[1] With its distinctive tone and its wide range of sounds, deriving from the Class A amplifiers, its input and output transformers, the uncommonly fast attack and release times and their program dependence, and different compression ratios and modes, the 1176 was immediately appreciated by engineers and producers and established as a studio standard through the years.

[3] In 1966, the engineer Bill Putnam, founder of Universal Audio, began to employ the recently invented field-effect transistors (FET), replacing vacuum tubes in his equipment designs.

The initial units (A and AB revisions) were available in 1967 and were informally referred as "blue stripe" for their blue-colored meter section.

[1] Bill Putnam sold UREI in 1985 and Revision H was the last series produced by the original company.

[1] The 1176 uses a field-effect transistor (FET) to obtain gain reduction arranged in a feedback configuration.

The release time is program-dependent: it is quicker after transients to obtain a more consistent level, but it slows down after sustained and heavy compression to reduce pumping effects.

However, British engineers discovered it was possible to push all four buttons in at once, an unexpected use case that led to unintended behaviour, with a substantial increase of harmonic distortion.

This change in attack and release times and the compression curve that results is the main contributor to the all-button sound.

[1] Mike Shipley says "The 1176 absolutely adds a bright character to a sound, and you can set the attack so it's got a nice bite to it.