, since I was so pleased with the sound of the CPR in lead work. When used as a buffer in front of the Big D, the Dos Mos still does it for me in terms of tone and resolution.
CONCLUSIONI still have much more experimenting to do with the CPR, as this review encompasses only about 2 hours of actual playing time with the pedal. I have yet to try using the Dos Mos to CPR to Big D all in a row, for example; I will be doing this soon, as well as trying out the CPR for solos at gig volume with the rest of the band at rehearsal.
As far as compressors go, however, the CPR blows away all of the compressor pedals I’ve heard, and many of the rack mounted compressors, too! It embodies everything I’ve come to love about HBE -- the transparency, resolution, bullet proof construction, and uber quality of the effect itself. For my personal taste, the jury is still out on whether I would use it for rhythm work. But for solos, it’s a must have!! BUY OR DIE!!
