Firstly it is not the most cloned compressor, that title belongs to the Ross which is pretty much every comp available in pedal form, then comes the orange squeezer. They were built by Dan Armstrong and they plugged straight into your guitar and has a switch to turn it on and off.
Many guitarists used them as boosts and sustainers, you can hear it all over the Doobie Brothers tracks.
On bass the original is pretty useless, but with a few small cap changes extending the range it's great, add a nice vintage warmth and at extreme settings a percussive effect, Tony Levin is a big user of this compressor, but more as an effect with all the other comps he's running.
There are still lots available today and its recently been picked up by more mass manufactures such as BBE.
My favourite was the Tone Factor Pulp Mill which I had modded and that was my main compressor for 2-3 years which is a long long time for me to hold on to a pedal