Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress

This is an older version of the Electric Mistress...the writing is in green and all the controls are mounted at the top (not at the side, like the later "Deluxe Electric Mistress"). Quite simple to use...there's a rate control, which controls how fast the flange sweep goes, range, which controls the depth (and sweep positioning in filter matrix mode...more on that later), and then color, which is sort of a wet/dry mix or intensity control. There's also a slider type switch on the back of the unit to engage the filter matrix function and turn off the regular flange sweeping. The jacks are all clearly labeled.

The only problems with this unit:
1) battery change requires unscrewing the top half of the casing and removing it. this isn't going to be a problem once I get an AC adapter, but for now, it's a pain

and

2)it's beyond me why EH stuck the filter matrix switch on the back of the unit. I like changing settings with the my foot when I can, and it could've been mounted as a second stomp switch instead of a plastic slider on the back of unit.

Wow. I really hated flange until I heard this thing! This thing gives the classic airplane jet swoop-sound, though it doesn't get anywhere near as heavy as on newer flangers like the one Boss puts out (the trade-off there, of course, is that this sounds very warm, and stuff like the Boss sound very cold and processed). Like most EH stuff, this thing has a lot of useful sounds as well as a lot of musically useless but damn cool sounds as well. Using the color knob, you can make it really subtle, or really deep and disorienting. You can use the rate and range knobs to get really weird sounds that can make for interesting lead tones (think of what Adrian Belew did on King Crimson's "Elephant Talk"...you can do something similar with this, and it sounds a million times cooler 'cause it's ANALOG and not some Roland guitarsynth patch!). And of course there's all those useless freak-out noises.

But what's really interesting is the filter matrix. A lot of other people don't seem to enjoy this much, but I love it. Basically, by turning on the filter matrix option, you disconnect the LFO thing that does the flange sweeping, and then you use the range knob to manually pick a point at anywhere in that sweep. You can coax out some eastern-sounding precussive string stuff, as well as some neat metalic pings resembling everything from thumb pianos to playing from inside a tin can. This is a GREAT way to get an interesting tone from your guitar without resorting to convential distortion or modulation effects. It's also a nice change-up in lead playing...you can play something really beautiful that will get everyone going, "Wow..." and then make your guitar sound like it's on the verge of dying and then bring it back. It's a nice way to interject seeming chaos into a boring old pentatonic-minor based lead or what have you.

My only real gripe is that the unit gets very noisy when you max out the color knob. It's kind of cool because you can get a humming pseudo-feedback which you can alter the pitch of by moving the range knob in filter matrix mode, but it can be annoying at times, too.

The unit is pretty sound...the case is just stamped steel, but it's sturdy enough for regular use. I don't like the guts, though...they seem sort of...ancient. The batteries are held in place by a piece of friggin' styrofoam. Not good, not good. I'm going to be very careful.

EH is great! They always answer my emails within two or three days. They gave my Small Stone an out-of-warranty repair for fifteen bucks...I mailed it out and got it back in a little over a week. People frequently joke about some of EH's stuff now being done in Russia by Sovtek, but repairs for all their products can be done at EH/New Sensor right in New York. They're a great, great company, and they've got the customer service thing down pat.

I play a wide array of music, and I always like interjecting some weird sounds as well as some more traditional modulation effects This is just the thing for me (this side of the EH MicroSynth or a ring modulator, anyway). I don't know how the reissues are, but I dig this box. I really wasn't interested in flange until I bought this (a guy on a newsgroup was hawking it for a mere $99...an old EH pedal for that cheap, just 'cause the case had some minor scratches and a small amount of corrosion where the name's painted on! I couldn't pass it up!). Anyone interested in investigating strange and useable guitar sounds and doesn't have something to change it all up should consider one of these.

Colour, Width and Depth knobs, and a Filter Matrix/Flanger switch. I once had a Boss BF-2, which took forever to get a decent sound out of because it had so many more knobs that went to much greater extremes than this one's do. The Electric Mistress is much easier to use, but the dowmnside is that it's not nearly as versatile, I'm not sure if it's fair trade-off.

It seems like every other time I plug it in, it buzzes horribly, but the rest of the time it sounds fine. No true bypass, and when it's on, you can hear the flange pretty strongly, even if you're not playing. It's trebbly as hell and kind of makes me nauseous. It doesn't sound very airy, but more like a really thick chorus, and I *hate* chorus pedals. I got this thing because I like effects from which you can get unique and bizzare sounds, and the filter matrix appealed to me, but it's really pretty useless. It can make funky robot sounds, but who needs that? Maybe someday I'll play some weird version of "Iron Man" and use it for some sound effects or something, but it's just so trebbly and noisy that it just doesn't seem worth it. This pedal can nail the Leslie sound, but I think that that sounds like crap on a guitar. I'm selling it.

Except for the occasional noise problem I mentioned above, it seems pretty reliable.

