5 Boutique Stompbox Builders You Should Know
unwaveringly in the anti-digital camp. He
readily embraced the possibilities afforded by
having analog circuits and digital processing
working in concert to enhance a guitarist’s
potential. “I really like the idea of having an
analog circuit controlled by a microproces-
sor. This makes a bunch of interesting stuff
possible: tap tempo, presets, programmable
triggering, arbitrary waveforms, and com-
pletely new effects that would be impossible
or really difficult with a purely analog design.”
Apparently, many forward-thinking guitar-
ists agreed with Bragg. “After releasing the
Superdelay, I got a lot of requests to add
mods so it could work with other gear,” he
“I see a lot of funny hype in
effects marketing material,
where Teflon wires, expen-
sive capacitors, gold-plated
PCBs, and carbon-composite
resistors or 1 percent resis-
tors are touted as audiophile.
I have serious doubts as
to whether these kinds
of things affect the sound
in an appreciable way.”
—Empress Effects’ Steve Bragg
explains. “Some people wanted to use CV
[control voltage] to control it. Some people
wanted to use relays to control the tempo
instead of the tap stomp switch. Some
wanted MIDI controllability. Unfortunately,
there’s not enough room on a pedal for a
lot of jacks. So we’ve been working for the
past two years on a control port that will
accept a bunch of different inputs: mechanical switches for remote tapping, expression
and CV inputs, MIDI, and audio input. It’s
been a pain in the ass, but it’s finally all
working. Our first pedal with this control
port will be the Empress Phaser, which we’ll
be releasing sometime soon.”
100 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2010
www.premierguitar.com
Bragg and Empress’ open-minded stance
extends to the components that go into their
pedals, as well. They refuse to be constrained
by the emphasis on older components and
instead go with parts that last and sound
best. “We designed our pedals to be as clean
as possible,” Bragg says. “That means using
op-amps, for the most part, and staying away
from transistors that can create headroom,
noise, and impedance issues in the audio path.
I see a lot of funny hype in effects marketing
material, where Teflon wires, expensive capacitors, gold-plated PCBs [printed circuit boards],
and carbon-composite resistors or 1 percent
resistors are touted as audiophile. I have
