Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Electro-Harmonix Soul Preacher: This is from their recent "Nano" series of reissues, where EHX took some of their classic older pedals and redesigned them into tiny boxes using micro components. As with just about all EHX effects, the Soul Preacher is a love/hate thing.
 
On the positive side, it has fantastic tone, with fat lows and crisp highs, and the action is very percussive and punchy. But unfortunately it is hideously noisy. Even beyond the usual line-noise amplification of all compressors, it generates its own white noise. And the compression it offers is so extreme that I only found it usable with the "Sustain" knob turned all the way to the lowest setting. Any of the other settings would be cool as an unusual effect, except the noise at those compression levels is not tolerable. I tried it with both active and passive basses, and got the same results. There is a trim pot inside to adjust input gain, and it can help a bit with the signal-to-noise ratio.
 
The construction quality is OK, and the housing is the small MXR size. It runs on standard 9V DC and the footswitch is "true bypass".
 

 
 
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