At its core, the Squish As features a best-in-class Blackmer® Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA) and True RMS Detector. Optical and JFET compressors are popular for their musical character; however, this character often comes with increased distortion, limited dynamic range, and a somewhat unpredictable transfer function. The high-end VCA and True RMS Detector deliver natural, high-fidelity dynamics processing. Use it to make notes sound more consistent, tame peaks, and boost subtleties; or add depth to your tone with parallel compression by setting the Ratio high and rolling back the Blend control. The Squish As is the perfect always-on compressor.



Bondi Effects

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Demo by ambienttrash

Demo by Mark Johnston

Manual

Squish As

The Del Mar was conceived in an effort to add a Tubescreamer-style clipping stage to the Klon Centaur. I’ve always loved the clean half of the Centaur, but my favourite clipping stage has always been the articulate and detailed response of the Tubescreamer.

My engineering sensibilities at the time were perhaps somewhat naive, and my attempts to incorporate aspects of the Klon, Tubescreamer and Bluesbreaker actually resulted in something that is not exactly like any of them.

In retrospect, I think that engineering things in the “wrong" way resulted in an inadvertently unique result, which at this stage and with the benefit of hindsight, is something I’ve come to be very proud of.

Review by guitar pedal X

Review by delicious audio

Demo by Ambient Endeavors

Demo by Guitar Emerge

Review by reddit /guitarpedals

Del Mar Mk2

Der Sick As Overdrive ist eine Abkehr vom ausgetretenen Pfad und übernimmt seine Grundstruktur vom Klon Centaur®, bietet aber einige wesentliche Verbesserungen für den modernen Spieler. Die Verstärkungsregelung dient einem doppelten Zweck – wenn die Verstärkung erhöht wird, erhöht sich auch das Verhältnis von Verstärkung zu sauberem Ton. Dies stellt sicher, dass der Ton beim Absenken der Verstärkung nie matschig und unangenehm wird. Sie können die Höhe des Headrooms und den Charakter des Drives mit dem Kippschalter steuern. Wählen Sie zwischen einem stärker komprimierten, auf den mittleren Bereich fokussierten Ton oder einem offenen, transparenten Rhythmuston. Der Tonschaltkreis ist ein leistungsstarker, aktiver Zweiband-EQ-Schaltkreis, der die Bass- und Höhenfrequenzen für maximale Vielseitigkeit um bis zu 15 dB anheben oder absenken kann. Die Spannung wird für mehr Klarheit und Headroom auch intern auf 18 V angehoben.

The Sick As Overdrive is a diversion from the well-worn path, taking its basic structure from the Klon Centaur® but with some major improvements for the modern player. The gain control serves a dual purpose— as the gain is increased, the ratio of gain-to-clean tone increases as well. This ensures that when the gain is rolled off, the tone never becomes muddy and unpleasant. You can control the amount of headroom and the character of the drive with the toggle switch. Choose from a more compressed, mid-range focused tone or an open, transparent, rhythm tone.  The tone circuit is a powerful, two-band active EQ circuit capable of boosting or cutting the bass and treble frequencies up to 15dB for maximum versatility. The voltage is also boosted internally to 18V for increased clarity and headroom.

Demo by Ambient Endeavors 

Review by Guitar.com

Review by The Gear Page

Sick As Overdrive - Retro Blue

Kompressoren waren für mich schon immer ein Problem. Ich fand oft, dass die Kompressoren, die ich mochte, etwas opfern mussten, um meinen Ton zu erhalten. OTA-Kompressoren (wie der Ross) beschneiden die Höhen für meinen Geschmack zu sehr, und viele versuchten, dieses Problem mit einem Clean-Blend-Regler zu lösen; aber meiner Meinung nach machte das den Sinn eines Kompressor-Pedals zunichte, um es überhaupt zu benutzen. Optische Kompressoren hatten aufgrund ihrer langsamen Attack- und Release-Raten einen transparenteren Klang, waren aber nicht ideal für eine stärkere Kompression. Nach zwei Jahren des Lernens und Experimentierens mit Kompression freue ich mich daher, den 2026 Compressor anbieten zu können. 

Der 2026 Compressor ist ein voll ausgestatteter, leistungsstarker Kompressor/Limiter mit Blackmer VCA. 
Er verfügt über alle fünf traditionellen Kompressionsregler: RATIO, THRESHOLD, LEVEL, ATTACK und RELEASE; sowie einen KNEE-Kippschalter. Der 2026 ist ein völlig transparenter Kompressor. Er filtert oder beeinflusst den Ton auf keine andere Weise als durch Kompression. Aus diesem Grund eignet er sich sowohl für Bass als auch für Gitarre.

Ich wollte, dass der 2026 so einfach oder fortschrittlich ist, wie du ihn haben willst, deshalb gibt es zwei Modi. BLAU ist der DYNAMIC-Modus. Hier kannst du einfach einstecken und spielen, deinen Threshold, Ratio und Level einstellen, und Attack und Release werden durch deine Spieldynamik bestimmt. ROT ist der MANUELLE Modus. Im manuellen Modus stellst du Attack und Release mit den Reglern ein.

In beiden Modi leuchtet die LED weiß, wenn eine Kompression stattfindet, also nutze dies, um deinen Threshold einzustellen.

Compressors have always been a struggle for me. I often found the compressors I liked had to sacrifice something for the sake of preserving my tone. OTA style compressors (like the Ross) cut the highs too much for my liking, and many tried to solve this problem with a clean-blend knob; but to my mind, this just negated the point of using a compressor pedal to begin with. Optical compressors had a more transparent tone because of their slow attack and release rates, but were not ideal for more overt compression. So after two years of learning and experimenting with compression, I am pleased to offer the 2026 Compressor. 

The 2026 Compressor is a full featured, high performance BlackmerÂ® VCA powered compressor/limiter. It has all five traditional compression controls; RATIO, THRESHOLD, LEVEL, ATTACK and RELEASE; as well as a KNEE toggle switch. The 2026 is a completely transparent compressor. It does not filter or effect your tone in any way other than compressing it. Because of this it works equally well for bass as well as guitar.

I wanted the 2026 to be as simple or advanced as youÂ’d like it to be, so there are two modes. BLUE is DYNAMIC mode. Use this if you want to just plug and play, set your threshold, ratio and level, and your attack and release will be set by your playing dynamics. RED is MANUAL mode. In manual mode you set the attack and release via the knobs.

In both modes the LED will turn white when compression is happening, so use this to set your threshold.

Review by Delicious Audio

Demo by Gustavo Resende

Demo by Pete Thorn

Demo by shnobel

Demo by Brett Kingman

2026 Compressor

With help from Earthling Designs, we pushed the gain of this High Shredroom Edition of the Sick As Overdrive almost past sensibility. The sweep of the gain control has been narrowed for usability meaning it does not go completely clean anymore, but that's not really what this pedal is for. The mid-range focus has been narrowed to open up the top and bottom end, making it more articulate and aggressive.

Sick As - Limited Edition High Shredroom