Pettyjohn CRUSH3 compressor pedal begins shipping October 15

October 15, 2026 · 1 sources

Pettyjohn Electronics began shipping the CRUSH3 on October 15, the maker states on its product page. The pedal is a follow-up to the original CRUSH, which Pettyjohn says was released around six years ago and produced for only about a year.

The CRUSH3 is a VCA compressor with a discrete VCA at the core of its compression and a custom RMS sidechain detector that reads average volume rather than peak value, according to Pettyjohn. The maker lists a proprietary +/-17v internal power supply, true bypass switching, rear mounted jacks and dimensions of 4.72 x 3.7 x 2.22 inches. It is hand made in Oregon, USA, and designed for guitars and instruments of all kinds, the maker says.

Controls include Threshold, Makeup Gain, Tilt EQ and Blend knobs, plus mini pots for attack, ratio and release and switches for knee and a sidechain high-pass filter. Pettyjohn gives attack as roughly 2mS to 30mS and release as roughly 50mS to 250mS; the page's control notes also list attack from 1mS to 30mS and release up to 250-300mS. The knee switch selects hard or soft knee, and the rear button engages or bypasses the sidechain filter. The Tilt EQ is neutral at noon, adding highs and cutting lows when turned left and doing the reverse when turned right, per the maker.

Pettyjohn lists the CRUSH3 from $579.00. Options include a Deluxe Discrete Opamp Mod, which upgrades the input and output buffers to a custom 990 style discrete opamp, a Vintage Tone Mod that swaps nearly two dozen parts in the audio path for vintage flavored components, and a custom wood top.

The CRUSH3 sits among the compressor pedals the site tracks.