MR. BLACK
BIG PAYBACK
COMPRESSOR
REVIEW BY ERIC TISCHLER
STREET PRICE $179.95
Compressors are typically
considered a niche effect.
Sure, they’re useful for funk,
soul and chicken pickin’ but,
if you traffic in distortion
pedals, cranked amps
and tortured speakers, a
compressor probably seems
like a redundancy. Factor
in the hassle of adjusting
attack and release times,
it’s not surprising that most
people give compressor
pedals a pass. It’s also not
surprising that freelance
designer to the pedal
stars Jack Deville would
be the guy to come up
with a great, VCA-based
compressor that could make
a believer out of a wide
range of guitarists. I think
60
GEAR REVIEW
//
he might’ve done just that
with the Big Payback, a
compressor designed for his
own Mr. Black line of pedals.
I don’t want to oversimplify
things by saying that Big
Payback’s stripped-down
interface helps make it a
winner but, well, it does.
With just Volume, Attack
and Compression, not a
lot can go wrong. Attack
determines how quickly
the compressor clamps
down on your signal—
for a faster attack, turn it
counter clockwise; turn it
clockwise to let more of
the initial note through.
From a practical standpoint
this is important, because
it helps manage when the
Mr. Black Big Payback Compressor
pedal will grab transients,
but it’s also useful for tone
shaping, with faster settings
resulting in less snap; to
Big Payback’s credit, the
signal never gets dull, just
. . . rounder. Compression
determines how much
compression is applied to
the signal, ranging from a
ratio of 1:2 (more on that
in a bit) to 40:1, with the
ratio going up as you turn
the knob clockwise. Gain
adds volume after the
compression, and there’s a
lot of it on tap.
With the Attack fully
clockwise and Compression
fully counterclockwise,
Big Payback is a dynamicexpander, rather than a