I hate this thing. It just sounds like a poor version of your run-of-the-mill flanger. Nothing very interesting (I don't even like Flangers) and basically just ugly sounding. I spent all weekend trying to get this thing to do something I like, and I couldn't. I geuss some people like traditional flangers and heavy chorusy-type effects, but I personally can't stand them.

Really easy to use, takes about 5 minutes to figure out what's up.

Sounds great, especialy with a distortion before it and some delay afterwards. The filter is fairly useless but interesting sounding. The flange effect is the best and easy to control.

When I first got it the red LED didn't work but I just opened it up and put in another one from radio shack, other than that it's a really strudy pedal that could last forever.

Great for adding crazy sounds when used with other pedals if you like to go noise crazy, works well with distortions and delays, can be subtle or in your face, both are cool, I would definately buy this again, you just have to try one to understand. EH makes great pedals, maybe the best.

yeah, it is easy to use BUT ... Actually I love it because it sits nice next to my V Twin, still...I don't find that I can get away with anything other than a very low rate setting as it is so effective. It sounds excellent for the solo in 'Made Of Stone'. I have mine through the FX loop on my Fender Twin and switching it in causes my volume to drop considerably. I have put this down to the fact that I am in the UK on a different voltage - the adapter supplied frightens electricians over here; 24V DC? na, you've got no chance of finding one of those!

No noise, but that might be because it gates my volume so drastically when I switch it on. Sound quality is very good, much better than the Boss BF2 which couldn't seem to cope with overdrive.

Very reliable, I have had to tape the adapter down to a shaver socket though because I cannot get a 24V DC adapter suitable for UK plug sockets -don't let anyone near the plug on gigs or it'll be halfway across the pub floor.

Very friendly at the distributor end but they couldn't solve my power supply problem either. However, they did dial a 1471 and call me back with some other ideas which was unprecedented!

Yeah it's good, but I bought mine just as they were being re-released over here so I went on a vague magazine recommendation and a demo in the shop. I would have liked to have heard the MXR model but they are even more impossible to find even in London, now that I have it it has a certain elegance and charm - sort of homemade looking!

Quite simple, with only three controls (rate, range[width or depth on other flangers] and color [feedback or resonance]) Later units had a "filter matrix" mode which essentially disconnects the LFO/sweep generator for metallic robot-like sounds. Easy to use, but don't expect it to automatically sound like the famous "van Halen" whoosh you're looking for...

A bit noisy, as most analog delay-based effects were in the 70's, but I think that's part of it's charm. The flanging effect itself is wonderful, though. Not so much the normal jet-plane effect that you would normally expect. Because this unit uses a triangle wave for an LFO (instead of a sine) it gets extremely detuned and warbly. Personally, I love this sound, especially because I get so bored with the predictable constant sweep of a normal flanger. The effect is very reminiscent of Andy Summers' Police work, or his pal, Robert Fripp. More chorusey than traditional flange, although it CAN do normal regeneration sweeps or vibrato. The only drawback is the lack of a "manual/delay time" control. It's fixed at a certain delay time which is longer than most flangers (hence the chorusey sound).

I've owned two, and had to fix them both. E-H was famous for way cool effects at rock botom prices. Warm up the soldering iron just in case.

I don't think Mike Matthews will pay the shipping to Russia.

I think for anyone into effects for cool sounds, not just utilitarian uses, you must have one of these. It sounds unlike any other flanger (except maybe the old DOD 670, which is also great).

Crank the color, set the others at about midway, and you've got the sweetest flanger ever. Mine is a 1975. Try turning the knobs full up in flanger mode, to get a crazy pitch-shifting warble (about a half-step shift)

I find all the vintage Electro-Harmonix pedals I have owned are a little noisy at times, off and on. But I could care less, because they fuckin' make up for it with amazing tones. Those are just the things we have to sacrifice for these luxuries in life. I think EH make some of the best pedals in history, period.

Hells ya' it's dependable. I wish I had enough of them to use as backups.

Never even though about calling. Never will.

I would buy it again. I love everything about it. I hate nothing about it. Nothing I have tried compares. This was my first and last choice in flangers! Anything I wish it had? Babies. I love the way it is so smooth and sweet, me and her totally flow together. Are we still talking about the pedal?

The EM is very easy to use - 3 Knobs Rate, Range, Color and it also has a sweep defeat switch to disable the sweep cycles. Runs on 2-9volt batteries, or external 18V supply

EM can be a little noisy, my EM is about 22? years old and I noticed that it will distort on a hot input signal, old caps? Although designed for flange it creates a great analog chorus. One of the nice things about the sweep is that it is a triangle wave so there is no detune anomalies. Walsh used on some earlier material, you can get great sounds if you know how to set it. Rate at about 2 O'clock, Range and Color at about 9 makes a good chorus. This in my opinion is still one of the better sounding Flange(chorus) sounds if you could eliminate some of the noise.

No Problems

Never Needed

Probably wouldn't buy it again. But it's cool to have around. My son is becoming a player now and he and his buddies think this old stuff is great.

10