Empress Effects Tremolo

WOW!!!!!! This is the Tremolo pedal I've been waiting 15 years for. The 1st time I tried to lock up a tremolo to a click track I dreamed of the day someone would make a tap tremolo. And without going digital, I haven't been able to until the Empress Effects Tremolo. Other companies have done it...(ie Line6) but they all sound like complete CRAP!!!! Steve has made the ULTIMATE Tremolo pedal...It sounds impecable, it has more options for sounds than any other Tremolo pedal I've played!!!! There was a one page manual, but the pedal is pretty self explanitory. Good sounds begin as soon as you plug it in and turn it on!

Mike Scheuchzer
MercyMe

Sounds are amazing...I say Sounds because because it's not just 1 tremolo...you get tons of options with this pedal!

I haven't had it long, but it seems to be very well built.

Steve was AWESOME!!!!!! He worked with me and built mine just for me with a slight mod to the Tap feature so it would work in better conjunction with my pedal board setup.

This the last Tremolo pedal I will buy. Unless it's lost or stolen, then I may buy 2 more just to have a back up....I love this pedal.

this is quickly becoming one of my favorite pedals on my board. anything you can think of that a tremolo can do, this pedal has it. and it does it in an intuitive, straightforward way. i've been looking for a tremolo with a tap feature, and more importantly, one that MULTIPLIES the tempo for fast stutters IN TIME! i was very excited when i found out about this pedal, and it certainly has not disappointed. you'll have it figured out in no time, and this a testament to it's good design.

in a word...wonderful. i use tremolo for a rhythmic stutter, for vibey, ambient tones, and for lonesome cowboy type sounds. it can do them all. at first, i thought it didn't do "swampy" that well. but then i realized you have to back the depth off a little. i'm so used to having that depth knob cranked on every trem i've owned...and that's not the case with the empress. full depth means a serious cut with this pedal.

plenty of make-up gain, which is so key for a good tremolo. also, i love that when you change tempos with either the two-speed setting or the tap it ramps up or down instead of just abruptly changing. that's attention to detail, and that's classy.

if i had to quibble about one feature, i do sort of wish that the tap tempo multiplier worked with whatever is tapped in. in other words, once the tempo is set, a twist of the speed knob would double it, or quadruple it. but that's splitting hairs, and it doesn't take away from what a fine pedal this is.

i've been playing shows extensively with the pedal since i received it, and so far it is 100% reliable...and i can't claim to be gentle. the one thing that makes me mildly nervous are the plastic shafts of the pots. but i understand that if you're going with pcb-mounted pots, your choices are limited. outside of that, the switch is a heavy duty 3pdt and a carling for the tap. the enclosure is hammond i believe. all solid parts. you're getting your money's worth.

poor steve has emailed me twice to ask if i'm happy with my purchase, but i've been playing so much i haven't had time to sit down and reply! i think that's very kind. i'm a little jealous that the reviewer below me got his with an led that flashes in tempo...didn't know that was an option! but yes, steve...i am sooo happy with my purchase! :)

i used to own this alesis ampliton. it was a tremolo of sorts with a tap tempo/multiplier feature. i hated that thing. but i got addicted to all it could do, so i begrudgingly allowed it to remain on my pedal board for longer than it deserved. all the while, hoping and praying that some inspired genius would give me a true-bypass tremolo with all the features i dreamed of without the idiotic design of that alesis. the empress is that pedal.

the rhythm feature is a true marvel of engineering. as a matter of fact, it is probably the most innovative thing i've ever seen on a tremolo. it creates the most interesting accents and textures, particularly if you find just the right one to set against the rhythm of a given tune. really impressive feature.

btw, this pedal is orange. like parking cone orange. it looked reddish in the pictures, but no...it's orange. when i (excitedly) received the package in the mail, i pulled this baby out and i went..."whoa. that's orange." just a head's up, in case you hate the color orange :)

this pedal is nothing short of fantastic. i can't wait to hear what empress comes out with next, because if this tremolo is any indication, it's going to be good!

OK, here's my honeymoon review of this unique trem pedal. First off, it is a very intuitive unit. Excellent design and execution. Go to the website for all the details, but here's the basics: You can set trem speed manually via a knob, via tap-tempo, or you can set two independent speeds via the knob, then switch between them by tapping the tap-footswitch. It ramps smoothly up and down between the speeds similar to a leslie speaker speeding up and down. Very cool, and much more useful than the fast-slow swith on the supatrem, becuase you don't necessarily want to just halve or double your speed. The empress gives you total control.

