If it seems like years since Empress introduced what appeared to be the ultimate pedal effect at NAMM that’s because it has been—almost two to be exact. Apparently, Zoia has finally started shipping and is already sold out. Here is a short video of how it can be used with guitar. Read more for a longer one and specs. Still more videos are on the Empress site.
As Rock and Roll was turning into Rock in the Sixties, most of the great power trios retained their “roll” thanks to drummers who were rooted in jazz. When Cream entered the scene, it featured the jazziest rhythm section of them all, with Ginger Baker’s rolling, tom-tom based grooves harking back to Chico Hamilton. Baker later experimented with African music and returned to his jazz roots with a power trio of a different sort. “Time moves differently with Ginger,” Frisell once told Rolling Stone. “You could find 100 drummers to play the same tune, and Ginger would find something different to do with it.”
To hold you until my Guitar Player interview comes out (where we focus more on the new record), here is a great interview with Mitch Gallagher at Sweetwater.
Apologies for the dearth of posts. I have people trying to migrate my site away from the awful Bluehost and it has been taking longer than expected. It is still not done but they have fixed the email and assure me I can post, so here is a Guitar Festival for those increasingly hot days when you don’t want to go outside.
Adrian Belew
Sidsel Endresen and Stian Westerhus live at the Torino Jazz Festival 2019
Fred Frith Quartet at the Festival Météo, Mulhouse, 2015
Nels Cline and Yuka C Honda collectively known as FIG performing “Purple & Red” at The Stone on Aug 26 2016
Weird spitty fuzz pedals are not the only dirt devices employed by modern guitarists, and Stevie Ray Vaughn imitators are not the only guitarists who use that trusty lime-green overdrive and its clones—that sound has been an industry staple since its inception.
Plumes is EarthQuaker’s take on the type of low to medium gain overdrive that works best in conjunction with a good valve amp. Of course it being the good folks from Akron, this version has a few twists and turns of its own.
For the technically inclined, Plumes does away with the usual JRC4558 OpAmp and the BJT buffers, replacing them with low noise JFET OpAmps for a more robust and precise signal with a significantly lower noise floor. The 9v power input is internally converted to +/- 9v for more headroom. The input impedance has been raised to 10 megaohms for a stronger signal with more clarity and chime. They’ve also adjusted the cutoff of the tone control to deliver a more useful range of travel with more bass on the low end without sacrificing the midrange and top end.
Plumes offers three different clipping modes. Mode 1 is symmetrical clipping utilizing a pair of light emitting diodes. When played through a clean amp, this setting delivers a facsimile of classic crunchy valve amp tone. Mode 2 is clean boost mode, eliminating the soft clipping diodes altogether for straight OpAmp drive. This mode can come in handy for pushing your clean tone to the fore or driving the preamp of an already overdriven amp into further breakup. Mode 3 is an asymmetrical silicon diode arrangement similar to the typical screamer but with more output and clarity; a tone some describe as “transparent.”
Plumes features EarthQuaker Devices relay-based “soft touch” Flexi-Switch Technology for both momentary and latching footswitch operation as well as a very low 25 mA current draw. Since the switching is relay based, it requires power to pass signal.
Plumes is available to pre-order through authorized EarthQuaker Devices dealers, and will be in stores on August 3, 2019.
List Price: $99.00
Measures: 4.75″ x 2.50″ x 2.25″ with knobs
Current Draw: 25 mA
Input Impedance: 10 MOhm
Output Impedance: 100 Ohm
This device takes a standard 9 volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. EarthQuaker recommends pedal-specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated-output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise. DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTAGES!