Today’s guest review comes to us from Monique Hernandez-Fuentes – you can find her with Guitar Tricks on Facebook, Twitter and on the Guitar Tricks website. Thanks again, Monique!
In my quest for the ultimate high gain, I stumbled across the awesome Heavy by Canadian heavy weights, Empress Effects. Originally, I was looking for something super versatile and was referred to Empress by a guitar buddy of mine on Instagram. One thing I was immediately taken with was the built-in Noise Gate, useful for the plethora of palm muting I do these days when playing prog metal. The 3-band EQ allowed me to further dial in those mid frequencies with amazing precision. I felt comfortable going from death metal to black metal-type sounds all with the flick of a button when setting the parameters on each of the Dual Channels. This can be an awesome perk when going from lead to rhythm styles but also for different sounds as well…all in one stompbox!
Of course, with a multi-unit pedalboard like the one I run, one of the most notable features of the Empress Heavy is the ability to have True Bypass so my clean guitar channel doesn’t get muddy with miscellaneous noise in the chain. These days I run about 8-10 pedals through my Mesa Boogie Mark V:35 with 1×12 slant cab and even though the distortion through the Mesa is amazing, I like to have the option of having two totally unique overdriven tones, so I can track my guitars almost like they are two different players. This is a must if you are doing a lot of solo recording!
Perhaps the most important feature of the Empress Heavy is its ease of use. I also appreciate the intuitive website that Empress Effects employs. A lot of pedal companies get caught up in technical jargon and for beginner guitar players, that can be a huge deterrent in taking a dip in the pedal and effects world. I look forward to playing more pedals by Empress and I can easily see this pedal becoming a regular staple in my arsenal of effects!
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