BOSS CS3 COMPRESSOR/SUSTAINER review by Cornwall Guitar Lessons

BOSS CS3 COMPRESSOR/SUSTAINER review by Cornwall Guitar Lessons

Here is the first Guitar pedal review of 2014! This times it’s the Boss CS3. I will start with a little info on this pedal, as many people are completely lost when it comes to Compressor pedals.

The Boss CS3 is to be used with an electric guitar; its main function is to compress the high signals and boost the low signals within your sound, helping you create sustain. The compression basically evens out your playing making notes appear to be at equal volumes regardless of how hard you attack the string. This makes it a great pedal for Funk and Country players trying to create an even and rounded sound.

The make up of the CS-3 Compression is pretty straightforward, with just four knobs that each control a different aspect of your sound. On the far right to left you have Level, Tone, Attack, Sustain, you could mess around with this pedal for hours creating different sounds. The build of the pedal is the usual Boss tank job, very sturdy and made to last. I have always liked this design as you can hit it as hard as you want when gigging and you know your not going to break it.

Price wise, this pedal is not to bad, generally costing around £65-£70 and around £35-£45 on EBay. There are a huge amount of pedals in the same price range on the market now, some even cheaper than this. But the Boss brand goes a long way! Which makes it a lot easier to sell if you don’t get on with it.

So what did I think of the pedal? Well I found it very hard to work with to be honest, I bought it on the off chance that it would sit nicely on my board and it would be an essential member of my pedal collection.
At first I loved it and thought it sounded amazing, and I felt it improved my overall guitar tone, but it did seem to create a slight hum which I couldn’t get rid off when being used with other pedals. I am a big fan of my Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face and this combined with the Boss CS3 just sounded a mess, It also sounded made my Bad Monkey overdrive sound a little muddy. I am not saying this isn’t a good pedal; it just didn’t work for the sounds I want to create. After trying it on a daily basis for over a week I decided it just wasn’t for me, and I put it back into the world of EBay and spent the money on a new pedal ☺

Overall I think the pedal was pretty great, I just struggled to find a purpose for it within the music I enjoy playing. I will continue to look for a Compression pedal that works for me; I have heard great things about the MXR dyna comp, so watch this space.

Xotic EP Booster review – Cornwall Guitar Lessons

Xotic EP Booster review - Cornwall Guitar Lessons

I have continued my pedal buying and selling obsession over the last few weeks in search of my perfect combination of pedals! My latest is the Xotic EP booster.

I have previously used a MXR micro amp and Boss GE-7 as the main boost pedal on my board, both of which are amazing but I was never 100% happy with them. After several recommendations and great online reviews I finally decided to buy this pedal. It took me around two weeks to find a shop that actually sells them in the UK, turns out these boutique pedals are hugely popular and sell out very quickly. When it arrived I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the wait.

The EP booster circuit is said to be based on the famous Maestro EP-3 Echoplex made famous by players like Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Jimmy page and Eddie Van Halen (the list goes on). At first glance it’s quite surprising how small this pedal is, making it perfect for pedal boards of all sizes. The pedal is extremely simple, stomp on the switch to get a clean volume boost, when stomping the switch a bright blue LED will light up, stomp on it again to switch it off. There is one single knob that controls the amount of boost you have, and it goes stupidly loud without affecting the tone of your guitar. In fact the pedal seems to round of your tone and make it seem thicker in some way, it’s very hard to describe exactly what it’s doing….but when using this pedal the original frequencies in my guitar sound that are pleasing seem to shine through even more. If the pedal wasn’t so expensive I would have two of them on my board.

The tonal options for this pedal are revealed once you remove the back plate of the pedal. There are two dipswitches, which allow you to change the EQ of the pedal. After messing about with all the variations possible I currently have mine set to the default settings. I am currently using the pedal after my drive pedals on my board rather then before them. I have tried it both ways but do prefer it after.

The only down side to this pedal is that you can only mess about with the EQ options by removing the back plate, it would be great if these switches were on the front of the pedal.

Overall I would say this is a must have pedal. It is simple yet extremely effective. It is a boutique pedal and therefore has the price tag that goes with it, but if you are willing to part with the cash you will not be disappointed.