Electro-Harmonix Soul Preacher

My dad always used to say, “Son, some

people drive Fords and some people

drive Chevys.” I have no idea what that

says about me and my rusted-out ‘68

BMW 1600, or exactly what he was getting

at, but my guess is it’s that many

things in life are divided into two camps,

whether it’s Fender or Gibson, Democrat

or Republican, or the raging middle-class

debate over – yawn – Camry or Accord.

Generally, life hands you at least two

choices, and compressors are no different;

the choice being sparkly or squishy.

Yeah, I hear you, keep the technical jargon

down, but it’s true. High-end, studio grade

stuff, like the Teletronix LA-2A, can squish

if need be, but its real forte is offering up

loads of pre-squash compression and adding

a gorgeous sparkle to the high-end,

while focusing the bass frequencies, with

most other studio-quality compressors

behaving much the same.

On the other side of the compression

spectrum, you’ve got footpedal compressors.

First becoming popular with the

masses in the ‘70s – just in time for the

then-current quest for clean sustain –

squishy compressors tend to lack that topend

sparkle, but also add crazy amounts

of sustain and a kind of rubber band pop

to the strings. This makes them popular

with the country set, where speed-of-light

chicken pickin’ is the norm and the resulting

cascade of notes can use some help

with separation.

The EH Soul Preacher falls more in-line

with the squishy side of things, but without

the overt sacrifice of top-end sparkle.

With certain settings it can add a little,

but more importantly, it’s tough to find

any settings where it takes it away. It also

adds as much or as little squish as you

want, from let’s-wrangle-this-here-bottomend-

back-in-the-corral to full-on, Adrian

Belew-approved smoosh, all while staying

out of the treble frequency’s hair. Many

compressors in this price range don’t

offer as much usable tonal flexibility.

Adjusting the Sustain sets the amount

of compression and helps the Preacher

sound good with single coils and humbuckers

alike. I found single coils did well

with the Soul Preacher at pretty much

any Sustain setting, while humbuckers

started entering the point of diminishing

returns much past noon. The Attack control

comes with three very usable presets

labeled fast, med and slow, top to bottom.

The fast preset squishes the entire

signal, and I don’t know if it’s just due to

my point of reference, but this is where I

liked the Preacher the best, reminding me

of a particularly good, ‘70s type of compression.

The med preset lets the leading

edge of the transient through, then steps

on it. This seemed predominantly useful

for chordal work, or for getting some

crazy, Frippy sustain, even with clean

settings. Slow misses the initial attack

altogether, then comes down hard, and

when the Sustain knob is full up offers

a cool swell effect, giving credence to

EH’s suggestion of using this setting for

“funk chord comping or chunky rhythm

playing.”

If you’re looking for a squishy compressor,

but dig your tone as is, the Soul Preacher

would be my first recommendation. The

fact that it’s affordable and made by a

cool company can only be a bonus.

Electro-Harmonix

List $130.90

ehx.com

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