It remains quiet as a mouse even at extreme compression settings due to the architecture and use of a low noise op amp. The amount of compression available goes from very little (essentially a clean boost) to up to 40dB of gain reduction, which is a massive squish even with single coil pickups. Attack and release time are fixed, and both pretty fast, suitable for a wide range of electric guitar styles. There are just 2 controls: sustain and volume. It has a small component count and is made of standard parts all cheaply available from Tayda electronics. The design goals were simplicity, transparency and low noise. I've paralleled up both halves of the LM13700 for a further noise reduction, and drive the OTA with a balanced differential signal to minimize control signal breakthrough. This is the same basic technique for low noise that is used in the Engineer's Thumb compressor. This keeps background noise down to an ultra low level.

The Pellucid uses an LM13700 in the feedback loop of a NE5532 low noise op amp for its VCA. Unlike the Reckless diode compressor, which was a feed-forward design, this is a more traditional feedback compressor design with a two transistor peak detecting sidechain that is derived from the DOD 280, as used in just about every other guitar compressor out there including the Dynacomp, the Ross compressor, the DOD 280 optical compressor, the Diamond optical compressor, the Mooer yellow comp and lots of boutique clones. Introducing the Pellucid compressor - a new original design stompbox compressor for guitar and bass.

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