Tremolo: Empress vs Diamond

[spiritofeden]

I'm looking for a versatile tremolo with tap tempo, warm and vintage sounding. According to the demoes these are the two that impressed me the most. I had the chance to play the Cusak and the Tremolescence, great pedals but not the tone I have in mind. So what would you choose between Empress and Diamond?

[Octafuzz40]

There are several threads comparing these two already, altho' neither has been updated in a while:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...mpress+tremolo

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...mpress+tremolo

I've been looking into this question myself and finally pulled the trigger on an Empress. From all that I've read, there's not a lot of difference between the two and they are both highly recommended. My choice came down to two things really, one somewhat frivolous. First, I went w/ the Empress because it's been out for quite some time and has a lot of good buzz. The Diamond just came out and, while it sounds great from the clips, I'd like to see whether there are any issues that demand tweaks, etc. before I pull the trigger. (I may eventually get one--it's still on my radar.) The second reason is totally cosmetic: I really like the limited edition silver one, so I snagged that one. Not a big fan of the regular bright orange (or is it red?) color.

I currently have a VL Tremolo (w/ four knobs) and really love the sound of it. But I've been wanting a tap feature for a while--I've recorded a couple of tunes that would have benefited from a more precise tempo.

[spiritofeden]

Thanks Octafuzz...I understand your reasons but since I cosmetically like both pedals and have other Diamond stuff I would like to choose the warmer and more vintage one ;-) ...Unfortunately these pedals are not easy to find in shops, I live in Italy...

[spiritofeden]

Is there anybody out there? :-D

[marvelboy_04]

i also would like to know, but id also like to know how the dr. scientist tremollessence stcks up

[rabbit]

I own the Diamond and love it. The sound is very articulate and clear, the difference in wave forms can be destinguished very well. On many trems, they all kind of sound the same. It´s easy to use and has a few basic features, that made me choose this one and not the Empress.

1) It has shark fin as well as sine wave forms. For many, this might be about the same, but coming from a T-rex Tremster, which is one of the best pedals for a vintage amp style tremolo, sine wave was a must for me for smooth trems. With shark fin and sine I have two great basic sounds for classic tremolo.

2) I needed a staccato-like, fast and stuttering tremolo. The chop and square modes do this very well, but shark fin, too. Before, I used a Menatone Pleasure Trem for this and it just was the master of stuttering trem, but I haven´t had room for two trems on my board. The Diamond is a great substitute for the T-rex and Menatone, although those two excelled at the one purpose I used the for. The Diamond delivers 95% of these sounds and thus is a great allrounder trem. All sounds seem very flexible to me and deliver a wide range of sounds.

3) I don´t need too many trem patterns, but like a good selection of wave forms (see pt 1 and 2).

4) The Diamond has one feature I haven´t found on any other trem yet. It allows to use the tap tempo switch to work as an on off switch. So if you use to add rhythmic trem to your playing (like Oz Noy for instance), you don´t have to step on it twice to turn it on and off. Just one tap. Great! Very important feature for me to get the Diamond.

5) With the depth dialed down and the volume turned up it makes for a really great boost. Full and meaty boost sounds remeniscent of a nice germanium boost, not fuzz like but giving you this kind of dirt edge to the sound.

One thing that I´d like to see improved is the range of the speed knob, which could be more even along the dial. The Diamond can achieve VERY slow and VERY fast trems (which is great!), but up to like 12 o´clock on the dial the speed is too slow for my needs and after 12 o´clock it gets rapidly faster, so sensitive tweaking is necessary here.

BTW, the newer trems feature a "memory" for the wave form that was used last before disconnecting the power. With the older units, the trem would power up with shark fin selected, which could be a pita if you´d just use chop all the time. You´d have to scroll through the wave forms every time before using the pedal. I mentioned this in one of the early threads about this pedal and the guys at Diamond listened and improved the circuit. Great customer support! They went a long way to improve this truly minor "problem", which wasn´t an issue at all, just something that could bug you from time to time.

I could come up with more pros and cons but I´m too tired from work around the appartment (I´m in the process of moving). Hope this helps a bit. Feel free to ask whatever you want to know.

[spiritofeden]

Rabbit did you had the chanse to test Diamond and Empress side by side? What about the sound?

[rabbit]

No, unfortunately not. I pretty much went with the Diamond because of the features. Also, it´s color appeals to me more than the blinding orange of the Empress :P.

I would love to play an Empress Trem.

Why not look for a retailer with return policy who offers both pedals. Return the one you don´t like. Or get a used Empress first, I think they are easy to be fund on the emporium here - the Diamond not so much.

[foomoola]

Check out the Effectrode Delta - Trem ...I sold the Diamond I had , but i did pick the Diamond over the Empress , BEFORE I tried the Effectrode ...

Dave P.

[Clifford-D]

Red Witch Pentavocal Tremolo

it's not a super computer of any sort
just great sounding trem straight up
five flavors, personally I think it sounds better than the
super computer Empress (I own the Empress ParaEq 1+++++)
and I prefer the Empress over the Diamond so,,,

Red Witch

[oinkbanana]

Red Witch Pentavocal Tremolo has tone!
good toans.
you have to try one to know how juicy it is.


if you want a sterile full function tremolo you might as well get the Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter.

[Octafuzz40]

Rabbit,

Could you expand on this facet of the Diamond? I received my Empress recently and the more I play it (and compare it to my VL Trem) the more frustrated I get that there's isn't enough volume on tap. I can set the VL to the most intense tremolo settings and still get an increase in volume over my dry signal when I engage the pedal. This cannot be said for the Empress, even w/ the gain knob maxed out. Unity doesn't seem to start until about 1 o'clock. I sometimes like to step on the pedal and get a crazy chopping sound in the middle of a song, but find w/ the Empress the volume usually drops, if not in real decibels then in perceptible volume (pretty normal w/ tremolo). Maybe I've just gotten spoiled by the VL's available dBs of clean boost or does the Diamond behave similarly? Thanks.

Originally Posted by rabbit

5) With the depth dialed down and the volume turned up it makes for a really great boost. Full and meaty boost sounds remeniscent of a nice germanium boost, not fuzz like but giving you this kind of dirt edge to the sound.

[jdolll]

One thing I noticed about the diamond that made me happy with my empress is the ratio knob, the empress has 1:1 2:1 and 4:1 all by the knob bu the diamond only has 1:1 and 2:1 and it's accessible through holding down a button, seemed much less functional and the 4:1 is nice for fast tremolo not usable very often but when you need a fast tremolo have fun tapping it in on the 2:1 setting. The empress is a fantastic trem pedal. The diamond would be as well though

[hewhorocks]

I have the Empress and its a fantastic pedal. It does basic trems and a myriad of creative tweaked settings to boot.

I do own other Diamond gear and they are a great company with fine designs. You probably can't go wrong with either unit.

[awallace]

Originally Posted by jdolll

One thing I noticed about the diamond that made me happy with my empress is the ratio knob, the empress has 1:1 2:1 and 4:1 all by the knob bu the diamond only has 1:1 and 2:1 and it's accessible through holding down a button, seemed much less functional and the 4:1 is nice for fast tremolo not usable very often but when you need a fast tremolo have fun tapping it in on the 2:1 setting. The empress is a fantastic trem pedal. The diamond would be as well though

Hi jdoll- just to clarify with regards to ratios. There are 3 to choose from via the mode dial, and each of those can be doubled by holding down the tap footswitch. It's not readily apparent how deep the features go without a browse of the manual.