emily says...

by 44ofjuly

Every time when it’s near the dateline for coming up with a Gear Gawk review, the most difficult part for me is usually to think about what to write for the introduction before going into all the usual geeky and boring effect talk. At times, it might just be ranting. But I’ll still try coming up with something that connects.

Without wandering off too much, let’s proceed. For this month, we will be looking at the chorus modulation effect: the Redwitch Empress chorus/ vibrato effect pedal, to be exact. Another shiny chrome-finish stompbox in line with the other 3 “siblings” in the family: Moon Phaser, Pentavocal Tremolo and Fuzzgod. While in term of visuals, shiny looking pedals are nice to look at. However, leaving fingerprints easily on the pedals might make some people who are particular about having their gear in tip top, spick-and-span condition (with no rusty screws) go crazy. Duh!!

Before going straight into the pedal review, let’s sidetrack a bit on to how the Empress came about. I remember it was around end 2004 when Ben Fulton of Redwitch came up with a customized chorus pedal for a forumite over at Harmony Central Effects Internet forum. It was meant to be a present from this forumite to his fiancée. The pedal was unveiled in the forum, gathering much attention from effect enthusiasts. With its simple but elegant façade and individually titled knobs that made up the name of the fiancée, the chorus pedal was known as Chorus Em (as seen in the picture below).

Not long after that, a 2nd version of the chorus came about. This time, it came with a different exterior artwork , a name change and extra features. The Medusa chorus/ tremolo pedal was introduced and released commercially. Interestingly, the Medusa had certain features and functions which were rather unique for a chorus. But it didn’t exist for too long and had a short run before it was discontinued. So if anyone is holding onto the Redwitch Medusa, it’s probably a good collector’s piece.

Finally, the next development came in the form of the Empress chorus/ vibrato pedal which took the Medusa chorus and added a vibrato feature. The Empress comes in the same chrome style enclosure and size as with the other 3 Redwitch pedals.

And so, here we are now, finally to the main subject for this month’s Gear Gawk article: the Redwitch Empress chorus/ vibrato pedal.

The pedal comes in a denim bag, as with the other Redwitch pedals. The shiny chrome finish, like I said earlier, is a fingerprint collection centre. So I guess it won’t be useful if anyone decides to use the pedal for causing harm to someone else and leaving it as evidence. (Ed: Man, we Aging Youths really kill ourselves!!!)

Anyway, back to the pedal. With the Empress, the number of knobs has been reduced to 4. Each function is indicated much more clearly, compared to the Medusa or Chorus Em. In addition, 2 switches are added to toggle between the chorus and vibrato modes and the level of brightness for the chorus function.

Basically, each knob on the pedal does the following:

Voicing - In general, this knob changes the tonal quality of the chorus/ vibrato effect from dry to sparkling to pseudo underwater effect to wild detuning modulation. To be precise, this knob is actually a delay-time knob. Adjustment will vary the delay time and in turn, giving the player a different range of the chorus/ vibrato effect.

Depth – Control for the “thickness” of the effected signal.

Velocity - Control for the speed for the chorus/ vibrato effect. From standstill to slowing swelling and stuttering fast effect.

Mix - Control the amount of dry signal blending with the chorus/vibrato signal

As mentioned earlier on, there are two 2-way switches on the pedal surface: each giving the player options when using the effect.

From the exterior, let’s move to the interior. As usual, I can’t resist the urge to open up the base plate of the pedal and look inside. Everything looks neat and tidy. Additional visual mojo came from the large capacitors within it. On the PCB, there are 3 areas that caught my attention other than the neat and tidy looking circuit. 1 area is mentioned in the manual of the pedal: a slider switch that can be switched between 2 different input stages. The other 2 are a trim pot and a socketed MN3007 BBD chip respectively.

For the slider switch, the preset is set to the input stage of the Medusa chorus. Switching it will result in effected tonal response changes and boost. I believe this is a useful feature that caters to individual using either single coil or humbucker-equipped guitar. Adjustment of the trim pot will affect the hiss and noise of the pedal in relativity to the effected signal. In extreme settings (fully clockwise or anti clockwise), the pedal will result in having a throbbing sound or mild to 0% of the chorus/ vibrato effect. So tweakers, most likely you can leave the trim pot as it is. For the socketed MN 3007 BBD chip, I am just pondering if there will be any possible tonal differences when using another BBD chip having the same number of pins configuration.

