The highly regarded LAB compressor has a small but devoted following here. Any opinions on this and the Tone Druid overdrive pedal?
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Union Tube & Transistor
- Thread starter butterfingers1
- Start date
When I was putting together my new board a couple years ago - I was going to grab one. It was out of stock (and I was in a hurry) so I wound up going with the Ampeg instead. Not disappointed in it, per se, but I *might* be putting together another small board... so yes - subbed to read the latest opinions 
The Sub Buzz is a fuzz designed for bass. But because it has a separate clean volume and a fuzz volume, maybe it can work or sound like a low gain overdrive. From a video review I saw, although these never sound anything like in person, it really sounds like two separate guitars, a clean and a fuzzed one, each with their own volume all the way down to off.
No nor the LAB compressor. I’m not into fuzz at all, just very low gain overdrive at most, although the blend might approximate that. The LAB is a bit expensive and it’s not made for bass guitar, and there are so many outstanding bass compressors available (Diamond, Empress, Broughton, Lusithand). And there is too little discussion of UT&T on Talkbass and elsewhere to push me. So far anyway.
Yes, his review was very positive on the LAB for someone with my use case. Mine actually just arrived today! Going on a Nano+ with a Khan VTDI and Shure wireless for this weekend. I expect it will sound fantastic. I wish there was more information on the SubBuzz. JHS did a video on Union’s pedals about a year ago. The bass player did a short demo with it. Sounded great, but I haven’t seen/heard much else besides a couple of YouTube videos. It’s not a sound I really need most of the time, but might be fun to play with at home every now and then.
I recently bought the Lab as my fourth compressor to try out. I'm not at all a compressor expert, so the two knob compression for dummies was perfect for me. It does the job well, is very easy to use, and sounds great.
The Lab is the favorite of the four I've tried, so I've been selling off the other three:
- UAFX 1176 pedal never did anything for me
- UAFX LA-2A pedal sounds a lot like the Lab, but I slightly preferred the Lab.
- Kelley Bassist is a great compressor for sure.
The Lab is the favorite of the four I've tried, so I've been selling off the other three:
- UAFX 1176 pedal never did anything for me
- UAFX LA-2A pedal sounds a lot like the Lab, but I slightly preferred the Lab.
- Kelley Bassist is a great compressor for sure.
I get the impression the LAB sounds like the Broughton Omnicomp, the thick gooey rubbery optical compressor tone. The Diamond is fantastic for this, sounds like the Beatles recordings.
Tried the LAB bean counter ed---it was ok, but was not mind blowing, like guys were touting it. Sold it to a guitar player here and still using the Diamond comp eq.