SFT and Compressor?

[Charley Umbria]

I've been playing around with the location of the Catalinbread SFT in my (admittedly short) pedal chain. One of the things that I love about the SFT is its dynamic response. Putting a buffered pedal, even a decent one in bypass, before the SFT seems to have a small, but noticable, effect on the SFT's response. As a result, the SFT is near the front of my chain.

I'm thinking about adding a compressor, and the conventional wisdom seems to be to put it at or near the front of the chain. However, I'm wondering what effect the compressor will have on the tone and response of the SFT.

Any compressed SFT users out there want to share their experience or suggestions?

 

[dannybuoy]

Conventional wisdom says to put the compressor at the beginning or end of the chain, or wherever it works best. I would not want a compressor before the SFT, as you say it will dampen it's touch sensitivity!

 

[Eric!]

It's not uncommon to see compressors being second in a chain, especially when the first pedal is a dynamically-sensitive dirt pedal. But, I cannot encourage this enough: Try it both ways! Try it every way! EVEN IF you think it won't sound good..try it anyway!

 

[Charley Umbria]

Agreed, Eric. Gotta decide on which one first, though! I'm tight on space, and the new Red Witch Grace Compressor looks good.

I was amazed at how different Tube Screamer before SFT sounded, compared to TS after SFT. You just never know...