So I've been shopping around for a compressor pedal. I really like what I see and hear from the EHX Black Finger but it's kinda pricey. Do you guy's have any affordable recommendations?

the mxr dyna comp is a little boring, but reliable and affordable. I had one for a while before abandoning compression all together on my pedal board and it did the job.

if budget was no issue, the keeley is the be all end all of stomp compressors as i understand it.

I don't know much about Keely but his name comes up alot, especially on mods. I'll look into it but its probably way out of my price range.

I got a Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor recently and it does the trick. It was around $150 i think. Really quiet, can go from mild to super squashed compression. Doesn't kill your tone either.

Good call. The Forest Green is definetely one of the best out there--it seems to bring out harmonics and colors the signal a bit, but in a really good way. It's a fuck of a lot better than paying the insane price for the BJFE Pine Green--the Pine Green is slightly better, but i'm not sure if it's THAT much better to the point where the Pine Green would be worth the difference in $$$.

Dyna Comp is a really good compressor, if you're on a budget.

The Ibanez CP10 is a great unit that's in the vintage range now, and can be found for a good (sub $100) price, most often, and you won't have tons of competition in fighting off people in the used ads and/ or on EBay.

If cash isn't that much of an issue, but you're willing to shell out for top of the line stuff, i'd go with the Maxon CP-9--it's about as transparent as you can get. The first time i'd played it, I had something dialed in mildly on the settings and couldn't even tell that the unit was on. On the 1/1-1.5 compression ratios, it's more of a limiter, and is great if you need a limiter (something that squashes the highest peaks of the signal) instead of a compressor (something that brings up all the lowest parts of the signal, including noise, hum and hiss). It apparently has a DBX circuit in it, and i'm thinking that it could almost be used as a pro audio (recording) compressor. Haven't tried it in that application, but I don't see why it wouldn't excel at that, too. The CP-9 adds pretty much zero noise to the signal. But it will pretty much leave you with zero money in the bank, ha ha.

Avoid the Boss compressors. They're pretty much bullshit. The old Orange DOD compressor was pretty rad, as is the Dynacomp...

Yeah, they add color, but i'm not sure if they do it in a good way. A cheap assed compressor can be awesome, too--transparency is great, but if the compressor adds it's own sonic stamp, that can be great, too. Some guys really like the old Loco Box Choker--it's far from transparent, but has it's own thing going. Not that easy to find, but cool nonetheless.