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The philosopher's tone is an alright compressor with a shitty fuzz built in. Good for a dirty boost, but more or less useless, IMHO.

I really like the Philosopher's Tone in terms of huge sustain (great when I want something that drones for a long time) and the treble boost is great for pushy dark reverbs to stop the higher frequencies from vanishing but I agree that the Grit / Distortion control is ghastly - I never have that on. It also works well at the end of my chain to calm down some pedals that get too shrill and loud (old DOD flangers and phasers usually). The audio jack positions are a bit odd (although I don't use a pedal board, so I can live with that). It is admittedly only the second compressor I've ever tried and the first was awful (Biyang comp that just adds hiss and volume) so I can't speak from vast experience here, but it does work well for me if I'm playing something dreamy / reverby / droney.

No more monarch makes me sad.
Hopefully something equally as awesome replaces it.

moid wrote:I really like the Philosopher's Tone in terms of huge sustain (great when I want something that drones for a long time) and the treble boost is great for pushy dark reverbs to stop the higher frequencies from vanishing but I agree that the Grit / Distortion control is ghastly - I never have that on. It also works well at the end of my chain to calm down some pedals that get too shrill and loud (old DOD flangers and phasers usually). The audio jack positions are a bit odd (although I don't use a pedal board, so I can live with that). It is admittedly only the second compressor I've ever tried and the first was awful (Biyang comp that just adds hiss and volume) so I can't speak from vast experience here, but it does work well for me if I'm playing something dreamy / reverby / droney.

I agree, the Philosopher's Tone doesn't have a terrible compressor, but for the price you can get something that's a lot better. It's $180 new ( pfft, like we ever buy anything new...but for the sake of example) for that same price range you can get an EQD The Warden; and for less you can get pedals like the Fairfield Circuitry the Accountant or the Xotic SP. It's not that it's outright bad, but it's not worth it for the price.

I dont see the point of double/tripple dirt pedals that are just a combination of multiple existing peds

Wouldnt you get the same tones AND MORE if you'd get those pedals seperately and get the freedom of placing them whereever in the chain?

Save two power spots.

Jamie contributed to an article in premier guitar along with SS/BS/Alexander pedals/jack deville and a few other guys talking about their fab ever pedals and Jamie's was the Maestro FSH. Now THAT I'd like to see happen