Caveman Audio BC1 Bass Compressor

Master Comp. Monster Tone.

BC1 is not like the standard bass compressor pedal. Not by a longshot!

Most bass players use the compressor as an effect. Placed between the instrument and the amplifier.

We like the idea of using a compressor as an always-on Master Compressor – at the end of the signal chain. A compressor that tames and gently shapes the overall dynamics, giving you a pristine bass tone that makes you sound better, sit better in the mix and simply makes playing more fun!

BC1 is a 100% analog Master Compressor that makes the output from your strings more even and brings out all of the small nuances in your playing.

As far as we know, no other compressor pedals on the market are able to handle the signal level required to function as a Master Compressor. The compressor pedals we know of provide unbalanced instrument levels. When you use the Line In on BC1, you’re in the balanced line level domain.

In fact, think of it as a high-end rack compressor that you would use in the studio – but disguised as a pedal built for touring!

That is (part of) what makes BC1 unique – and why we need to have a conversation about what a compressor is supposed to do when used as a musical tool that handles your overall dynamics.

Balanced LINE IN is one of the things that sets BC1 apart from the rest of the compressor pedals out there. As mentioned, it is more like having a studio rack compressor than a stompbox comp at your disposal.

When compressing your entire sound, you compress much less. Therefore, you need a longer attack time than most comp pedals can provide in order  to avoid killing the dynamics in your playing.

We want the compressor to help you to sit better in the mix by making the output from each string more even. We don’t want it to kill your dynamic playing.

BC1 offers up to 25ms before the compressor kicks in, which leaves the precious transients of your tone intact. Those transients are often referred to as ‘definition’, and you don’t want to lose that! That said, you can easily go below 25ms, and if you want to create a hard-pumping compressor effect, BC1 can take you all the way down to 0.1ms

In fact, the extremely slow Attack time almost eliminates the need for Parallel Compression, but just in case, we added that option as well. Simply set the PAR/SERIES switch on the rear panel to your preference.

Since we recommend to place BC1 as the last pedal in your signal chain, using it as a master compressor, that very flexible range of Attack time will surely come in very handy.

A BOOST circuit is not common on compressor pedals, but then again, BC1 is a different beast! As mentioned, we recommend using BC1 as a master compressor at the end of your signal chain, which might have left you with problem.

What about them bass solos? You’d probably kick in a boost pedal for that, but since BC1 is sitting after a boost pedal, the signal coming into BC1 would be hotter, and BC1 would simply compress more.

That is why we have both LEVEL and BOOST knobs. Use LEVEL to set the overall output level, but if you set the BOOST knob a bit higher, it will give you a boost when you kick it in – but without changing the amount of compression!

If you prefer, you could also set the BOOST lower, which would simply mean that when you kick in the BOOST, the output level would decrease instead of getting louder.