I bought this recently and wanted to know - does this sound about right regarding the input gain? It goes to distortion sooner than I thought it would. Is there a trim pot? Also included are my thoughts and practical usage currently:
(Copied from Worship Board Thread)
Praise report - Wren & Cuff Gold Comp. I do like it very much. The input gain to the Germanium transistors is super sensitive, otherwise it goes into a really live and mid over-driven crunch, and it's a tad more agro than I'm used to, but it's very similar to an overdriven Jamerson tone where the peaks are slamming the studio comp into distortion. So, if you want a sweet, mellow tone you need to gain it up and play with a light touch. Which, happens to suit my needs perfectly. I set the comp on medium, and drew out the release time for max sustain, and the volume is set so it overdrives if I dig in but my usual playing level is not. It adds a mid of mid snarl, kinda like a wah pedal when engaged but in open or almost open position. Great for harmonics. Adds thickness to the low end, at least it does through my Noble when compared on/off.
(EDIT forgot to mention, seems like there is no input gain? And no internal trim as far as I can tell, can't really confirm. But, I got just as much distortion regardless of the volume, which seems to be output level only. Hence, light touch means turn the volume up or you'll be fighting the distortion threshold to be heard in the mix)
Basically, you need to be cool with raising your signal level to make this pedal work, in my limited one-day of using, but it's worth it in tone, and also happens to suit my needs here as well. Downstream, I have:
-Red Witch Zeus OC-2 clone - which benefits from being slammed with a strong but even signal, and I currently get very long sustain and tracking with (even with 30" bass w/ old flats)
-VMT which formerly was always on and subtle like a flip top, now used as a crunchier overdrive / boost for louder sections, also major benefits from getting slammed by Gold Comp
-pattern here, the Meatbox just eats up a strong, even signal, to put it mildly heh heh. I get those movie theater style thunder rumbles.
-OCSD, the pedal that needs no introduction here! It is adding lows favoring towards sealed 8x10, and snarly midrange punctuation. It gets me a bright enough tone for rock with flats, and still gets me straight to Motown when I roll the tone off. Ditto for Gary Willis palm muted stuff. It's got it's own little overdriven mids thing going on too, like the coloration from an old Boss CS-2
-Noble DI, which loves strong signals, in fact that's where the magic in this box comes from...
-last, I used the Butt Kicker again today, in order to push the limits on just how long I can get my synth tones to sustain. I could probably get infinite if I touched my bass to the platform
