Moody Sounds Carlin Compressor Reissue (fully assembled)

Moody Sounds Carlin Compressor Reissue (fully assembled in Sweden) not a kit

compressor + distortion

design by Nils Olof Carlin in the 1970's...assembled by Moody Sounds under license

The cooperation with Carlin began when a customer contacted us and asked if it was possible to clone the classic Sweden made compressor. Nils Olof Carlin was very helpful with giving instructions and advice how a clone could be made. It turned out he had 10 or so enclosures and boards in the attic and we soon reissued the pedal, small scale (they were available in 2013 but they are sold out now). Read more about the remaking of the Carlin pedals and read an interview with Nils Olof at fuzz.se (Swedish). When the reissue pedals were sold out we draw a new PCB and made a clone of the original circuit. We did some layout changes for the clone (see below) but the actual audio circuit is identical.

Carlin Compressor

The special thing with the Carlin Compressor is that you can mix in overdrive in the sound. This is because the pedal has, apart from the Sustain and Volume knobs, one called “Dist”. If Dist is turned down all the way you have a completely clean tone with a pretty mild and natural sounding compression. If you turn up Dist you will find a sound that is perfect for solos.

“I borrowed a Carlin Compressor and it is one of the best pedals I have used. It has got to be more known” – Reine Fiske

– Is the clone really a clone?
– The circuit in itself was not very hard to copy. All components used in the original are manufactured today. We compared the original with the clone and Carlin ok’ed it. The clone differs some on the outside, see below. The reasons why we didn’t copy everything are mainly that it has become some standard to use true bypass and to have the input jack to the right. The original enclosure was also a bit tricky to remake. Here are the differences between the clone and the original.

* the clone has true bypass – the bypass signal passes a buffer, original.
* the clone has the input jack on the right side of the box – the original has input on the left.
* the clone has a LED to indicate effects mode – the original has no LED.
* the clone is powered with 9v adapter or 9v battery – the original is powered with a 9v battery.
* the clone is built in a red painted box with the same size as the Trex pedals – the original box is a little bigger.

If you want to dig some more into the sound of this pedal, without going all the way and build the kit, there is a trimpot on the board that you can turn slightly to tweak the sound. It sets the ranges for Dist and Sustain. We set it in a position that makes the pedal sound best to our ears. You can fine tune it to go either up or down in Dist / Sustain.

The logo is a screen print on a metal plate and it is fastened with two screws in the box. True Bypass. Powered with 9V adapter. This pedal is hand made in Sweden. Power supply is not included.