Orange Squeezer compression control -- How effective is it?

[morcey2]

I've got an orange squeezer that I plan on adding the compression control from Mark Hammers revised and extended Orange Squeezer:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/diagrams/orangesqueezer_marks_variable.gif
(changing R10 to 6k8 and adding P1)
Seeing as it's Mark's tweak, it should probably work well.  Has anyone else done this mod and how much 'range' does it have in practice?

Matt

[Mark Hammer]

The OS is intended to be like a butler: do its job invisibly and stay out of the way.  The added compression/gain control is not really meant to be used in the same way you'd use a Fuzz control or tone control.  It is really meant to allow the circuit to be compatible with hotter and less hot signals: in other words a control to dial it so that it "works".  You should be able to feed this thing Lipstick pickups or overwound monster HBs and still have it behave/sound the same way, by adjusting how much gain is used to drive the sidechain.  The intent was not to make it mimic a bunch of different compressors, but rather to make it such that different players would not plug in and have to wonder if it was working or why it imposed this ugly response.

The extra op-amp stage is not necessarily necessary.  It is there in case the user sets the first stage for lower gain, and needs to get some level back.  If you are not intent on using your compressor to overdrive anything, you can happily skip that 2nd stage.

[morcey2]

Thanks Mark,  that's exactly what I wanted to hear. 

I use it in stock form quite a bit and really like it once I get the jfet trimpot set correctly.  I never mess with it after that.  It gets borrowed quite a bit though, especially on jam nights, and I have been on stage during a set tweaking the trimpot for different players.  I was hoping that the compression control would make that unnecessary (or not necessarily necessary  ) and it sounds like it would.  That trimpot is a sensitive little bugger! It's got about a 20-degree useable range and it's hard to get it set quickly.  Especially when adjusting it through a little hole drilled in the bottom of the pedal.

Matt

[Mark Hammer]

In some respects, the compression/gain control can, itself, be a trimpot, and simply used to nail your own sweet spot.  I have it panel-mounted on mine, and find that it is able to produce variations from light limiting to harder squish.  Nowhere near as big a range of sonic differences as I can get with my SSM2166-based compressor, but still usable.