This pedal was sent to me direct from Mad Professor and is the version seen here: Forest Green Compressor
The Forest Green Compressor has two modes: Compressor and Sustain. In sustain mode, the pedal feels very dynamic and very nice for subtle compression but in a real nice way. I wouldn't call it totally transparent, but you can certainly dial in quite neutral tones but with the slightest bit of added "bigness" to your sound. It retains the attack and doesn't get overly squashy. In compressor mode, you get more of the typical range of compression control that can range from light to pretty apparent compression and colored. I found I really liked the sustain setting and loved the feel of the FCG with the compression knob around 10:00, the tone knob rolled back to 11:00. Real nice punchy "big" tone.
I noticed right away that this pedal shares similarities with the Diamond BCP-1.
Yes, the tone knob feels and sounds much the same way and it does seem to impart some of that tonal "magic" people equate to the tilt eq on the Diamond. In fact, it imparts much of the same sound people equate to the Diamond "fatness". I quite liked the tonal variations the FGC tone knob imparted on the tone allowing for a pretty radical shift from darker, fatter and dubby to quite bright with bite.
The Compression knob controls the amount of compression and sustain. It is more about peak limiting at lower settings. At higher settings, it loses dynamics quickly and evens things out pretty quickly. Less touch sensitive response for sure at higher settings.
Noon on the Tone knob sounded the most neutral or flat to me. Turning it clockwise from noon boosts treble pretty quickly. Turning counter clockwise reduces the highs and increases the bottom end.
To my ear, the FGC retains the bottom end very well.
Mad Professor says to switch the Sustain/Compressor knob to compressor to set the pedal to function more like a typical compressor. I liked the feel in sustain mode better even with higher compression settings. It just felt more open and punchy and natural. It really is quite unique in feel. The compression knob was useful all the way across the entire range while in Sustain mode.
At each setting it was just different versions of "sounds good".
The FGC is pretty quiet overall across the various compression levels and tone adjustments. It isn't as quiet as the Diamond or Smoothie or FEA for sure but it isn't the noisiest out there either. It never really exhibited significant pumping either. Color me impressed with the overall feel and flexibility.
For those considering the Diamond but maybe wanting something a bit less colored, you need to consider the Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor.
There are a lot of similarities, but the FGC just feels more open and neutral yet still "big" and "fat" like the Diamond. Having the Sustain and Compressor switch allows for more tonal variety too. The Diamond still has the mid switch to adjust the center point of the tilt EQ that the FGC doesn't. A blend knob on the FGC would be killer.
Because of the tone knob, I found I could quickly dial it in to sound great with any of my basses. High output or passive, no issues. Plenty of headroom too.
The LED lights bright red but does not flash to indicate over threshold.
It's not the most versatile of compressors out there. It doesn't allow control over attack and release and threshold for example, but it sounds real good and I didn't find myself necessarily wishing I had that control. The Sustain/Compressor control and the tone knob are the selling points of this one.
Retail price: $186