Clean to Mean Rack Tones 12/27/25

[Jakem]

Does this work?



EDITED

EDIT: Yes, it was a stereo track indeed.

 

[mentoneman]

About the 160X and its siblings, I like the over easy mode. I remember not giving it much thought when I first got a DBX, maybe just whacking a few chords with it on and off, until I heard Paul Jackson Jr talking about how that was the sound. And after a bit of further testing I did like it better with it activated, subtle but definitely a thing.

i’ve always been a fan of compression.

owned a bevy of pedal and rack compressors. starting with a dynacomp and evolving through decades of swapping out various models. have had the cali 76 stacked as my main pedal comp for years now. low noise and tons of settings.

for line level rack stuff, it’s been dbx 160 A and X, Art stereo tube, alesis 3630, rocktron 300G, and FMR RNC.

but being the ever curious one, i did a quick shootout yesterday at a friend’s shop:

that trickfish comp was pretty impressive and probably the highest quality of the 3, but vintage nostalgia won me over and i nabbed the dyna script. the tc was cool but not as tasty as the OG tc para eq/sustain i once had.

also played this thing which was a pretty cool verb/trem box worth mention:

 

[Dave L]

I also have an old two-knob Keeley in front of the amp for other sounds, I probably use that one just as much as the DBX.

 

[Anje]

Hard to beat a good old simple MXR / Boss pedal in front for compressors IMHO.
And yes those old TC paraEQ/comp are really special, like the whole OG TC pedal lineup; love them!

 

[Dave L]

Yeah, the Keeley is also a very simple one. I used to have the TC comp/EQ, great pedal. I can´t remember why I sold it but I must have had a reason at the time Still use the Booster+ a whole lot.

 

[Jakem]

i’ve always been a fan of compression.

owned a bevy of pedal and rack compressors. starting with a dynacomp and evolving through decades of swapping out various models. have had the cali 76 stacked as my main pedal comp for years now. low noise and tons of settings.

for line level rack stuff, it’s been dbx 160 A and X, Art stereo tube, alesis 3630, rocktron 300G, and FMR RNC.

but being the ever curious one, i did a quick shootout yesterday at a friend’s shop:

View attachment 460666

that trickfish comp was pretty impressive and probably the highest quality of the 3, but vintage nostalgia won me over and i nabbed the dyna script. the tc was cool but not as tasty as the OG tc para eq/sustain i once had.

also played this thing which was a pretty cool verb/trem box worth mention:

View attachment 460667

How would You compare the 160A against the 160X?

 

[mentoneman]

How would You compare the 160A against the 160X?

the A rolls off the top end more to my ears. the X preserves the highs more naturally.