I used to not care about using a compressor—unless I was in the studio and wanted to add a little zazz to a solo. The additional sustain and tightly focused mids that a compressor helped me achieve were inspiring. Eventually, I began to wonder if a compressor would help give my guitar the tone and response I typically enjoyed at louder stage volumes in smaller, quieter rooms. As I began hunting for a compressor for those gigs, I ran across the original, now discontinued, Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe. I was intrigued by its, um, origin.
The Cali76’s circuitry was inspired by the famed Urei 1176 outboard compressor, which has lived in the racks of some of the world’s finest studios and appeared on recordings by well, just about everyone. Although I was skeptical that so much squeeze-ability could fit in a 5 1/2" x 3" x 2" enclosure, the FET-based device proved to be a star—not only on my low-volume-gig board, but among many players in the world at large. Today, the Cali76 is recognized for getting about as close to a vintage rackmount 1176 as a stompbox gets.
Reduxed and Revamped
Over the years, the U.K.-made Cali76 has seen other iterations, but this new version is notably smaller—not nano- or mini-sized, but roughly the same size as a Boss pedal. The enclosure’s bedrock quality is the same as earlier Cali76s—a gleaming brick of brushed steel with six sturdy control dials that feels like it could be dropped from space and survive the impact. The controls remain dry, out, in, ratio, attack, and release. The dry function is crucial for tone hunters. It allows you to blend your guitar’s compressed and unprocessed signal—a technique often called parallel compression started at Motown for recording vocals that had a renaissance in New York City mix studios in the ’90s. There’s also a 9V DC input (sorry batteries, but you haven’t got the muscle or the room), a 200 mA draw, a solid and smooth on/off switch, and the usual mono in and out.
But the new, all-analog Cali76 FET Compressor also features a few important upgrades. The single flashing jewel light of previous models has been replaced with a 10-LED gain reduction meter, arranged in linear fashion, to present a more precise illustration of compression level as well as the duration and intensity of the gain reduction. There’s also a lot more headroom: The 9 volts flowing into the new pedal are increased internally to 24 volts, so you can let it rip while keeping your tone natural, responsive, and focused.
Side by Side
I thought it would be fun to place the Cali76 FET Compressor and its older sibling together in my pedal chain, after some overdrives and fuzzes, and before some delays and a trail-heavy reverb. Although both pedals functioned essentially the same, the more precise 10-LED meter was an immediate improvement over the flashing red (no compression), orange (activated compression), and yellow (heading toward maximum compression) colors of the single jewel light on my old Cali76 Compact Deluxe, which I’ve found confusing for its rapid changes of hue, as well as less-effective performance on colorfully lighted stages.
With its ability to internally step 9 volts up to 24, the extra headroom makes the new Cali76 FET sound much more organic and more like my guitar’s pure tone, and I even hear and feelimproved response to picking dynamics at low volume, which you don't always expect from a compressor. Tone is enhanced across the EQ spectrum. I heard richer mids and trebles and more sparkling presence than in my Compact Deluxe. I also heard more-singing sustain than with my older compressor engaged. It’s quite nice, but whether you prefer the potentially darker tone of the elder unit to the transparency of the new one is a matter of taste.
The rest of the control set still does exactly what you’d expect, and very well at that. The “in” dial increases the incoming signal and amount of compression, while the attack dial changes the setting from slow to fast by moving clockwise. Slow equals percussive and bright, while a fast attack time setting lets the compressor grab transients early on, making for a smooth, less percussive, and aurally soothing attack, which I prefer. Likewise, slower settings on the release dial provide more sustain. And the ratio control adjusts the amount of gain reduction on the compressed signal, ranging from a minimum ratio of 4:1 and a maximum of 20:1.
The Verdict
If you’ve never played with a studio compressor, you might experience a sharper learning curve with the Cali76 FET than with, say, a more affordable MXR Dyna Comp or Keeley 2-knob device. But if it fits your budget, it’s worth exploring the rich, complex, and essentially organic sounds that the new Cali76 FET Compressor can achieve.
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But by gosh, if delay—and its sister effect, reverb—haven’t always been perfect for the music I like to write and play. Which brings us to the Fishman EchoBack Mini Delay. The EchoBack, along with the standard delay controls of level, time, and repeats—as well as a tap tempo—has a toggle to alternate between analog, tape, and digital-delay voices.
I hooked up my Washburn Bella Tono Elegante to my Blues Junior to give the EchoBack a test run. We love a medium delay—my usual preference for delay settings is to have both level and repeats at 1 o’clock, and time at 11 o’clock. With the analog voice switched on, I heard some pillowy warmth in the processed signal, as well as a familiar degradation with each repeat—until their wake gave way to a gentle, distant, crinkly ticking. Staying on analog and adjusting delay time down to 8 o’clock and repeats to about 11:30, some cozy slapback enveloped my rendition of Johnny Marr’s part to “Back to the Old House,” conjuring up thoughts of Elvis trapped in a small chamber, but in a good way. It sounded indubitably authentic. The one drawback of analog delay for me, generally, is that its roundness can feel a bit under water at times.
Switching over to tape, that pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top. With the settings at the medium-length mode listed above, I could see the empty, glass hall the pedal sent my sound bouncing down. I heard several pronounced pings of repeats before the signal fully faded out. On slapback settings (time at 8 o’clock, repeats at 11:30), rather than Elvis, I heard something more along the lines of a honky-tonk mic in a glass bottle. Still relatively crystalline, which actually was not my favorite. I like a bit more crinkle—so maybe analog is my bag....“That pillowy warmth evaporated, and in its place came a very clear, pristine replication of my tone—but with just a bit of the highs shaved off the top.”
Next up, digital. Here we have the brightest voice, and as expected, the most faithful repeats. They ping just a few times before shifting to a smooth, single undulating wave. When putting its slapback hat on, I found that the effect was a bit less alluring than I’d observed for the analog and tape voices. This is where the digital delay felt a little too sterile, with the cleanly preserved signal feeling a bit unnatural.
All in all, I dig the EchoBack for its replications of analog and tape voices, and ultimately, lean towards tape. While it’s nice having the digital delay there as an option, it feels a bit too clean when meddling with time of any given length. Nonetheless, this is surely a handy stomp for any acoustic player looking to venture into the land of live effects, or for those who are already there.
