The current revision has the Keeley Compressor Plus on the right hand side. It replaced the Boss CS3, so one compressor replacing another.
I was finding the CS3 sometimes killed the dynamics. My theory was that the ratio was too high for my playing. However having tried the Keeley prior to buying it, I found that it also killed the dynamics if I was playing with humbuckers on the single coil setting (accessed via the toggle switch between the knobs). Apparently the attack time is shorter for single coils due to the note spike being steeper with a single coil than a humbucker. I’m guessing the release time is longer in single coil mode than it is with humbuckers.
So maybe with the CS3, if I’d fiddled with it whilst playing single coils, perhaps it’s not surprising that I found the compression too much if I then switched to humbuckers.
I suspect I’ll also find I want the knobs in different places for single coils and humbuckers. So the next revision of the board will probably have bright dots on the pedal where I want the knobs for single coils and humbuckers.
The Keeley won in my shoot out against the Boss CP1X and Wampler Ego. Based on my experience with the CS3 and TC Electronics Hypergravity (which I use for bass) I wanted at least one of multi-band compression (the CP1X) or a blend knob (the other 2). A ratio knob would also have been good (CP1X).
I found the Wampler seemed to boost bass too much for my liking on ocassions, but otherwise sounded pretty good.
I can’t say anything bad about the CP1X, the Keeley just sounded and felt better. I expected to find the lights showing how much it was compressing useful, but I found them a bit gimmicky and after about 5 minutes was just listening to how it reacted to my playing.
The Keeley just felt and sounded best to me.
The CS3 will probably go on a 2nd board I have in mind for bass. A small one with my Bassrig pedal amp on it. I bought a board at the same time as the Keeley. It is big enough to take the 2 pedals and a power supply underneath, with enough room for a multi effects unit later, whilst being small enough to sit on top of my keyboard amp.