This is a fascinating use case of the Wampler Ego Compressor. Today you hear me using it through a PA system, an amp, both stand alone and with the Tech21 Fly Rig 5 which is always my go to pedal of choice. Tech21 with the tonal options they pack into these little Fly Rig's make it a no brainer. While I enjoy the tones when running the Ego Compressor behind the Fly Rig 5, you can hear that the Fly Rig 5 is literally pushing the compressor into places it was never designed to go. While this makes the compressor sound great and while this doesn't hurt it, the problem comes in when you run a good bit of drive on the Fly Rig. You will hear how the compressor almost acts like a Swell which while very cool is not the desired effect. A good compressor should be able to take whatever is thrown at it and I've got to say to The credit of Wampler Pedals that it does indeed take what is thrown at it. The desired effect comes down to personal taste. Now using the Ego compressor in front of the Fly Rig 5 really contrasts what can be done just by switching the pedal order. Still though my main problem no matter where I place the Ego is that it doesn't grab as hard as I want it to nor as fast as I know a good FET compressor can. The Wampler Ego Compressor according to Brian Wampler is an Optical compression. This came strait from Brian to me when he and I spoke about this in 2023. I need to reconnect with him. That reminds me, the Official Brother Timothy Clark Fanpage is no longer ran by me. My Facebook was hacked in 2023 and I have Not set up another page and I have no plans on setting one up. Thus if you see any updates from that page, they ARE NOT FROM ME! All of my social platforms that I personally run and update are all over at TimothyClarkMusic.wordpress.com and any others claiming to be me likely are fakes and or pages as to which I don't update these days. . . . Anyway, back to my breakdown. Even when I ran the Wampler Ego Compressor stand alone without any pedals going in or out of it, I did notice that still it wouldn't clamp down as fast as I wanted it to and so for me, while I love the compressor, it doesn't quite do it for me. That said, it's a nice compressor for those who enjoy this kind of compression. When I bought my Wampler boxes, I was still learning about pedals and I had heard that all of the guys in Nashville used Wampler to get their country tones and squashed compression. So of corse I bought into it. Literally. Now, do I regret it? Not at all. Actually, I have been contemplating looking into Sweetwater's trade program thing. Perhaps I could trade in my Wampler boxes for a Tech21 RK5 V2. But, we shall see what the Lord has in mind for that one. I am in no rush at all. It's something I want to spend more time in prayer over before making any decisive decisions. I believe in letting the Lord lead me how he sees fit. . . . Anyway, before I rap this up, I want to share my thoughts on Buffered bypass and True Bypass. Frankly, I like Buffered bypass over True bypass. I turn on a true bypass pedal and hear this loud pop. You don't get that with a Buffered bypass pedal. Plus if your pedal has a quality buffer in it, then you won't have to deal with tone degradation. Now, before you say Oh well that can only happen on buffered bypass, think again. True bypass pedals this happens much more do to having to many pedals in the chain and or cables which are to long. You won't get that on Buffered bypass if the pedals have quality buffers in them. . . . Well, I hope you have enjoyed my insights such as they are and if you want to contact me, feel free to send me an email. TimothyClarkMusic@me.com and also, check out my website over at TimothyClarkMusic.wordpress.com and I am Timothy thanking you for listening to yet another episode of the Brother Timothy Clark Podcast.
