Keeley Compressor Plus

I was looking for a compressor pedal for some time. After watching a series of reviews, demos, videos online I decided to purchase it despite its high price.

Pros:
+ The switch for humbucker and single coil guitars is an interesting feature that affects the sound a lot. For my single coil guitar it works quite well.
+ The sound quality is not mind-blowing but great overall.

Cons:
- Any configuration of the left knobs beyond 12 o'clock is musically impractical. The compressor effect is so strong that is almost useless for any type of music (in my opinion).

Overall, this compressor could and should have been better. The price is too high. I am confident that cheaper options could do the trick as well.

This pedal is an absolute necessity for me.
It enhanced my sound beyond measure, but it comes with a price.
I used to have an mxr studio compressor deluxe between my guitar and pedals and since got rid of it due to it not just feeling right. I tried it after all my pedals and it was just unusable.
I bought the Keely Compressor Plus to put it after all my pedals based on all the reviews and it is really what I was looking for. Pristine sound and handling that really helps my playing. But it does come with a price. The blend is the perfect knob and the tone is also a huge advantage but both the sustain and level do have tricks to them and will take some time dialing in. If you stack pedals as one often does the sustain knob will increase the hiss significantly (even with a noise gate) and that happens also with the level which means you have to compromise it together with the blend knob, making it's versatility quite limited for wanting different sounds and not just enhancing your tone, like i do. Bonus is your delay and reverb trails pop out so you might want to dial them back a bit.
Still on the fence about this one but the sound is still superb.
Thomann as usual imaculate service.

In search of a stomp box compressor, I narrowed it down to the Xotic SP Compressor and the Keeley Compressor Plus, both in the same price-range. I chose the latter, as it is supposed to be quieter (less self-noise), and all the controls are on the outside whereas the Xotic SP has various options on the inside in the form of dip switches.

I use it in combination with a Gibson SG (which comes with very hot pickups) and a Koch Jupiter 45C amp and I like what I hear.

PROS
It gives a nice round, full (attack) sound when solo-ing and finger picking. I like it less for strumming chords, although that is probably a personal thing...it does what it has to do as a compressor. And it has a nice sustain, even on low settings.

The tone knob is a very handy, nice and essential option. The fact that it is a true by-pass pedal is always good, too. It has a mixing-option to mix the original, non-compressed sound with the compressed sound. This, for me, is an essential option, as well.

I use it in subtle settings...it gets overwhelmingly compressed pretty easily. I suppose it is nice that this is possible, as well, but for me personally, I have no use for these extreme settings. This might be different when using a guitar with single coil pick-ups.

Oh, the toggle switch to set for use with humbucker or single coil is great, too.

CONS
I (have to) use it with a 9V battery as a power source. To change the battery, you have to unscrew the back of the pedal. I'd like it if changing batteries was a little easier.

On a side note:

I bought a power supply (PSU) from Thomann for this pedal. Using the pedal powered by this PSU, I get a pretty nasty, constant, high frequency beep-tone (that increases in volume the higher I turn up the sustain knob [and obviously also when I turn up the level knob]).

This high frequency tone disappears for the most part when turning down the tone knob on my guitar completely. As that is clearly not a workable solution, I tried out a 9V battery. Now the high frequency beep tone is no longer there, making me think that either the PSU is causing the problem, or my electricity net. (Using another Thomann-bought PSU turned down the volume of the high frequency tone, but did not make it disappear).

Just thought I'd mention it, should others experience the same thing and think it is due to a faulty compressor unit. (For the sake of completeness: I tried it with different guitars, on another electricity group, with different guitar cables, but only taking the pedal off of the electricity net by using a 9V battery, did the beep tone disappear).

This is supposed to be "the most popular boutique compressor in the world" which is "completely made in the United States", at least according to the manufacturer's website. Therefore, I assumed that I'll be getting highest quality in all aspects.
As far as sound quality is concerned, I admit I got what I was expecting. Nice compression, low noise, cool sustain, great features (e.g. single coil/humbucker switch).
But as far as build-quality is concerned, this product was a disappointment! One of the screws in the bottom of the unit was loose and I soon realized it wouldn't fit in the hole no matter what. Either the screw is faulty or the drill hole is not right. When I tried to purchase similar screws at a hardware store around the block, they told me that this kind of screws are hard to find so I ended up with a pedal that can't be placed flat on any surface. Well this doesn?t sound top quality to me at all.
Anyway, at least it sounds good?