Empress Effects Tremolo

The Empress Effects Tremolo is a tremolo pedal from Ontario-based Empress Effects. It is housed in a 45/8″ x 35/8″ x 13/8″ die-cast box, with chassis-mounted 1/4″ input and output jacks and a 9-volt DC power jack, and it does not operate on battery power¹. Its Gain control allows compensation for any loss in volume, up to 6db¹.

What it does: three waveforms and rhythm patterns

Tremolo is an amplitude modulation effect, a repeated rise and fall in volume. The Empress Tremolo gives you three waveform choices, each with its own character²:

The tube setting is the distinctive one. Empress says the asymmetrical waveform was "modeled after a '65 Fender Vibrolux (brown face) to give you the fullest tremolo sound possible"², and Vintage Guitar's reviewer heard it as a softer, asymmetrical tremolo closer to a vintage amp than to a standard pedal¹.

Beyond straight tremolo, the pedal can be set to play different rhythms². An eight-position Rhythm selector handles this: position 1 is the traditional, even tremolo, while positions 2 through 8 add different pulsing-rhythm tremolo effects¹. This is what separates the pedal from a basic two-knob tremolo, letting you place the pulses in patterns rather than a steady pulse.

The controls

The control set is small but deep. Vintage Guitar's review lists four knobs, "that manipulate Depth, Rate/Ratio, Rhythm and Gain," along with two mini-toggle switches and two footswitches¹.

The Gain control is a practical touch: tremolo can eat perceived volume as the signal dips, and this lets you push the output back up by as much as 6dB¹.

The switching hardware is a heavy-duty true-bypass footswitch plus a separate Tap stompswitch¹. Production versions also have an LED above the Tap footswitch that indicates the tremolo rate, useful on a dark stage¹.

Tap tempo, Normal and two-speed modes

The three-position Mode switch is where the pedal's flexibility lives¹.

• Normal: the Rate/Ratio knob sets the speed of the effect directly¹.
• Tap Tempo: you tap the speed in on the Tap footswitch, and the Rate/Ratio knob becomes a Ratio control, multiplying the tapped rate from a 1:1 to a 1:4 ratio¹. Tap a tempo that matches the song, then shift the tremolo against it without retapping.
• Two-speed: you set two different tremolo speeds using the Rate control and the Tap switch, then toggle between them¹.

Vintage Guitar compared the two-speed mode to something familiar to players of rotary speakers: "The unit's ability to toggle between two tremolo speeds is akin to the slow/fast control on a Leslie cabinet"¹. That makes it a fit for players chasing that speed-shift feel without a full rotary setup.

Tap tempo with ratio multiplication was not unique to Empress. The DLS Effects Tremolo lets you tap the speed in and multiply it by 1, 2, 3 or 4⁴, and the DLS Effects TR1 added tap tempo with an external expression pedal⁵. But at the time of the Empress's release, few compact tremolos offered this feature set.

The Tremolo2 and the 10th Anniversary edition

Empress later released the Tremolo2, which MusicRadar's Trevor Curwen called "an upgraded version of one totally tasty tremolo"⁶. It keeps the same core design: an analog audio path with a digitally controlled opto tremolo, three waveforms (asymmetrical, square, triangle), and a choice of 8 rhythms³. Its signal-to-noise ratio is listed at 107.7dB³. The rate can be set with a knob or via the tap tempo footswitch⁶, and both true bypass and buffered bypass are available³.

In December 2016, Empress marked ten years with the 10th Anniversary Tremolo, a limited edition of the original design⁷⁸. The differences from the original are cosmetic and charitable rather than functional:

The anniversary edition carries the same measured specs as the Tremolo2, including a signal-to-noise ratio of 107.7dB and distortion of 0.40%¹⁰³. Empress donated $10 to charity for every one sold⁸, gave away 10 of them⁸, and auctioned serial number one, signed by Andy Summers, for charity⁹. MusicRadar reported the launch as a limited edition of the company's first tremolo pedal, again with 250 units and a 10-pedal giveaway⁷.

What reviewers said

Vintage Guitar's November 2007 review is the fullest published assessment of the original. The reviewer found the pedal quiet and its proprietary features usable, concluding¹:

Later coverage kept the same tone. Gearnews called the original "a very well respected tremolo effect" and "very tweakable"⁹, and MusicRadar's review of the Tremolo2 framed it as an upgrade of an already well-liked pedal⁶.

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