Visual Sound V2 Comp 66 Pedal Review

Since its introduction in 1999, fans of Visual Sound’s Route 66 stomp box have been requesting the compressor channel as a single pedal. They will cheer the release of Comp 66 as it enters the increasingly crowded field of compressor stompboxes.

Comp 66 has controls for gain and compression. There is no attack control—the attack time is slow at lower compression settings and gets faster as you turn up the Comp knob. I found cranking the Comp made it easy to get a full helping of Dyna Comp-like squeeze. Adding compression also increased sustain, evened out the volume of all the voices in a chord, and the level of the notes that I picked—more in the warm, uncolored style of a studio compressor than in the more obvious style of some stompboxes. Backing the compression control off allowed more attack through for a subtlety unobtainable with MXR and BOSS units.

The Visual Sound version also offers a tone control that can be switched on with a mini-toggle. With the tone control off, this is one of the most transparent pedal compressors I have ever heard—what goes in, comes out. Still, the tone control proved useful for adding treble to help funk chords cut, and to restore highs lost to long cables. Since you can back the compression control all the way off and use the Comp 66 as a clean boost, I found that turning the tone control down when I kicked in the pedal for solos helped fatten out Strat single coils.

With its transparency, warm sound, and many uses, the Comp 66 is set up nicely to compete with Keeley, Diamond and Demeter in the world of high-quality compressor pedals. – MR

Buy If...
you are looking for warm, variable, transparent compression.
Skip If...
you hate compression, or need an even smaller footprint
Rating...

MSRP $178 - Visual Sound - visualsound.net