Everything is great about this compressor for bass. Build quality is extraordinary. Heavy beautiful case, smooth metal knobs, quiet operation. Screams quality.

The dry control combined with the side chain hi pass filter delivers a full throated low end at the same time as precise control of the midrange and treble transients. Truly does provide fatter, more controlled tone without sounding at all like a compressor is in the circuit. I use the dry control around 10 o'clock, mixing in enough of the non compressed signal to keep my bass (a passive P) sounding like it does without the compression. I set the HPF at around 200hz so full, deep low end comes through completely uncompressed. Attack/Release set at about 10 o'clock to let a bit of the initial attack through and adding a touch of sustain. Adjust the output to unity gain and you have the perfect smooth, mild, always on compression with all the deep low end you had in your uncompressed sound. Metering is great to let you know exactly what is going on without being too distracting.

Given the massive control capability and amazing built quality, I feel it's worth every penny.

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I've used a lot of gear live and in studios over many years. This 1176 in pedal format belongs on your rig. The price is a bit higher than a few others, but the sound quality, useful features, versatility, and all metal, tank like construction make it worthwhile. For me, sound quality come first. In a live situation, depending on the gig, features and ease of use rank right up there. The Cali76 has transparent tone, fattening up the sound without destroying dynamics and feel....unless you want it to. Being able to blend wet and dry to preserve or limit dynamics quickly, useful ratios, High Pass filter, single attack/release knob and the LED's showing the amount of compression make this a tremendously versatile, easy to use live rig tool. If you need to make changes for certain songs or genres, or you just want a set and forget, this does it easily. You get great sound quality with the right features in an easy to use package. BTW, this will handle both 9vdc and if you need additional headroom, 18vdc power supplies. I've used this in the studio as well, even when far pricier gear was available, with great success. The only nit picky downside is no battery...so what? No leaky acid corroding it's guts if you leave it in a hot car.

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Reviews help me choose equipment nowadays so I thought I'd give this unit one. Just bought one of these compressors a few weeks back. I also use a Keeley Bassist to tame one of my larger stage rigs - consisting of two bi-amped Markbass 104HF 4 ohm cabinets for low end and two New York 122 cabinets 4 ohm for mid-high end. The cabs are powered by a QSC PLX Series 3602 amp for the low end and a QSC PLX series 1804 for the mid-high. The pre-amp is a Trace Elliot Transit B. Another compressor I use for recording and other general use is the Markbass Compressore. The Keeley and Markbass are both quality, and nice sounding units. This Cali76 Bass Compressor just dethroned both of them. It's a little pricey, but worth it to me. I like the absolutely solid tone I've been able to get out this unit, which is the best way I can describe it. The Dry/wet blend, plus the High Pass Filter with visual meter are amazing. If you have the cash and a compressor is part of your regular set up like mine, its worth buying in my opinion. I actually got the wow factor when I fired it up and used it for a bit from recording to my largest stage rig.

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I've been through a few compressors, and I should have just started with this. For some reason Sweetwater has this listed in the Guitar Effects and not the Bass Effects, but I still wouldn't have gone for a $ pedal right off. But then, I may not know how good this thing is if I hadn't futzed with as many compressors as I had before.

The HPF (High Pass Filter) on this is great. I run a dedicated HPF at the start of my chain to protect my cabinet and speaker from unloading below Resonant Frequency (Fs) and to keep my low end tight. Especially when the cabinet floor loads and gets super muddy on a 5 string or Drop C.

Since I have the signal high passed, I don't want anything else squashing the signal below the HPF setting. And this compressor allows me to do that. It keeps the bottom end lively and dynamic, while cleaning up the low-mid to high frequencies where the human ear is most sensitive.

I threw a MXR Poly Blue Octave pedal in front of this (not behind it) to give it a real challenge. How does it do with 5 octaves, two octaves above and two octaves below the fundamental and would I get any weird artifacts? Especially since most of the signal is digitally created at that point. Took it like a champ. Normally my octaver goes after the compressor, but I think I'm going to keep it in this arrangement. Might change my mind later.

This is a seriously good pedal and comes in around the price of the two compressor pedals you'll try before this one.

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This is my first time running a bass compressor. I set it up per the example from the sheet in the box and HOLY CRAP, did it change my sound for the better! Nice, fat bottom end without rumbling everyone's innards while keeping the "jangliness" of the highs without piercing ears. Gave me TONS of headroom as well. I don't even bother turning it off. If you're a bass player thinking of investing in one of these babies, GET IT!!!

Easy to dial in the perfect amount of compression that lets me play expressively while taming peaks in a very musical way. Very transparent tone. Really dig the high-pass filter control. Love getting visual feedback for gain reduction as well. Very happy with my purchase.