June 23, 2008 - Thanks to everyone who's tried out the Superdelay so far. The feedback has been great! If you own a Superdelay and have any questions, please contact me. Soon we'll have an FAQ up for the more common questions.
May 13, 2008 - We started shipping the Superdelay today! We've got a bunch of orders to get through. If you've placed an order, you'll be getting an email with tracking information sometime this week. There's still time to enter the mailing list contest. We'll be doing the draw when we get some time. Thanks to our Superdelay beta testers: Ian Chesal, Duncan Schouten, and Dave Rowat!
April 18, 2008 - We have a release date for the Empress Superdelay: May 12, 2008. You can preorder now! We'll be giving away one Superdelay to someone on the mailing list. If you're already on the mailing list, you'll be entered in the contest. If you're not, you can sign up here. We've also extended our money back guarantee to 45 days.
April 9, 2008 - We've put up some videos of the Empress Superdelay. We'll be announcing the release date in the coming week.
March 28, 2008 - Thanks to everyone who bid on the custom trem. Great turnout!
John Caban of planetJABR sent us some clips of the Empress Tremolo being used on their new album. Thanks John!
We swear we are almost done the Empress Superdelay. It's in manufacturing right now. I don't have an exact date yet, should have one next week, but I think the release date will be in April. Video clips will also go up next week. I think you'll be very excited by the pedal.
We've decided to change our warranty program. You still get the 2 year warranty, but if you want to extend it to 4 years, you just have to fill out an online registration. Why are we doing this? 1) Our tremolo has a very low failure rate so the extended warranty shouldn't cost us that much extra; 2) Now we sell mainly through our dealers, so we are more isolated from our customers. This is a way to get back in touch. If you own an Empress Tremolo and would like to extend the warranty, please go here. It doesn't cost you anything except a minute or two.
February 7, 2008 - Unfortunately some bad news. Bob Sweet of Sweet Sound Electronics - makers of the Ultra Vibe II - has been diagnosed with cancer. Also unfortunate is that he lives in the USA, the land of the free and prohibitively high health insurance premiums. There's some auctions underways to help him out. Check them out here. We have a "Custom Shop" trem up for the auction here. All proceeds from the auction go to help Bob pay for his medical bills. Why is the trem "Custom Shop"? Because the winner bidder gets to have the trem customized in whatever way they desire (within reason). So you can have a custom waveform, or a custom rhythm. Or I can draw a picture of a race car on it. Give me a shout if you have another idea.
February 5, 2008 - If you're in Montreal, stop by Boutique Tone. They now carry Empress Effects!
January 4, 2008 - Happy New Year! We have some info up about the upcoming Empress Superdelay. We'll be putting up instructional videos and more soundclips soon.
October 22, 2007 - The Empress Tremolo got a pretty good review in Vintage Guitar. We've hooked up with some new dealers, Spaceman Music in Ottawa, Ebenex in Singapore, and Truetone Music in California. We have acouple more grey trems in stock, please let us know in the "special instructions" if you'd like one.
July 24, 2007 - The Empress Tremolo received a Guitarist Choice award in UK's Guitarist Magazine. Chris Vinnicombe says "To our ears, the Empress unit is sonically nigh on perfect." Not too shabby!
July 19, 2007 - More new dealers! LA Sound Design and Analogue Haven from the US, BD Guitars in France, and Tym Guitars in Australia. As for the delay, it's a little behind schedule (we said we'd have it out by now), but we are just putting the finishing touches on it.
May 17, 2007 - New dealers! Joe Music is now our exclusive distributor in Italy and MusicToyz.com is helping distribute in the US.
May 4, 2007 - We've upgraded the look of the Empress Tremolo. If you want to have your trem upgraded, please check out the information here. Also, we have a special edition grey tremolo available for sale. If you want it, please email me at steve at empresseffects dot com.
April 26, 2007 - Some information has been posted about the upcoming delay here.
February 26, 2007 - Good news. We have two new dealers: Rash Gash Music in Israel and Leadmusic Instruments in Switzerland. Also, Avi Bortnick of John Scofield's band was kind enough to record some clips of his Empress Tremolo.
January 25, 2007 - We hired two talented solder masters to help build the pedals. More time for design. We had two reviews in magazines recently. One is in Guitar One and the other I'm not too sure about, it's in Dutch I think...
November 30, 2006 - We've had some problems recently with the shipping service we use. We've changed to Canada Post Xpresspost, which is trackable and has an on-time guarantee. This has raised the cost of shipping to $20 CDN in North America.
November 19, 2006 - We've been really busy keeping up with the demand for the Empress Tremolo. But the next project is coming along nicely, I'd say it's about 3/4 done. We'll let you in on more details as the pedal gets closer to completion. For now, if you check out Guitar One's november issue, you'll see it contains a sweet review of the tremolo.
September 27, 2006 - We're proud to announce that Axe... And You Shall Receive will be distributing Empress pedals. Axe... is probably Canada's largest online distributor. Check out the website, it's got just about everything.
September 8, 2006 - Jack Orman is one of the kings of DIY stompbox building. Check out what he had to say about the Empress Tremolo.
August 27, 2006 - Norway's Godlyd now carries the Empress Trem. They've got a huge selection of really interesting pedals... and clarinets! Check them out!
August 20, 2006 - The legendary Tone Factor now distributes the Tremolo in the US. Please check out the site if you get a chance, owner Brad Fee's customer service is second to none.
August 10, 2006 - UK's Strings Direct now stocks the Empress Tremolo. If you're ever in London, check them out!
