Guitar Pedal Reviews: JAM Dyna-ssoR Compressor/Sustainer

They say that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. For the past two years I’ve attended NAMM in Anaheim, CA and for two years I’ve been impressed by the hand-painted designs of Greek company, JAM Pedals. They offer hand-built, hand-painted pedals that use only the best components. They even offer custom paint jobs. Their booth at NAMM is always an eye catcher due to the interesting physical appearance of the hand-painted pedals, and the booth is always packed. So much so that I have never even gotten a chance to talk to anyone from the company.

Modern communication has allowed me to get my hands on the Dyna-ssoR Compressor/Sustainer for review. The thing with guitar/bass compressors is that even the ones that claim to be the best seem to fall short in some instances. In other words, it may be good at one sound yet not so good for another application. Not the case for the Dyna-ssoR. With just two front panel controls, Sustain and Level respectively, I found the beauty of this pedal in the fact that a little goes a long way. You can dial in subtle amounts of Sustain and it improves your tone immensely, adding life and detail, accenting everything you love about your guitar and amp. However, I found myself dialing in crazy amounts of Sustain without it ruining my tone, whereas with other pedals if you don’t hit the sweet spot your guitar sounds useless.

The pedal was designed to combine the best of the MXR DynaComp and Ross Compressor, both considered legendary in the stompbox realm. I actually don’t have that much experience with either unit so I can’t compare, but what I can say is that this is the first compressor that didn’t annoy me. As a matter of fact I liked it so much I gave it a go on Bass and found it to be equally as impressive. An email to the company bought me the knowledge that they actually make a Bass version of the Dyna-ssoR that can be purchased as well.

Compressors are easier to hear than they are to describe. The idea is that the more you turn the Sustain knob CW, the more your signal gets compressed which basically makes the loud sound quieter and the quiet sound louder, hence squashing the sound, emphasizing details, providing more overall length to sustained notes. Sounds simple enough, but the problem is that this is an incredibly hard circuit to get right because the process can cause artifacts that sound unnatural and just nasty. The Dyna-ssoR is designed in such a way that your tone seems to always remain intact no matter how much you compress it. Needless to say, I recommend this compressor over any that I’ve tried so far. It’s brilliant and will only do you right. –Gus Green 

Check out the videos of the pedal, below: