Free The Tone Silky Comp SC-1

The Free The Tone Silky Comp SC-1 is an analog compressor pedal from Japanese maker Free The Tone. Free The Tone designed it with the Neve 33609, a compressor used in recording studios, as its reference point, and the maker says a special soldering process used during circuit board assembly gave it a natural, smooth sound "like a shiny silk cloth"¹². Production of the original ended in 2018³, and the pedal later returned as a limited Custom Shop edition⁴.

For a player, the SC-1 is a straightforward three-knob compressor: it evens out note-to-note volume, adds sustain, and can be pushed into limiter-style peak control. RockBoard's PedalPedia describes the playing result as arpeggios with "a flowing, smooth, and natural link between notes" and comping that "can create sharp grooves"².

The controls: Sustain, Attack, Level

The SC-1 keeps compression to three knobs¹:

The Attack knob is the one that changes the pedal's character most. Free The Tone says the Attack control makes a wide range of sound shaping possible, and that with the knob turned fully clockwise the pedal can be used like a limiter⁵. RockBoard's listing makes the same point: the Silky Comp "can be used like a limiter by setting the ATTACK control fully clockwise"². In practice that means one pedal covers both gentle sustain work and hard peak clamping, depending on where Attack sits.

Power and connections

The SC-1 runs on 9V DC, center negative, drawing about 4mA¹². That draw is low enough that it is easy on a pedalboard power supply. Unlike many compact pedals, it also takes a battery: a 9V of the 006P type, or a 9V AC adapter through its DC input jack¹.

Connections are simple: two 1/4-inch standard jacks for input and output, plus the DC input jack¹. The enclosure measures 72(W)×115(D)×50(H)mm, including projections such as the footswitch and jacks, and weighs about 200 g without accessories¹.

In the box came a warranty card, the manual, a 9V battery and four rubber feet⁵.

Bypass switching

The effect on/off switching uses what Free The Tone calls a special true bypass arrangement: in bypass, the signal passes through only a single circuit of the switch⁵. The maker presents this as a way of keeping the bypassed signal path as direct as possible when the pedal is off.

History and the Custom Shop edition

In 2018, Free The Tone ended production of the original Silky Comp SC-1, a change the maker itself describes as regretted³. Its list price at the end of production was 35,200 yen, tax included¹.

The pedal came back through the Free The Tone Custom Shop. The Custom Shop series is built to the same sound and quality as the developer's original hand-built development models, and each label is handwritten by the developer, Yukihiro Hayashi⁵. Custom Shop products were sold only through Free The Tone's own online store and designated domestic dealers in Japan¹. RockBoard describes the SC-1-CS as a limited production of the Silky Comp released through the Custom Shop⁴.

The Silky Comp line continued in regular production as well. The SC-1 was sold as a Custom product, available only through Free The Tone's online store and its designated domestic dealers¹, and it has since ended production¹. Alongside it, the Custom Shop issued the SILKY COMP SC-1-CS, built to the same sound and quality as the developer's original hand-made model, with a label hand-written by designer Yukihiro Hayashi⁵³⁴.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Questions