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Jacques Fat Burner: Fat is right! This is compression as an "effect", not as a subtle or transparent gain control. It is a squasher, a sustainer, and a thickener. It reminds me of the Boss CS-3, except with fatter tone, more versatility, and better low end. Like the CS-3, it can also be pretty hissy at all but the lightest settings. But most other compressors would be equally noisy at this level of serious squash.
 
Tonally, it can be a bit furry or even muddy, but the lows and highs are not notably rolled off. The "Muscle" knob adjusts the sound from smooth to biting, though I am not exactly sure what its actual function is. I suspect turning it to the left speeds the attack and softens the knee, while turning to the right slows the attack and hardens the knee. I like it at 12:00, but there are usable sounds at all the settings.
 
The Fat Burner also includes a decent headphone amp for practice, with its own output jack. This doubles as a +10dB boost for overdriving your tube amp if you like. The two outputs are buffered from each other, so it makes an excellent Y splitter to two amps or two signal paths.
 
Though Jacques is a French company, for many years the pedals were manufactured by Exar of Poland, which is why Jacques and Exar pedals look alike. When Exar went out of business in 2012, Exar's chief engineer started a new company called Pear Labs, and he continues to make the pedals for Jacques. Different eras of production will have different types of bypass switching, so double check on whichever specific one you might buy.
 

 
 
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