NPD - Empress Effects multidrive a mini review

meltedbuzzboxmeltedbuzzbox Frets: 10337
Just to give GAK a thumbs up for getting me this pedal on next day delivery and for price matching Thomann.

So a quick overview. This is a fuzz pedal, Overdrive and Distortion pedal all in one. 
You have 2 settings which can be defined by jumpers inside the case which determine which effects are enabled when you hit the switch.
Out of the box it comes with Overdrive on setting 1 and all 3 effects (fuzz, OD, and Distortion) on setting 2.

The fuzz is almost muff like but much clearer and it hasn't got that heavy mid, chewbacca with a head cold sound.
The OD is very tweed like. On low levels it has a edge of break up sound to it. Its colours riffs and chords very nicely. Add some more gain and it becomes very smooth, similar to a tube screamer but less middy and it has more ooomph
The distortion or should I say 3 distortions are Crunch, mild and lead. Crunch and lead can be very balls out in your face brutal. Big gain sounds with a real tight low end. When you roll back the gain you can get a lot of different sounds JCM 800/900 and lighter sounds. Mild is like it suggests much milder than the other 2.
You then have a 3 band master EQ and master output. There is a 3 way toggle switch to set which mids you are tweaking (250, 500 and 2k).
All dirt settings have normal, high pass and low pass filters. 

so enough of all that waffle how does it sound Mr Buzzbox.

fucking awesome. Each drive/dirt setting has tones o'plenty through out the gain dial range, light colour, big boost, fuzz heaven and face melting distortion is all here in one little box.

but I haven't got to the best bit.

When all 3 are enabled its just jaw dropping. They all run in parallel so you can hear all 3 dirts through one amp. They all separate so well and layer beautifully. Its like a 3 amp setup coming through one amp. 
But then you can use the high/low pass filter settings so you can get a big distorted low end sound with a sizzling fuzz top end all wrapped up in a big overdriven hug. Its really impressive and very addictive. I really cant wait to let this rip at big volumes at band practice.

Every dirt setting is super transparent as well so you can get all that guitary goodness under neath.

You can dial out one of the setting so you can have big creamy fuzz and overdrive leads, big chug chug style riffs with OD and distortion and extra angry fuzz with distortion. 

Its the honeymoon period at the moment but I am properly impressed so far, having tried to run a fuzz factory with OD or distortion in the past has been feedback heaven and mush. The empress really, really works well. 

I will update this some more when I have had it for longer but so far its all good. 
The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
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Comments

  • I am very curious about these!
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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30826
    edited September 2014
    This looks amazing but it's a bit like Gay Pride in Berlin- too many knobs to choose from.

    Joking aside, Empress doing some great things right now.

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • That is the exact thing I want.
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  • Nice.

    I want to try one of these.



    But I still think I'd prefer the amptweaker tightmetal or bigrock or whatever they're called.
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  • That is the exact thing I want.
    Although I don't like that there aren't three presets to cycle through - so you could quickly switch between all three effects individually or three combinations, rather than just two.
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  • That is the exact thing I want.
    Although I don't like that there aren't three presets to cycle through - so you could quickly switch between all three effects individually or three combinations, rather than just two.
    I thought that before I got the pedal. Its not really that much of an issue as you can remove any dirt you like with its independent volume control. Plus all 3 on are that epic you wont really want to disengage that often :-D
    The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
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