Empress Effects Announces Release of Multidrive

Aristotle stated “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” With that in mind Empress has created a truly innovative drive pedal allowing the guitarist to marry the worlds of fuzz, overdrive and distortion however they like. Finally, in a sea of clones comes an innovative distortion pedal. The foundation of the pedal is three unique circuits which are designed like amps, not pedals.

The Fuzz allows classic tones and high gain sustain. The Overdrive adds a very vintage character and vibe – having the break-up qualities of a small-wattage vintage tube amp. The Distortion rounds out the pedal with a three way character switch, allowing it to go from mild defined settings to the blistering compressed lead settings of a high gain amp. The Empress Multidrive circuitry uses almost every type of gain element available to give each section a unique flavor and tone.

“We ventured into the sea of distortion pedals with great trepidation. We really strived to create something unique that wasn’t just a clone. It was really important to us that this pedal sounded more amp-like than the sterile sound people have come to expect from pedals” says Dan Junkins, VP of Awesomeness at Empress Effects. “I’m proud to of what we achieved; the sound quality and versatility of the Multidrive make it an asset for just about any guitar player.”

“ For years I’ve made records recording multiple amps running in parallel. It opens up lots of tonal possibilities. You can take the tight low end from one amp and combine it with the smooth high end character of another amp to get unique tones.” says Jason Fee, Multidrive Designer “The Multidrive puts that same principle into pedal form and allows you to tweak the blends really efficiently”.

Additionally, the pedal has a fully configurable AB switch which allows the player to switch between 2 preset combinations of drives at the press of a stomp. This makes switching between tones live really easy.