CS3 Modded vs. Carl Martin

musicchad · #1 08-05-2009, 01:02 PM

Hey all! I've got a stock CS3 and am truly not impressed with it... I'm considering springing for the Carl Martin optical compressor, an Alesis NanoComp that a friend has offered for a good trade, or doing the Monte Allums CS3 mod.

What do you think? I'll use this primarily for bass, although I also delve into acoustic guitar and electric on occasion. Thanks in advance for your help!

rpsands · #2 08-05-2009, 02:54 PM

Have you checked out Bongomania's site? Ovnilab.com I think it is, with tons of reviews.

You can score BBE Opto Comps on Ebay for like 67 bucks right now IIRC, so might be a good call to try one of those, based on Bongo's reviews.

Also, heard super good things about the modded CS3, so might be better to do that before buying a very expensive pedal.

bongomania · #3 08-05-2009, 02:59 PM

Of the ones you have listed, I think my order of preference (best to least) would be:

Carl Martin Classic Opto
modded CS-3
BBE Opto
Nanocomp

rpsands · #4 08-05-2009, 03:17 PM

Reminds me - not to sidetrack, but do you know, Bongo, what the deal is with the "fizzy" artifact you described on the Opto is?

My Opto is out for modding at the moment and I was wondering if you thought that'd be something easy to correct parts-wise.

bongomania · #5 08-05-2009, 03:51 PM

Regrettably I don't know exactly which parts to "attack". It's an artifact of the signal crossing the threshold, so perhaps the opamp or other component that actually reduces the signal in response to the opto action could be replaced. In some opto comps there is no opamp, the resistive part of the LDR is what drops the levels directly. In that case, perhaps a better quality LDR would help.