Pigtronix has now managed to condense its Philosopher’s Tone into a micro-sized pedal that should please anyone looking to conserve pedalboard space.
While losing the Grit knob of the original, there’s still a Blend knob, which means you can add in gradual amounts of compression in parallel with your dry signal, right up to a fully compressed signal.
There’s also a Treble control with cut or boost at 2kHz, which is useful if you want an EQ shift with no compression, and really helpful for dialling in an altered tone with compression.
The compression here doesn’t get as full-on squashy as some but is a natural for clean sustain, and there’s loads of headroom via the volume knob to drive your amp harder.
With that combination of boost, compression and extra top-end, this pedal has a role to play beyond just a compressor, notably as a tone conditioner/driver that can elevate your sound for solos.
