MXR Super Comp

This is the second new pedal on my 'board. I got this one as a Christmas present from my wife, Anna. I've been struggling a lot with my clean sound in Radio Daze and I think this might just be the thing that's missing for songs like 'Suspicious Minds'... Why did I put the Super Comp on my Christmas wish list instead of some other pedal? I tried several compressors and really liked the timber of the Dyna Comp. This is basically the same pedal (with 'output' and 'sensitivity' controls), with the added possibility of setting the attack attenuation (a knob labeled 'attack level'), which should be useful to me as my guitars' pickups each have very different characters. The P-90's on my Les Paul Special have almost twice the output of my Strat's pickups, which will affect the level of compression I can get. MXR boasts that the Super Comp can bridge this gap with the extra control. The effect itself has a tonality that is very pleasing to my ear (like the tone of Andy Summers' guitar on many Police classics). It's not very noisy. There is some added hiss but nothing too bothersome, even with the distortion engaged in front of the Super Comp. I love the slight volume swell as the notes seem to sustain forever. The Fuzz Factory especially comes alive when the Super Comp is on. I've read some complaints that this pedal has an adverse effect on the tone when bypassed but I haven't experienced this. The output control sets the level of the effect. Unity gain seems to be around 2:00 on the dial, leaving quite a bit of room to use the pedal as a boost for solos. The attack level and sensitivity controls seem highly interactive, though, and I'm still struggling to find the perfect mix for all my axes. As always, a test run at this Thursday's rehearsal with the band should reveal more.