You can choose 1:1, 1:2, or 1:4 multiplier for the tap temp. you can also choose from one of 8 rhythms other than a standard trem. Definitely check out the sound samples on the empress website to hear a few of the rhythms in action. They are a bit of a novelty, but could be very useful for some specialized guitar parts, especially if you play guitar for Radiohead. There is also an external makeup gain knob, which is invaluable, in my opinion. Internal pots are no good for this function, as the amount of makeup gain necessary to maintain the illusion of unity gain varies with the speed and depth of the trem effect. I also had an extra LED added that shows trem speed when the pedal is on or bypassed.

There is a standard "depth" knob, but instead of a waveform knob like some units have (i.e. voodoolabs 4 knob), it has a 3-position toggle to choose from 3 set waveforms:

"Triangle" -think brownface bias-vary trem, nice and smooth

"Tube" -asymmetric, similar to blackface fender opto trem, but minus the ticking. It's also similar to trem on my AC30TBX, though with much more control of course

"Square" - which is your typical choppy stutter effect, especially at full depth.

The combination of features make it an incredibly useful trem in a live setting. Nothing out there is this convenient and feature packed.

The pedal maintains your tone very well. You can turn the depth all the way down, level match the gain knob, and click the pedal on and off and the sound is virtually identical. The unit is true bypass, and very quiet when turned on; no throb or hiss like some other units.

However it doesn't matter how convenient or quiet the thing is if it doesn't sound good. First, let me say that I am a trem fanatic. I use the effect a lot, and have been through a few other trem pedals (TR2, voodoolab 4 knob, pleasuretrem, supatrem, etc, and have several vintage fenders and vox amps with real tube trem). The waveforms are the most important thing to me, and the waveforms on the empress are perfect.

Before I got the pedal I thought that I might wish it had a continuously variable knob, but I like being able to quickly switch between what are, to me, the most useful waveforms out there. I can get all the subtle variations with the depth knob and I don't wish (at this point) that it had a waveform "knob", though I kinda wish I could select the waveforms via a footswitch.

Looks clean and well built on the inside, but this unit is new, so I have no experience here. It does come with a 2-yr warranty, however.

I have spoken on the phone with Steve, who was very friendly and helpful. However email response has been slow/unreliable, which is somewhat annoying.

If tremolo is a big part of your sound, or even if you just use it occasionally in a live setting, the features of the empress trem are incrediby useful. The cusack is the only other tap-tremp trem out there, but I feel the Empress has better features.

First off, the cusack has no dedicated speed knob for standard use. You must tap and hold the footswitch and wait for the trem to speed up or slow down to the desire setting. This seems inconvenient if you are trying to dial in a speficic speed. Also the empress has the 2-speed feature that the cusack lacks. The cusack has more waveforms, but they are very specialized and far less useful than the 3 on the empress, and the empress adds the rhythms which are fun. And finally, the cusack lacks a makeup gain knob which is a deal breaker for me. It is also more expensive than the Empress, though price was not a consideration for me.

I don't wish to criticize the Cusack- although I've never used it, I'm sure its a fine pedal, but the Empress has the features that are much more useful for me, and I think, most players.

extremely well laid out, you will have the features figured out within minutes, then you will spend hours working on using it in new and creative ways!! No manual is needed.

I think it sounds great! it does not have coloration, which is something I think I am used to having, but the sound is extremely usable and it can do the swamp thang or a pop type trem and get into some wackiness as well. perfect for calling up nearly anything you can hear in your head!

I have only had it a short time, but it has been great so far and Steve is great to work with, so I cannot imagine their being a problem!

Steve was awesome! He got this out to me in a flash as I sold a supatrem to buy this and needed it for a session. My experience with him has been perfect so far!

I have played for 15 years professionally and semi-professionally. I play alot of worhsip music these days, which is very textural. I have tried most trems on the market, but desparately wanted a tap temp function along with great quality sound. tried line 6 and it just did not cut it. i loved the trem in the mm4, but no tap control, and I love the sound of the supatrem..but again, not controllable via tap. this trem has all the features I was looking for and more, 3 waveform modes, different pulse settings, true bypass, tap tempo, this is the bomb!!! buy it and tell your friends about it! I believe in this pedal and tell anyone who will listen about it!!!

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.