August 8, 2006 - Empress Effects is in the US of A! Gear Source Music in Findlay Ohio now carries the tremolo.
August 1, 2006 - Rahbek Guitars now carries the tremolo pedal at their store in Copenhagen, Denmark. Check out the pictures of their workshop, it's pretty cool.
July 18, 2006 - Not Just Another Music Shop will soon be carrying the Empress Tremolo. If you're in the Vancouver area, be sure to stop by and check it out!
We sold out of the ABY Switcher. We're not sure at the moment when or if we'll be continuing with the pedal. If you're in dire need of an Empress ABY Switcher, the London Guitar Shop, Kingston Guitar Shop, or Songbird Toronto may still have some.
July 11, 2006 - MISSE Electronics has signed on as our distributor in Singapore. They've got one of the coolest websites, but proceed cautiously...
July 7, 2006 - After 5 days and 1959 km, I'm back from the Great Ontario Roadtrip. Empress Tremolos now reside in music stores in Toronto, London, Cambridge, Peterborough, and Kingston. So you can go in and check them out yourself!
Unfortunately, the website and my email also went down for several days this week. The problem's been fixed, but if you recently sent me (Steve) an email and didn't get a response, it's probably because I didn't get the email. Please try emailing again or phoning me at 1-888-676-1853.
June 14, 2006 - Legendary producer Jon St James was kind enough to record a soundclip of the Empress Tremolo in action. Andy Carpenter (Faulter) is on guitars and Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, Sting) is on drums.
May 18, 2006 - GtrGear and Taranaki Guitars have signed on to distribute Empress pedals throughout Europe.
May 7, 2006 - New soundclips and information has been posted about the Empress Tremolo.
May 3, 2006 - Congratulations to Jeff Snyder of Cleveland, Ohio for winning the Tremolo Giveaway Contest. Thanks to the over 400 people who signed up for the mailing list. The response to the Empress Tremolo has been overwhelming. We'll be putting up more information and soundclips over the weekend.
May 1, 2006 - The Empress Tremolo has been released! You can still order it for the preorder price of $199 CDN until May 12, 2006. We'll be holding the contest for the Tremolo giveaway on May 3rd.
April 20, 2006 - Due to popular demand, the ABY Switcher will now be powered by a 9V power jack instead of a battery. Also, the Empress Tremolo is almost ready for sale. Soon we'll have up some pictures.
April 2, 2006 - The Empress Tremolo will retail in select music stores for $249 CDN. You can preorder an Empress Tremolo for $199 CDN ($50 off!) until we begin shipping them out in late April.
March 27, 2006 - We got a custom job done: an active buffer/mixer ABY. It's cool!
March 14, 2006 - Soundclips?!? We got 'em! We also put up lots of information about the upcoming release of the Empress Tremolo. You can be one of the first to own one by preordering now.
February 27, 2006 - We got some custom work done. Added true bypass and LED indicators to some old classics. And within a week we'll have the sound clips up of the Empress Trem. Check back soon!
February 6, 2006 - We have some sweet news, and some not-so-sweet news. The sweet news is that the Tremolo is almost complete and will definiately be ready for an April release. Please check back soon for some sneak preview sound clips of the Tremolo. It has features on it that you haven't ever heard before. The not-so-sweet news is that the digital delay is taking longer than expected and won't be ready for an April release. But it will be worth the wait, I promise. In the meantime we've added Tom's Theremin to our list repairs.
January 16, 2006 - Two new custom jobs were put up on the custom page. We added a channel to a Marshall JCM 800 and repaired a Sansamp pedal. The Tremolo is almost complete!
January 2, 2006 - Happy New Year! We just got our mailing list set up and have started a contest. In April when our Tremolo and Digital Delay are ready to be sold, we will be giving away one of each pedal. How do you get in on the contest? Sign up for the mailing list!
December 8, 2005 - Two great things to report. We now accept MasterCard. Also, we found a more effective way to ship, so now it costs only $10 US to ship to the continental United States. Hope you're enjoying the Christmas insanity!
November 23, 2005 - In case you've been wondering what we've been up to recently, we're busy designing a Tremolo and a Delay. It's very top secret hush hush kind of stuff, but I can tell you both units are going to have some very original features. Meanwhile, we finished a delightful mod for Ottawa musician Ben Stanford that allows him to control his tremolo with a volume pedal.
November 3, 2005 - We have our second dealer! Ottawa's Song Bird Music has grown over the years from a single store to three seperate stores that focus on guitars, keyboards and synths, and drums. My mom bought my first guitar for me from Songbird when I was 14. They're now carrying the ABY Switcher.
October 27, 2005 - Our first custom design is complete! It's a simple yet rugged footswitch built for Clayton Fisher of For The Mathematics.
October 24, 2005 - We just completed our first custom modification for Greg Sherlock of Nectar. Check it on the custom page.
October 20, 2005 - We have our first dealer! The Kingston Guitar Shop now carries the ABY Switcher. If you're ever stopping through Kingston, which is a pretty nice city with insane students who tip things over, please for your own sake stop by KGS, it's amazing. It's run by Gord, who not only is a nice guy, but he's amazing at setting up and repairing guitars. It's got so many crazy guitars... you can spend all day in there.
October 12, 2005 - Our merchant account is now set up. We now accept Visa in addition to PayPal and Money Order. Please see our order page for more details.
October 7, 2005 - The ABY Switcher is ready for sale! Within a week we'll be accepting payment by Visa and Mastercard, along with Paypal and email Debit. A number of custom orders are on the go, including a Digital Delay, a Tremolo, and mods to existing pedals. More information on that soon. Check back often! Bookmark!