Moving on, let’s see how this pedal fares.

Having the pedal engaged between the guitar and the amp with all knobs at minimum setting, the immediate thought was that something is wrong with the LED! It seems like the LED’s not lit. And thus, I proceed to turn the knobs to realize my own mistake! The LED is actually velocity sensitive. The LED will respond to the setting of the velocity knob. As I have turned it to minimum after engaging the pedal, the effected signal (chorus/ vibrato) is basically in standstill speed. Turning the velocity up gradually, the LED will blink in relativity to the setting. While this feature is common in some tremolo pedals, I think it’s a nice feature (at least, visually) for a chorus.

Sound wise, I have to admit that it took some tweaking and playing for me to get into this pedal. Prior to the Empress, my experience with chorus effects is limited to a few pedals. And the common characteristic of those actually made me used to hearing a thicker and more obvious chorus tone. With the Empress, the tonal quality of the chorus is more to adding a tinge of sparkling effect to a sort-of cool and breezy chorusing. It has less of the “lushness” that’s usually use to describe chorus. In a way, there can be a good mix of the original guitar tone and the chorus effect. Thus, it allows the instrument to “breathe” more, instead of a soaking wet chorus sound as if we are left behind in the 80’s… Not a bad thing at all unless one is looking for sounds from the 80’s.

Oh, and no warm chorus here. Chorus modulations should sound cool and smooth without the cold sterile feel. For warm chorus sounds, try NOT using a pedal but split your original guitar signal into 4 different amplifiers: each with a booster pedals and the amps each in the 4 corners of a room. I think that should suffice for a pseudo warm chorusing effect… Hurhurhur. (Ed: Man, we Aging Youths really kill ourselves!!!)

With the voicing knob, various ranges of the chorus effect can be gotten: from totally dry to a slight sparkling feel to a detuning chorus. One obvious characteristic when turning up the voicing knob is the increased level of hiss. Although this is mentioned in the manual, I thought this could be a minus point for some when hearing the pedal upfront. It would be really good if there’s any solution for this problem as turning up the voicing control actually yields some really nice sounding 3D chorus tones to weird robotic detuned stuttering tones.

In the manual, there is mention of a ring modulation effect with the velocity knob at maximum setting. However, I think it’s still a bit short of having the same “gling-a-glong” sounds of a ring modulator. But there’re still some interesting sounds waiting to be fitted into any melodies.

With the additional output jack available, I have tried routing the pedal out to 2 separate amps. Although one output is just dry out and the other is with the effected signal, the effect of hearing the Empress is quite different when 2 amps. The wide open spaciousness of the chorus is rather soothing to the ear. Try this if you get the chance.

Let’s switch over to the vibrato side. In the same way, as I have felt in terms of the “depth” of the effected sound initially with the chorus, it doesn’t really seem too extreme to me. That is without the hiss becoming too bearing when I turn up the voicing knob. It has taken me some time to play around with the knobs on the pedal and playing mostly clean guitar notes and chords. The subtlety of it actually has a natural sounding vibrato behind it. For extreme varying vibrato settings with the voicing knob fully turned up, it will definitely go over to the other end of gentle-ness. You might like it but the hiss (as mentioned earlier) can be overbearing as well. And so, I say a natural sounding vibrato is better in this situation.

Lastly, the addition of the bright switch to cater to different guitar and tonal preferences is a nice touch. In most situations, I’d prefer to set it to the less shimmery and duller side.

To conclude, I have mixed feeling about the Empress. While there are quite a number of usable sounds which I like, I have to admit that the hissing gets in my way at times. Then again, my cockles can be your poison or that your “seeee hummm” is my hatred. (Ed: Man, we Aging Youths kill ourselves!!! The 3rd time round!!!)

So I say, for those reading the review, do check the pedal out, especially if you are looking for a chorus. Yes, there’s a local dealer in our sunny island, MrMisse. Don’t just take my word. Go try the pedal and hear it for yourself. After all, the best learning is through tweaking and hearing!

Quote of the day:

"Twang-ness is not everything, especially for hard hitting heavy metalheads!"

The one that destroy!

(Ed: I’ll have whatever he’s smoking!!!)