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Wren & Cuff Gold Comp love story

IngloriousOz

IngloriousOz

Supporting Member
Jun 1, 2006
2,261
5,262
SLC, Utah
#1
Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my recent experience about this pedal and give it some love since there's not a whole lot of info on the site about it.

I had a 5 day recording session this last week and had foolishly cleared out a handful of comps thinking I wanted to use a boost instead to shake things up...unfortunately it was a huge mistake and I found myself really missing the consistency a comp brought to my over-excited playing.

In a panic the morning before hitting the studio I found a Gold Comp available for sale locally and took a chance and WOW.

Not having a whole lot of time to tweak with it I started with the recommended settings for bass and added a little more compression and dialed the attack back a hair. The results were brilliant - I got the boost + bit of grit I was hoping to get from a boost without the obvious clipping going on and the compression was really smooth without being obvious, my tone was very present in the mix and it warmed up everything. Playing a Rickenbacker V63 with a very hot Horseshoe pickup I had it set after my SFX Microthumpinator into a fuzz into a Noble Pre - the engineer (that has worked with me 9 or 10 tmes) made sure to let me know this is the best my tone has sounded.

My last minute desperation of being without a comp ended up being a full blown Bob Ross style "Happy Accident" and I couldn't be more stoked.

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#3
Daniel Piper said:
Dude, great to hear. I think that we here have probably been guilty of basing our indifference of that pedal on one lukewarm review.

...as much as I love, respect and use those reviews a lot.
Click to expand...

Thanks and yes, I think I've been leaning on the forums and YouTube in general pretty hard the last couple years and in this case the lack of compelling info kept me away from this pedal.

Luckily need and circumstance put me in a spot to pull the trigger and just use my ears and it worked out perfectly.
 
#5
Well I did try this one, and it is awesome! The breakup is very much like the Phat Phuk B, so you can get basically a PPB-style germanium breakup and compression from one box. The compression itself is very unobtrusive as Oz said. All the good things in the Ovnilabs review are true, and there are some pretty good things said about it, even though the review as a whole doesn't read like it's very positive. The GC does have a bright tone, lots of presence and can be quite punchy. I could see it not meshing with some brighter sounding amps; it pairs beautifully well with my Alembic pre. The Gold Comp responds better for me to additional low EQ than the Accountant, which makes the GC my new favorite dirty comp - and I LOVE the Accountant. Yes, the GC "tightens up" the low end (like many comps, including the Accountant), but I had no problems EQing it back in. Very little to no noise as I had it set. Really sweet tone from this thing.
 
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#6
Deadsound said:
Well I did try this one, and it is awesome! The breakup is very much like the Phat Phuk B, so you can get basically a PPB-style germanium breakup and compression from one box. The compression itself is very unobtrusive as Oz said. All the good things in the Ovnilabs review are true, and there are some pretty good things said about it, even though the review as a whole doesn't read like it's very positive. The GC does have a bright tone, lots of presence and can be quite punchy. I could see it not meshing with some brighter sounding amps; it pairs beautifully well with my Alembic pre. The Gold Comp responds better for me to additional low EQ than the Accountant, which makes the GC my new favorite dirty comp - and I LOVE the Accountant. Yes, the GC "tightens up" the low end (like many comps, including the Accountant), but I had no problems EQing it back in. Very little to no noise as I had it set. Really sweet tone from this thing.
Click to expand...

I DIDN'T NEED TO READ THIS!!! :banghead::banghead::banghead:

Seriously, though, you get a Phatty vibe off it too. Damn. Damn damn damn. Now I need one.
 
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#7
So I've been spending some quality time with the Gold Comp, as well as my Cali Compact Bass, in front of both my preamps (Alembic F-1x and Broughton P15), through my fEARful and DI into headphones. Mostly my goal has been to experiment with settings on each comp, and combinations of compression and light OD - I like my clean tone to always be a little dirty.

Definitely getting to know both comps a lot better. The last few gigs I have been running Cali CB>Phat Phuk B. I won't say the Gold Comp is a "better" comp than the Cali, but in terms of my tonal goals, I like what I'm hearing out of the Gold Comp more than the two box Cali>PPB solution. For a purely clean tone, the Cali sounds beautiful - not really a contest (the Gold Comp cleans up in certain settings). But when dirt starts getting involved, I couldn't find a pairing that I prefer to the sound of the Gold Comp all on its own, and I have a lot of tried and true dirt options to choose from.

I also think I overstated it by saying the tone of the GC is "bright" in my post above. I don't think I'd go that far; and like I also said, I'm having no trouble with EQ changes before or after the comp.

The real test will be on the gig - dynamics are huge for me, and for that reason I have really come to rely on parallel compression, which obviously the Gold Comp doesn't have. So that does make me a little nervous - but for now the Gold Comp just booted the Cali (and Phat Phuk!) to the shelf...
 
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#8
Deadsound said:
So I've been spending some quality time with the Gold Comp, as well as my Cali Compact Bass, in front of both my preamps (Alembic F-1x and Broughton P15), through my fEARful and DI into headphones. Mostly my goal has been to experiment with settings on each comp, and combinations of compression and light OD - I like my clean tone to always be a little dirty.

Definitely getting to know both comps a lot better. The last few gigs I have been running Cali CB>Phat Phuk B. I won't say the Gold Comp is a "better" comp than the Cali, but in terms of my tonal goals, I like what I'm hearing out of the Gold Comp more than the two box Cali>PPB solution. For a purely clean tone, the Cali sounds beautiful - not really a contest (the Gold Comp cleans up in certain settings). But when dirt starts getting involved, I couldn't find a pairing that I prefer to the sound of the Gold Comp all on its own, and I have a lot of tried and true dirt options to choose from.

I also think I overstated it by saying the tone of the GC is "bright" in my post above. I don't think I'd go that far; and like I also said, I'm having no trouble with EQ changes before or after the comp.

The real test will be on the gig - dynamics are huge for me, and for that reason I have really come to rely on parallel compression, which obviously the Gold Comp doesn't have. So that does make me a little nervous - but for now the Gold Comp just booted the Cali (and Phat Phuk!) to the shelf...
Click to expand...

So glad to hear you're having a great experience with the GC, thanks for adding your feedback to the thread - hopefully this leads to more bass folk giving this killer comp a second look!
 
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