Meticulously researched and superbly crafted, the '76 Vintage Dyna Comp features the same circuitry used in the original 1976 Dyna Comp, identical in its component layout, silkscreen and handmade wire harness. The key component is the CA3080 "metal can" integrated circuit (IC), which yields quieter operation, greater transparency and increased dynamic range. These ICs have been out of production since the '80s, but MXR has tracked down a stash of them—enough to produce a limited run of these little red boxes of compression bliss. The '76 Vintage Dyna Comp "tightens up" a guitar signal, raising the volume of quiet notes and leveling off peaks to create rich, full bodied sustain.