Brian Wampler's new EGO76 Compressor is his own elegant take on the legendary UREI 1176 Peak Limiter

I’m not sure it was Brian’s intention to become a Compressor specialist - but he now has 3 full size offerings covering all the different basis.

This time around it’s his UREI 1176 FET Studio Compressor - and for me comes with the perfect complement of controls. Those are pretty much exactly the control parameters that I would specify for a compressor :

Controls - Tone, Attack, Release, Level, Blend, Compress.

On the stock EGO variety (supposedly based on Ross Compressor), he has controls for Sustain, Tone, Attack, Volume, and Blend. So in essence he’s simply brought in the Release control on the new variant - for more granularity of control.

Setting a compressor can be a little black box for many players - and some of the more complex studio compressors talk about Hard and Soft Knees and Side Chain Feeds and the like - which can be a little to much for the average player. Brian is specialist in simplifying complexities and communicating them in a clear and easy manner.

This is the kind of compressor that at a glance you know exactly what it covers and how to apply it. It gives you a full range of features while keeping the pedal as simple and straightforward as possible - for a Studio style Compressor of course.

Of course the most famous current purveyor of the 1176 style circuit - is the Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe, while Universal Audio also recently brought out their UAFX 1176 Studio Compressor. And DryBell has had their superb Unit67 our for a number of years now.

I feel that there’s a place for all of those - they each have distinct things about them, and obviously are at different price points.

The Wampler EGO76 Compressor is excellently placed to do well - at $199, and available on the Wampler Webstore and presumable imminently at international dealers.

We really are spoilt for choice when it comes to compressors - there are so many fantastic examples out there - the range, quality and innovation of what is available is properly incredible.

Will be interesting to see how long Wampler has 3 main compressor offering on its roster!

I really like the aesthetics of the new box - the perfect blue sparkly enclosure - and those really elegant knobs - and elegant labels too.