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He took it out of his rig at one point, explaining that he wanted to remove all his \"safety nets.\" I don't have any live or studio stuff from his solo career, but you can hear the absence, as it were, of the compressor on the last phish tour.
Safety net....hmmm....that's interesting, I never looked at it as such. And I agree, you could defintely notice the difference, and IMO, it wasn't always good. I love that sound he had w/ it, but that's just me.