jeffwhitfield
Well-known member
These two came about after some updates to my pedalboard. I originally was running my drives and such through one of the effects loops of my HX Stomp. That didn't work out too well. Just too damn noisy. Effects loop really only works well after an amp so...I rewired everything so that all drives are just before the HX Stomp. Works out much better this way. 
However, by doing so, I can't use any of the compressors in the HX Stomp before my drives. That meant reworking my auxiliary board to include a compressor...which is fine.
Main goal was to tighten up my guitar a bit as well as limit the transients on bass when doing things like slapping and popping. I can sometimes get a little aggressive when I play which can also cause some transients. So I picked out two candidates: The Delegate (Boneyard Edition) and the Thumb Sucker.
Building the Delegate was straight-forward but not without it's issues (you can read about that in the Troubleshooting thread). Basically, I ended up with something stuck in one of the transistor sockets. Also worked out the best LED and LDR to use, which ended up being a green LED and an LDR from Tayda.
This one is quite subtle and somewhat mild. I can certainly understand why folks like optical compressors. They're certainly smoother than most other compressors. I tried the Wampler Ego, which is a very good compressor...but the Delegate proved to be a bit smoother than even the Ego. I like the Ego...but I didn't like the fact that it didn't have any control over the ratio, which is nice to have if you want to crank it up and have your compressor act as a limiter. The Delegate worked well at smoothing out my playing a bit without totally loosing dynamics. But it didn't do all that well at knocking down the transients on bass. Just not quite fast enough. Which leads me to the Thumb Sucker...
The Thumb Sucker was a very easy build. No issues whatsoever. It's more aggressive compared to the Delegate for sure. The Threshold control is a bit like the Sustain control on the Delegate but with a bit more impact on the sound. There's no Tone control but it does have a Bright switch to add a bit more treble back in the tone if you lose some. I haven't found any real tone suck with this one. The Delegate does have a tendency to change the tone so the Tone control is practically required. Not so much with the Thumb Sucker.
Between the two, I can't say one is really better than the other. Really different tools for different situations. However, if I absolutely had to pick one or the other, I'd probably choose the Thumb Sucker. It can get really aggressive when needed to knock down transients and act as a limiter. But it can also be dialed back to help smooth out playing in a way that's similar to the Delegate. It's not quite as smooth as the Delegate...but it's good enough for the job really. Only thing missing is a Blend control I think if the Thumb Sucker had that it would be an absolute winner.
However, by doing so, I can't use any of the compressors in the HX Stomp before my drives. That meant reworking my auxiliary board to include a compressor...which is fine.
Main goal was to tighten up my guitar a bit as well as limit the transients on bass when doing things like slapping and popping. I can sometimes get a little aggressive when I play which can also cause some transients. So I picked out two candidates: The Delegate (Boneyard Edition) and the Thumb Sucker.
Building the Delegate was straight-forward but not without it's issues (you can read about that in the Troubleshooting thread). Basically, I ended up with something stuck in one of the transistor sockets. Also worked out the best LED and LDR to use, which ended up being a green LED and an LDR from Tayda.
This one is quite subtle and somewhat mild. I can certainly understand why folks like optical compressors. They're certainly smoother than most other compressors. I tried the Wampler Ego, which is a very good compressor...but the Delegate proved to be a bit smoother than even the Ego. I like the Ego...but I didn't like the fact that it didn't have any control over the ratio, which is nice to have if you want to crank it up and have your compressor act as a limiter. The Delegate worked well at smoothing out my playing a bit without totally loosing dynamics. But it didn't do all that well at knocking down the transients on bass. Just not quite fast enough. Which leads me to the Thumb Sucker...
The Thumb Sucker was a very easy build. No issues whatsoever. It's more aggressive compared to the Delegate for sure. The Threshold control is a bit like the Sustain control on the Delegate but with a bit more impact on the sound. There's no Tone control but it does have a Bright switch to add a bit more treble back in the tone if you lose some. I haven't found any real tone suck with this one. The Delegate does have a tendency to change the tone so the Tone control is practically required. Not so much with the Thumb Sucker.
Between the two, I can't say one is really better than the other. Really different tools for different situations. However, if I absolutely had to pick one or the other, I'd probably choose the Thumb Sucker. It can get really aggressive when needed to knock down transients and act as a limiter. But it can also be dialed back to help smooth out playing in a way that's similar to the Delegate. It's not quite as smooth as the Delegate...but it's good enough for the job really. Only thing missing is a Blend control I think if the Thumb Sucker had that it would be an absolute winner.
