DIAMOND Bass Compressor

More knobs kinda sucks IMO. I have enough choices in my life, I don't need a bunch of knobs on a pedal. btw, the Diamond Bass Comp is the best sounding pedal bass compressor I've used.

 

Moar knobs!

It just depends on your musical tastes. Some people really want those extra knobs, they want that control. Other players don't require those fiddly bits. I would say that if the Diamond Compressor is working for you, stick with it for a few more months. Get to know it, love it, take it out to dinner and a movie. Then make your decision on changing to the Empress or other compressors with that many fiddle bits.

 

IMO the Empress is a much better value to the Diamond as they are comparable in sound (with the Diamond EQ knob at noon) and the Empress is capable of so much more. Learning what to do with all those knobs is a skill I believe all bass players could benifit from. The Empress also has a killer display to aid Compression newbs in understanding what all the controls do.

 

I just got my Diamond BCP-1, it sounds killer. After reading Bongos compressor reviews and talking to him it came down to this or the empress for me. I tried out the markbass compressor not to long ago but the size and power supply needed didn't work for me. The Diamond sounds just like Bongo describes it, it fattens up your tone if you want it to, or improves sustain and adds subtle compression.

 

Last week I picked up a Diamond Compressor CPR-1 as the bass version BCP-1 was not in stock and I also play 6 string guitar. I use it mainly with my passive Jazz Bass and it's a delight. I decided to add this post for those, like myself, who are unsure if they need to get the bass version.




It's true what Bongo says.. this thing is absolutely silent (which is more than I can say for the JB!). No swelling noise floor after each note.

Before using this pedal I didn't really understand what "transparency" really meant but this pedal compresses with little of the "clamp down" effect evident in most other compressors I have tried. If you are looking for that effect then you may need a pedal with a higher compression ratio.

I like the "Tilt" EQ feature, it gives what is described as a 'musical' equalisation to the tone, but I have a feeling it will remain in the mid detent position.

Build quality is great and it looks robust. I power it with a 12v adapter but according to the manual it will accept up to 24v. I'm unsure if a higher voltage is a benefit with the CPR-1 but I understand that the BCP-1 gains more headroom with higher voltage supply.

The BCP-1 EQ caters for a low B string on a fiver but as I struggle with just 4 strings that isn't important to me.

I can highly recommend this pedal.

 

Ordered one from ebay this week. We'll see how I like it compared to the FEA opti I had in the past. Less knobs is good for your typical Joe that cannot set a complicated comp eazily.

 

I was about to do that just this morning. Got the Pwnzor yesterday - I was obviously mislead in what its specialty was. Liked the Demeter and Joe Meek, but it seemed apparent I was looking for an FEA, Empress or Carl Martin. Borrowed the Carl Martin from a friend across town just a few hours ago and that's it. Dead quite, nimble, massive headroom, a wide range of control across the spectrum and it smooths out the Orange Squeezer side of the AM really well for certain techniques. Doesn't seem to flinch. I can feed it just about anything and it rallies it into submission with the grace of Nannie McFee.

Two complaints: hardwired (though that accounts for such a low noise floor and massive headroom) and it's asthetically ugly. Nothing sexy about the text or purple triangle, but it sure sounds killer!

Good luck.

 

i have no problem whatsoever with a lot of knobs (i'm well aware of how to use them), but there's something that the diamond does (IMO, sounds awesome) with only three controls than my others do with five or six of them (input/threshold, attack, decay, ratio, level, blend etc), so in this particular case, for me i think having less controls is better.

 

If the few knobs are musical, than I agree.

 

I reckon im due to order a BCP-1 myself. I was so set on the MXR M87 but im not sure I need much limiting in my current project, and the tone from the Diamond sounds like the way to go now.

 

Received mine, did some quickie testing last night. Some quick comments on my initial impression. Keep in mind I'm not a compression guru, though I use compression occasionally and have owned a couple other analog pedal and rack compressors in the past.

* Super easy to use.
* Su-u-u-per quiet.
* The "smooth" action / sound eats your attack, and since there's no attack control it's just how it's going to sound. But it does sound really good. But you're not going to get a sharp attack out of this box from what I can tell.
* The "fat" tone comes from using the integrated EQ and rolling it counter-clockwise to boost the lows. It can REALLY boost the lows. But note that while it fattens the low, it then rolls off the highs at the same time. With the EQ at center detent (effectively off) it's pretty transparent.
* Doesn't necessarily work well with other FX in front of it. I tried feeding my monster gated bass fuzz from my Devi Ever Supercollider and it compressed the volume so much it made the fuzz unusable, I couldn't really figure out why. I don't have another analog comp to compare to, but the digital comps on my Zoom B3 didn't have the same issue with killing the output volume of the fuzz. And my Muff fuzz didn't have the same volume issue.

Overall it seems awesome for finger style compression.

 

Discovered you can use judicious EQ control as something approaching a LPF. Set high compression, serious low end boost (which also seriously cuts the highs), and you have yourself some seriously fat reggae type tones particularly when played with the thumb.

 

Ordered mine last night

 

1+ on the Diamond Bass Comp

I love mine !! To me the big plus-point is the EQ knob