Empress EffectsTap Tremolo Pedal

I love the capabilities of this pedal! It's very, very adjustable to get almost and tremolo sound you could imagine. It's also very compact and takes up very little space on my pedal board. My only complaint is that despite being a true bypass, it gives a little feedback even when the pedal is turned off. If I'm playing a big gig and my amp is very loud, it can be heard in the crowd between songs. My pedal chain is on a buffered board with a power conditioner, and I just replaced all the cables with brand new ones, which helped, but didn't eliminate the problem.It's not a huge deal in a live setting, and usually I don't have my amp cranked that loud, but I am a little concerned that I won't be able to use it in the studio when we record this fall because there will be the faint sound of a helicopter in the background of the guitar tracks. 5 stars without the feedback, but I have to give it 4 because of that one issue.

There are many fine tremolo pedals out there, and many that are more sophisticated on the surface. The controls on the Empress are not as techy as some of its competitors. However, one ultimately wants a tremolo pedal to add a desirable color to one's sound, not to be "interesting." The Empress puts out a beautiful, watery, warbly sound on any setting. I am surprised that even some of the high-end tremolo pedals do not have an overall output control. The Empress does, so one can tailor to volume for live use as precisely as one could in layering a recording. I have the Tremvelope pedal, which I think is a stroke of genius, but which is not quite ready for everyday use. Like the Tremvelope, there are other tremolo pedal that have more complex options. What I love about the Empress, however, is that it does NOTHING that is objectionable. It delivers on all the promises it makes and does it under all types of playing conditions. That is no small achievement.

This is a solidly built and incredibly good sounding pedal. As with all Empress pedals, it does not change your tone or add any noise. I never liked the tremolo on my amp because it was nearly impossible to keep sync with it in the studio over the course of a song. The tap foots witch is essential, and now I love tremolo! This pedal does the completely chopped square wave tremolo, which is one of my favorite effects. The rhythms are surprisingly useful, and an added bonus. It would be nice to somehow program your own, but that seems like it would be complicated for Empress to offer.

Great feature with the tap tempo, if it didn't have that feature I wouldn't have sold my latitude deluxe for it.

Great pedal. Many useful features that are easy to use.