I've had the Diamond delay on my board for about a month now, and it's sparked my interest in some of their other pedals. The detented tone knob as described sounds similar to the bright/dark switch on the JangleBox- boosting highs or lows rather than just rolling off treble like a regular tone control. The Janglebox delivers a fixed treble boost and I'm thinking it would be even nicer to be able to dial in the exact amount I need. If anyone's done a shootout between these two pedals, I'd be interested in the results. The Diamond's hi-cut filter also sounds really useful. One of the biggest drawbacks of compression is how it can raise the noise floor. Being able to get rid of some hiss without affecting the guitar's tone would be a great feature if it worked. I'm wondering if anyone's had some hands-on experience w/this compressor and could share their impressions here. thanks, dave
Limited experience, but enough to know it's my next purchase. I too have a Memory Lane and am totally impressed with sound, build quality and extremely low noise floor. I've tried his compressor, and find it more comparable to a studio rack unit than a stompbox. Very, very quiet, and with no audible artifacts even with the compression really pushed. I'm normally not in need of a comp, but recently have been playing in two country projects it would be very useful in. The "tilt" tone circuit is really cool, and makes it one of the most flexible comps around. Add the build quality and true bypass and it becomes the obvious choice. Yeah, I really like Michael Knappe's stuff!-Eric
I haven`t compared them but I have the Diamond comp and a bunch of other compressors (TC, C.Martin, both from Analogman, McSqueeze, MrSquishy, HBE) and the Diamond is the one I like better than any as a great allround compressor. It sounds very musical in that it doesn`t really squeeze the initial attack. You can use it without sounding compressed but rather adding some bloom and meat to the sound. Quite addictive. The EQ knob works just fine, turned clockwise you`ll add some sparkle, but I imagine the Janglebox may be more specialized towards a certain type jangly sound and maybe better for this effect. But I doubt the Janglebox beats the Diamond regarding the other qualities that I tried to describe above. Just my norwegian 1 krone.
Ricky, that`s a little hard right now because after using the Diamond for a couple of days, I plugged a wrong PS into it (24v) and fried the pedal. In the dim light I thought it was a PowerAll. So I have to ship it back, the good thing is Mike at Diamond offered a free repair. "This is the most natural and musical compressor I`ve heard", I said to myself and suddenly saw smoke coming out of the pedal. I didn`t actually compare the two side by side. Going by memory I dare say that if you want a sound that isn`t obviously compressed, the Diamond would be the better choice. The McSqueeze has an internal trimpot for adjusting the attack and can also have a more natural attack but these pedals belong to two different compressor types. McSquueze as a refined Orange Squeezer and the Diamond as the smooth opto-based one, good at preserving initial pick transients. I should also say that to me it sounds like, even at low compression settings, the Diamond add something nice to my tone that I like. It`s hard to describe, or, as said about other boxes, you don`t think it`s there before you turn it off. It depends on what kind of compression you`re looking for. For a more natural and even levelling of your sound I would go with the Diamond.
Thanks! I do like the McSqueeze a lot, but really what I'm after is smoothing and fattening the tone of my amp, than just compressing... and adding sustain/feedback. If you think the Diamond is more suited for that application please let me know!
Smoothing and fattening the tone, that`s just what I would say the Diamond does very well. The McSqueeze is more neutral, some may say transparent but I don`t like the word in this context. Rather than saying the Diamond is colored compared to the McSqueeze I`ll say it`s full and warm sounding.
