Recorded direct with a passive Fender Deluxe P using PreSonus FireStudio and PreSonus Studio One 3
Clip 1 - Blend at noon, sensitivity at 3 o’clock, tone at 3 o’clock, and output at 2 o’clock.
RatingsPros:Compact. The clean control. Wide range of compression tones. Cons: Tightly packed controls. Tone maxed with fast attack engaged can cause clipping. Street: $149 street MXR Dyna Comp Bass jimdunlop.com | Tones:  Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
The MXR Dyna Comp has been an almost-iconic staple for many guitarists since its introduction, as in, like, a lot of people use one. So, suppose we could take the same CA3080 circuit, put it in a really small pedal chassis, provide more control options for our tone, and do it all with bassists in mind? Enter the MXR Dyna Comp Bass, a tiny compression pedal with some extra features packed in, built specifically for low enders.
Mini Me
When opening the box for the Dyna Comp Bass, the first thing you might notice is that the power-adapter box is larger than the pedal itself. This mini-format compressor is about as small as one can make a pedal these days, and for a travel rig or someone who doesn’t want much more than a tuner onstage, the Dyna Comp Bass can speak volumes.
It has the familiar output and sensitivity controls from the original Dyna Comp. This mini also houses a clean (wet/dry blend) control, which dials in the uneffected tone to taste for maintaining low-end integrity. There’s also a tone control, which cuts or boosts the midrange 7 dB at 1 kHz, allowing you to add a little sparkle to your tone as well. The topside switch governs the speed of the attack.
Small Yet Ferocious
I ran the Dyna Comp Bass through an Eden WTP900 and matching D212XLT cabinet, and plugged in a Fender Deluxe P bass with passive pickups. I dialed in a couple of great sounds right away, with my favorite-control vote going to the clean knob. When I set it at about 3 o’clock, my P was allowed to breathe and sound expressive, so the vibe of my tone was able to bump through nicely. Conversely, turning the clean knob close to all the way down (counterclockwise) and dialing the sensitivity to taste gave me a wonderfully squashed, indie-rock-style bass tone.
The tone control is a nice tool for midrange sculpting, though diming the knob created a tone a bit too aggressive for my taste, and could also cause my signal to break up. (For some, that could be a desired effect.) Meanwhile, the attack switch functions as a toggle between a vintage- (slow attack) or modern-sounding (fast attack) compression. It’s a great option to have onboard for a quick tweak if needed. I favored the smooth feeling of the vintage setting because of the additional room it gave my bass to breathe. For a more aggressive, modern player, however, a faster, more aggressive attack to help clamp down on the transients is just a click away.
The VerdictThe MXR Dyna Comp Bass is compact, budget-friendly, and will likely make a splash. Whether you are new to the compression game or a seasoned pro, this mini-format pedal offers quite the range of tonal possibilities, and crams in some great tools for its primary purpose: evening out your signal. There’s only so much real estate here, so the controls are a bit tight, but you probably won’t be making a ton of adjustments once you find your set-and-forget sound anyhow. If you really need to make compression changes that often, heck, get two! They’ll fit.
Chops: Intermediate Theory: Intermediater Lesson Overview: • Learn different ways to arrange scales. • Combine various sequences to create more intersting lines. • Solidify your technique by practicing unusual groupings of notes. Click here to download a printable PDF of this lesson's notation. |
Neutrik’s Timbre plug, made for toggling between capacitors.
Let’s begin with some typical additional capacitance values that certain lengths of cable (or capacitors) can bring to your system:
• 10’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 3 meters) -> 1 nF
• 15’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 4.5 meters) -> 1.5 nF
• 20’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 6 meters) -> 2.2 nF
• 30’ vintage coiled cable (approx. 9 meters) -> 3.3 nF
• Ritchie Blackmore-style, ultra-long vintage coiled cable -> 4.7 nF
I listed standard values here, so you should have no problem getting caps to match them in any local electronics store or online; the type of cap doesn’t really matter and will mostly be dominated by size, but I’ll share more about this in a minute.
Let’s quickly summarize the first installment of this column from last month’s issue: From a technical point of view, added capacitance shifts down the resonance frequency of the pickups, so they sound fatter, especially when using overdrive. This is exactly the reason why a lot of distortion and fuzz boxes with a vintage voicing use an additional cap at the input section; the resulting overdriven tone is fat and warm.
