Compressor meessing with my fuzz!

[sk8]

had a Dave Hall Amps Bass Fuzzy feeling on my board for a while and love its fat deep fuzz tones in the mix. I recently added a Maxon CP9pro+ compressor to my board and when engaged its making the fuzz stutter and sound glitchy, something i'm not liking.

I've played with all the settings on the maxon but it does it whatever setting i use. The compressor is before the fuzz in the chain.

I don't like using a compressor at the end so i'm just turning it off at the moment when using the fuzz. Is there a logical explanation as to what its doing to the fuzz?

Since added it i've had to tweak my other dirt pedals on the board as i'm guessing they are not getting the signal spikes they used to

May just remove the compressor anyway but wondered if there was any advice anyone could give

Thanks in advance

[bassballs_dk]

On my board the compressor comes after the fuzz, have you tried that? I think that the fuzz has trouble dealing with the compressed signal.

[sk8]

don't like a compressor at the end of the chain as i mentioned but maybe i should give it a go

[Arranger]

My (old style) ProCo Rat responds better to a compressor in front of it. I've had trouble with other distortion boxes losing their signal after compression. I'm using a Carl Martin compressor.

Lately, I've dropped compression altogether and concentrated on my playing. Compression seems to neuter my expression. In some situations, however, a compressor is absolutely necessary to deal with unique acoustic conditions. It also helps a lot during recording.

[Mark Olson]

Having that compressor on before the fuzz is buffering your signal before the fuzz. A lot of fuzzes don't like to see a buffered signal whether it be by a pedal buffering your sound while on, or buffered bypass, or with active electronics. Placing the compressor directly after the fuzz should solve the problem.

[G.Bisson]

I'm using the same compressor as you and have found it best to put fuzz and distortion before the compressor and overdrive after. It isn't necessary to put your comp at the end of your chain, just put it right after your fuzz pedal.

Fuzz pedals rely on the dynamics from your playing to cause clipping. A compressor reduces dynamics so less clipping occurs, and you hear the circuit stuttering instead.
Clipping fuzz also achieves the same peak limiting function as using a compressor so there isn't much need to use the two together. I still use compression on after fuzz for the purpose of making weak notes louder and restoring sustain, because fuzz pedals cause rapid note decay.

[sk8]

thanks for the replies guys. Look like i need to re jig the pedal board

[bongomania]

It has exactly nothing to do with the signal being compressed, and everything to do with the buffer.

However it's true that fuzz is also compression, so I tend to use one or the other, not both at once.

[sk8]

thanks bongo. That makes sense

[sk8]

Bizarrely i put new strings on and the problems gone away and all my dirt pedals sound like they used to!!!!