Our Most Flexible Pedal

 

The JHS Pulp ‘N’ Peel Compressor is a pedal with many names. Unfortunately, almost all of them are wrong. I’ve heard people refer to this pedal as the Orange Squeezer, the Pulp 'N' Pop, the Squish 'N' Squeeze, the Pulp ‘N’ Squeeze, the Orange Slice, the Juice ‘N’ Slice, the Rooty Tooty Orange Cutie and other names too numerous (and nonsensical) to mention here. The Pulp ‘N’ Peel is the Benedict Cumberbatch of guitar pedals; everyone loves the product, but no one remembers the name. 

That said, now you know. This pedal is called the Pulp ‘N’ Peel. Say it with me: Pulp ‘N’ Peel. 

Got it? Cool.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me get to the good news. If you've been looking for a compressor pedal that can also replace your preamp, distortion and direct box, then look no further. It's the JHS Pulp 'N' Peel.

A Brief History of Compressors 

Now, there’s a rich and varied history here that we can’t totally dive into, but we are going to highlight the most popular styles of compression in guitar pedals:

  1. Optical style compression - this was made famous by the Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveling Amplifier, which is a studio tool that people love. In pedal form, something like the Diamond Compressor is a great choice.

  2. The OTA (Operational Transconductance Amplifier) style compressor was popularized by the classic MXR Dyna Comp. 

  3. And then you can have something like the Dan Armstrong Orange squeezer (FET style compression) which is what the Pulp ‘N’ Peel is based off of. FET style compression was made popular by the Universal Audio 1176. 

The easiest way for me to explain the compression control on the Pulp ‘N’ Peel is to compare it to a five-star dinner. Let’s say you order a steak. They don't bring you hot sauce and salt and pepper with it, right? They don’t have to, because the chef seasoned it perfectly. In the same way, the compression settings on the Pulp ‘N’ Peel are pretty much impossible to mess up. Even if you turn the compression knob all the way down, there's actually still compression happening. The more you turn it up, it's just blending more of that compression into your signal. 

Just like with a fancy-pants steak, you don’t need to add anything for this to work perfectly. The work has been done for you. 

How to Use Your Pulp ‘N’ Peel

Believe it or not, there are actually a ton of ways you can use your Pulp ‘N’ Peel other than just compression. Here are some of my favorites:

  1. Direct Box: To use the Pulp ‘N’ Peel as a direct box, find unity gain on the volume knob, back off the compression just a little, use the EQ knob to dial in brightness to taste, and turn up the blend knob a bit to add some of your clean signal back in. Presto! This setting pairs especially well with Keeley Caverns on direct acoustic guitars. It’s also great for bass if you want a bit of compression and zero fuss. Lastly, use the Pulp N’ Peel on something like a Strat to dial in the perfect eighties squeaky clean direct funk tone.  

  2. Distortion: The dirt switch on the Pulp ‘N’ Peel V4 basically lets you turn this compression pedal into a ProCo RAT. It works best with the compression knob turned all the way down and the EQ knob turned all the way up. You also have a knob on the side of the pedal that allows you to adjust the amount of gain for the RAT circuit. Pro tip? Just turn it all the way up. There’s no such thing as too much dirt when you’re emulating a RAT.

  3. Small Amp Sound: Set the compression and blend knobs at noon, keep the “dirt” switch on, and turn up the volume to push your amp a bit. Do this, and you’ll confuse the heck out of audience members who hear a small-amp-ready-to-explode kind of sound, but can only see a compressor. This setting pairs especially well with slap delay from something like the JHS Milkman.

I think that's what we've learned today is that the Pulp ‘N’ Peel is awesome. I’m a fan. You’re a fan. Even Nick is a fan, and he can be a little judgy when it comes to JHS Pedals. To quote Nick himself: “This is truly, truly one of our most versatile pedals. I love it. A lot. The heart doesn't lie.”

I don’t think I can put it any better than that. 

 
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