The 4 knobbed (level, attack, sustain, and tone) CS-3 is a nice all-around “meat and potatoes” type compressor. It doesn’t have nearly as much character as the older Boss CS-1 and CS-2 but it does the job without adding it’s own 2 cents of tone. At almost all settings, the CS-3 comes off as a transparent, almost sterile, compressor with very little coloring. Some extreme tweaking via the tone and attack knobs seems to bring out a bit more of it’s repressed personality but don’t expect the changes to jump out at you. This bland, almost clinical, compression works great for players who are really happy with their fundamental tone and aren’t looking for drastic shift in sound. If you’re looking for a wild compressor to dramatically alter your tone, you may want to look elswhere.