Empress Effects Tremolo

If you know what a tremolo pedal is it's pretty easy to use. The manual doesn't really do much to help you with the advanced stuff, but whatever. The 2-speed was the only thing I needed some tinkering with to figure out - but it wasn't to long before I was ready to go.

Tom Anderson Hollow Drop Top --> MXR EQ --> MXR Phase 90 --> Barber Tone Press --> Vox Valvetone --> Bogner Shiva Amp FX Loop --> EMPRESS TREMOLO --> Ernie Ball Volume --> Boss DD-20 Delay --> Back to the Bogner and out to your ears.

Oooooh yeah. As far as the coloration of your input sound goes - it doesn't color the sound...but I do notice a slight compression of the signal. I'm not sure if this was intended by the company, or if it's just tremolo...but in any case, it doesn't seem to affect the sound much. If anything, the little bit of compression helps keep things a little more focused. I don't notice any noise on this pedal at all. This thing has all the features I've been looking for in a trem pedal. Ever since getting rid of my rack and midi-control, I've been shopping for effects that sound great and are as versatile as my old rack. This one definately fits the bill.

So far so good. As the last ready said, these things are brand new. Mine's been through several gigs already, and so far it's ticking just fine. I've got all my pedals mounted securly on a board and they're transported well. I think I'm more worried about a beer-spill than I am getting beat up.

Steve at Empress was a treat to work with. For a while it seemed like the Canadian border patrol might have snatched my pedal - but Steve took care of it. I'm happy.

I love this thing. There's not really a whole lot more a guy could want on a tremolo pedal...and it sounds real good. It's not the cheapest one on the market, but it's not the most expensive either. I'd say if you're really bent on a good quality pedal, this is definately one to try out. I confess that I didn't try out a lot of others. I did my research though, and sound usually wasn't the gripes when it came to some other higher-end trems, it was usually lack of a certain feature or it being too small, or something like that. When a friend showed me this one it looked like someone was reading my mind. Nice job fella(s). btw - if anyone has questions about this pedal and wants a 3rd party perspective, go ahead and drop me an email.

Plug in and go- all the sounds here are good. The manual is a pretty basic printed sheet, but that's about all you need

Very clean- true bypass. The pedal doesn't seem to colour the guitar sound at all, unlike some others. I use a Reverend Club King and a Gretsch 6120GA amongst others through a '68 Princeton Reverb. All the usual tremolo bases are covered here, but it has to be said the range of adjustment for each parameter is superb- seems simple but a lot of Fx builders seem to get it wrong. Three waveforms available, square, triangle and tube. The tube mode stood up very well to my Princeton's bias modulated all tube tremolo. The 6db gain control is more than enough to tweak the perceived volume loss with the pedal on.
Next up is a two speed mode. This seems to be creeping in to modulation Fx- presumably to give some kind of Leslie rotor speed up effect. In actual use, I found it quaint, but I haven't found a practical use for it (yet)You can select a multiplier for the 2nd speed manually via the ratio knob.
Now, the Rhythm control is where it gets interesting. Up to 8 rhythms are available, tho' No.1 is actually straight trem. The result is the tremolo effect is modulated by a second pulse, set to a function of the primary, with an accent, which gives pulse effect. Not very scientifically explained, but the manual isn't too technical about it either. The end result is a lot of fun, and sonically pleasing. How it works in a live band scenario I'm not too sure. Generally you can get away with one tremolo off tempo cutting across the song tempo, but two? It'll send the drummer crazy but that's a reasonable trade-off!! Hah ha- sorry skin beaters-just kidding.
Finally, the unit has the usual Tap Tempo function, with the footswitch thoughtfully placed slightly higher than the bypass switch to avoid inadvertantly clicking the wrong one. Nice touch.

Just out of the factory, so can't comment. Seems well put together- 4 IC's on a T shaped board plus the usual support components-nice wiring and solder work. No battery option?

As above

I play all types of retro from swampy delta to surf to Shadows stuff. Pro and semi pro for 35+ years. All my amps are old Fenders or custom stuff like a Juke 1210 and a Matchless Chieftain. I think this is an excellent piece of gear, similar to the Tremorama but better featured. I sold a new Voodoo Labs Tremolo ( nice sounding but a pretty tame unit by comparison) to buy this for the features.
I think the switches on the front are a little fragile looking- sliders may be a better choice IMO. Also the barrel knobs are set quite high which makes them more vulnerable than necessary with no real ergonomic gain. There is no battery option, it needs a 9V power supply to operate. Why? Power consumption too high? Other than those small criticisms. an excellent pedal, and I have been through most of the currently available units.