This month’s mod, which involves adding a capacitor to your signal, works best with vintage-flavored single-coil pickups (approximately 2.4 H inductance) or a typical old-school PAF-style pickup (approximately 3.8 H inductance). Modern high-output pickups are often sporting inductances of 6 H to 8 H, and don’t sound very good with this mod—when adding more cable capacitance to such pickups, the result is a dull and wooly tone without any clearness and definition. If you want to make your single-coil guitar sound more Les Paul-ish, you should try a 4.7n capacitor. It will shift the resonance frequency of your single-coil pickups down to the typical PAF ballpark, making for a very cool and usable old-fashioned guitar tone. It might feel a little muffled when playing clean, but ultra fat and punchy when using overdrive! In general, values higher than 4.7n are not recommended.
We have two options for where to install our cap.
On the Guitar Cable
This is the easiest location to add additional capacitance to your system, with several mod options:
1. The lightest mod ever isn’t a mod at all—it’s to simply buy a vintage guitar cable and plug it in whenever you need it! I don’t know of any company that offers modern guitar cables with intentionally high capacitance.
2. The Neutrik company offers a special angled plug, called the Timbre Plug, that you can solder to any guitar cable of your choice. The plug has a 4-way rotary knob on top to toggle between different capacitors. In addition to a bypass setting, the plug offers capacitances of 1nF, 2.2nF, and 3.3nF, letting you simulate different cable lengths on the fly.
3. You can add an additional capacitor to any guitar cable of your choice to convert it into a “longer-sounding” cable. You simply open one of the plugs to solder the cap between the hot and ground—that’s it. Small, 2.5 mm contact spacing ceramic caps are easy to put into a standard plug and are your weapon of choice here. It’s essential to only add the additional cap to one of the two plugs, but it doesn’t matter if you plug this side into your guitar, an effect, or your amp. This method allows you to build yourself some cables that simulate their older, longer relatives.
You can add an additional capacitor to any guitar cable of your choice to convert it into a “longer-sounding” cable.
Photo courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
Inside the Guitar
You can also add a cap (or several) inside your guitar if you only need this mod for one instrument. If you’re looking for added capacitance with all your guitars, you’d be better off choosing one of the techniques mentioned above.
1. The easiest way is to solder your additional capacitor directly to your volume pot; this way it has a fixed value that can’t be changed and is always engaged. This operation is very simple to do, and you can use regular-sized caps for this.
You can add a cap (or several) inside your guitar if you only need this mod for one instrument.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
2. If you want to make the cap switchable, such that you can run it either bypassed or engaged, you can install a SPST mini toggle switch or use half of a push-pull or push-push pot, which usually sport a DPDT switch underneath.
This drawing shows how to make your additional cap switchable.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
3. If you want to use more than one cap to simulate different cable lengths, your weapon of choice is a rotary switch, setting up a kind of Gibson Varitone wiring without the inductor. Because we are switching capacitances, it is essential to run an additional 10 meg resistor in parallel to each of the caps, and to use a make-before-break, not a break-before-make, rotary switch to prevent loud popping noises when using the switch while your guitar is plugged into an amp. Leave the first lug of the rotary switch open for the bypass position without an additional cap.
If you want to use more than one cap to simulate different cable lengths, use a rotary switch.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
4. If you want to make this mod even more flexible, you can add an additional “cable simulator pot” to your system. The pot should have the same resistance as your volume pot, and should be wired to your volume pot. This way, for example, you can add a 3.3nF or 4.7nF cap to the extra pot, and dial in as much cable capacitance as you like.
You can also add an additional “cable simulator pot” to your system.
Illustration courtesy SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
On the Pedalboard
The idea of putting a rotary switch or cable-simulator-pot solution into an external unit to create a kind of extra-capacitance stompbox to use with all of your instruments is just around the corner, and yes, it’s possible! However, I don’t recommend this, because it’s physically located after the volume pot in the guitar, which means less volume (no unity gain) and less high end. But don’t worry: If you are looking for a pedalboard solution to simulate different cable lengths (which, as we defined earlier, means to shift the resonance frequency of the pickups), there are some active solutions on the market offering such a feature, usually in combination with a boost or buffer functionality. To name just a few, you should look into the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster, Stellartone Micro Pedal, or the i2e Audio AG1.0 The PURR. Along with some other brands, these pedals will do the trick, and they’re not difficult to build if you are looking for a DIY solution.
So far, I’ve received several emails from readers asking for some more DIY guitar tools, so next month, we will look into some sustainable and environmentally friendly DIY guitar helpers—all of which you can build yourself easily by upcycling things you already have at home. Stay tuned!
Until then... keep on modding!
