3LEAF AUDIO
PWNZOR BASS
COMPRESSOR
BY JORDAN WAGNER
to hear audio clips of the pedal at
premierguitar.com/apr2012
CLICKHere…
Compressors can be a bassist’s best friend, or in some cases, their worst enemy.
They’re infinitely useful for leveling signals
and bringing out the best of what a rig can
not only sound like, but feel like as well. They
can work wonders when used properly, or
completely strangle the life out of a great tone
if misused. As an experienced bassist himself,
3Leaf Audio’s Spencer Doren has tackled this
particular flavor of effect with the PWNZOR
optical compressor, which includes two modes
for varying degrees of compression.
Controls for input,
gain, attack, and ratio
Hard-Pressed
The PWNZOR is a pretty intimidating-looking pedal. Housed in a Hammond
Manufacturing 1590BB enclosure, the compressor exhibits a very industrial look and
sports four control knobs to help shape,
squeeze, and mold your tone in a variety
of ways. The input control is the first step
after engaging the pedal, which allows
you to set how much signal is fed into the
pedal’s optical compression circuit. Higher
settings will trigger the circuit easier, so it’s
a good idea to set this according to your
pickup’s output level. Attack sets the reaction time of the effect, and the ratio control
determines the amount of gain reduction—
which has a range of 1:1 through 10:1.
Rounding out the set of control knobs, the
gain control sets the output level.
Toggle switch for
vintage or modern
compression modes
Let’s move on to the really cool features
of the PWNZOR. First off, the front
panel’s toggle allows switching between
vintage and modern compression modes.
The vintage mode sends the output signal to the compression circuit, while the
modern mode sends the signal from the
input, which results in a much punchier
and throatier tone. Inside the pedal are
three additional controls: a bypass-mode
switch for selecting true or buffered bypass,
and two small pots for setting release time
and input gain. The PWNZOR does not
take batteries, so it requires a 9V wall wart
to run. But interestingly, it has an internal
voltage-doubler that ups the input power
to 18V for expanded headroom, which is a
pretty cool idea for those who don’t have an
18V power supply lying around.
that there is a pair of gaps in the enclosure
between the bottom edges of the jacks and
the back plate. While this probably made it
easier to drop in the assembled circuit, some
care should be taken to avoid getting the
circuit board dirty, since the pedal is going to
spend most of its time on the floor.
While the pedal feels solid, and the circuit
board is assembled and soldered well, the
input and output jacks are made from plastic. In my experience, plastic input jacks can
be prone to accidentally breaking, but 3Leaf
Audio states that they have used more than
4,000 Neutrik-manufactured jacks without a
single failure to date. It should also be noted
Pwn The Tone
With a Verellen Meat Smoke amplifier and
a USA Kramer Striker bass, I switched the
PWNZOR into vintage mode with the
attack, input, and ratio knobs set between 9
o’clock and 10 o’clock, and upped the gain
to 11 o’clock. A very handy feature of the
