FEA Opti-FET Compressor £150 (with slight issue) - *SOLD* £150 Twickenham

[SumOne]

Sold.

 

FEA Opti-FET Compressor.

 

£150 including recorded delivery (note the issue described below - hence the lower price, they are usually >£200 second hand). 

 

This is one of the best Bass compressor pedals around. Here are some reviews: 

 

https://www.compressorpedalreviews.com/post/fea-opti-fet-compressor-review

 

https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/2019/06/18/fea-labs-opti-fet-compressor/

 

http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/optifet.shtml

 

PLEASE NOTE: There is an issue that has happened a few times now - the yellow light which shows when it's compressing a signal occasionally (like once a week, and I use it daily) stays on full even without a signal going to it and the output cuts out completely. Click the footswitch on/off and it all goes back to working as normal. I'm not sure why this would be, perhaps a loose wire on the footswitch? Or a loose connection somewhere which gets jiggled back into place by pressing the footswitch? Or is it something optical compressors occasionally just do and they need a 'reset'? 

 

If it was my only compressor I'd take it apart to try and fix but I recently got a Fishman Platinum Pro which has a built in compressor, so I'll just stick with that rather than risking my lack of technical skills breaking anything! Also I'm raising some cash for a new Cab so need to sell a few pedals. 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by SumOne
Sold

[lee650]

Aww no! I've regrettably had to just sell mine as I needed cash for a new bass. This is one of best compressors I've ever used and that includes Cali76CB,Diamond,3 leaf Pwnzor,effectrode PC2A. This is very worth the low price. This issue may not be a problem to some, it's not typical of opto comps though, or this pedal.

[Cuzzie]

Amazing compressor - phenomenal

[SumOne]

14 hours ago, lee650 said:

Aww no! I've regrettably had to just sell mine as I needed cash for a new bass. This is one of best compressors I've ever used and that includes Cali76CB,Diamond,3 leaf Pwnzor,effectrode PC2A. This is very worth the low price. This issue may not be a problem to some, it's not typical of opto comps though, or this pedal.

Cheers, yeah I think it'll be fine for someone intending to use it at home and for practice and recording sessions. Someone using it live probably won't want the risk of needing to click it off/on though. Hopefully it's just a simple enough fix of a loose connection.....I might try myself if there are no takers. 

[SumOne]

FEA have been giving some very good customer service and sent me a few emails to try to resolve the issue. It looks like it might be my power supply rather than the compressor, to paraphrase their response:

 

I use a Harley Benton Power supply which is advertised as being isolated, but while some power supplies advertised 'isolated'  they only have separate regulators, filters and over current protection for each of the DC output positive terminals but the output negative (ground) terminals are still bonded together - which is not a true isolated supply. (I need to test this using a digital ohm meter by measuring the resistance between the center pins (negatives) between two outputs, testing  without the power supply energized should show infinite resistance between the two of the center pins if the supply has truly isolated outputs). 

 

Sometimes in a pedal board there are ground currents that cause the sensitive threshold detector circuits in the compressor to trigger without any audio signal.  This issue is almost always power ground loop currents between the pedals with a power supply that has a common ground like a daisy-chain or power brick with the grounds bonded together. 

 

So using a fully isolated supply or battery powering the compressor should resolve the issue.

 

......I'll report back! If there is no issue with the compressor the sale price will be £200.