You will be happy with it.
I used a Urei (UA) 1176 and a Klark Technic 1176 religiously in my friend's recording studio, from about 1985 thru 1999. I also repaired the former once. The Wampler pedal is not an exact clone of that circuit, instead utilizing the essential circuits and gearing it to use on instruments. What is close to exact is the Attack (20–800 microseconds) and Release (50–1100 microseconds) times (both fast, as the original was designed to be a compressor-limiter).
The Urei uses +30vDC rail voltage and only used a single FET for the Compression (a.k.a.: 'threshold,' 'ratio,' 'squeeze,' etc.). It also has discrete transistors forming a push-pull output amplification, into a 30ohm to 600ohm, low distortion isolation transformer (which could and often was pushed lightly into harmonic distortion.
In brief, the Wampler has less headroom, will distort sooner, will have less wattage being delivered to the next component (another pedal, amp, interface, etc.) and due to not having an isolation transformer, will have the ultra-high frequencies rolling off faster than the Urei 1176. Perfect for guitar, bass, piano, keys, sax, horns, fiddles, and even vocals. The pedal would not have the same impact as the Urei 1176 on a multi-track mix or master. Not to say it wouldn't sound good in certain musical applications, jut not the same level of performance.
The 'Mix' control makes the instrument sound huge. With the mix set to 100%, I set the attack and release pretty fast and the compression to a just detectable squeeze then dial back in the transients backing down the mix from 100%. I often use this setting live as an 'always-on,' at the beginning of the pedal chain. Traditional compressors will add noise, especially when the drive pedals are engaged, and this pedal has a noticeably lower noise floor than that. I also run it on 18v when using a bass guitar, just to give it a little more headroom.
When you have it up and running, I'd like to hear your thoughts.
