Empress Effects Drive [versatile overdrive]

An overdrive that controls the very character of the distortion.

Empress Effects Drive is a tool that allows you to freely manipulate the harmonic structure and gain behavior itself, enabling you to create the "overdrive response itself" to your instrument, picking, and amplifier.

While conventional overdrives are limited to a fixed clipping character, the Drive features a variable midrange EQ before the overdrive, allowing you to control the distortion character itself, which changes depending on the frequency. Furthermore, a boost circuit of up to 30dB can be placed either before or after the overdrive, covering a wide range from crunch to high gain and even fuzz-like tones.

Based on an amp-like, rich distortion, it adds features such as a clean blend, equalizer, booster, and adaptive noise gate. You can thoroughly craft your own unique sound while perfectly maintaining clarity and dynamics.

At the heart of the Empress Drive is the variable midrange EQ positioned before the overdrive stage. Unlike typical overdrives that shape the tone after distortion, it determines which frequency ranges will be strongly pushed by the clipping circuit beforehand, thereby changing the harmonic texture and playing feel itself—in other words, the character of the overdrive itself.

Boosting the low-mids creates a thick, sustained breakup. Emphasizing the upper-mids gives you a sharp attack and a clear, well-defined tone. Conversely, suppressing the mids tightens the response and transforms it into a tight drive sound with refined harmonic density.

Further down the circuit, it features TREBLE/BASS shelving EQ controls for precise control of the final sound. This allows you to create a wide range of tones, from a well-defined crunch to a rich tube amp-like drive, and even a loose, fuzz-like texture.

Because you can control how the circuit responds to the dynamics of your playing and the volume settings on the guitar, it brings a new feeling of "designing the way the distortion works" rather than simply "changing the tone."

The boost circuit, which provides up to 30dB of boost, can be placed either before or after the overdrive section.

The pre-overdrive setting increases saturation, altering the distortion character and playability, and expanding the range of expression to include distortion-like high-gain sounds. Additionally, this setting automatically applies a high-pass filter to reduce low-frequency muddiness in high-gain sounds.

Switching to the Post-Overdrive setting applies the boost after the overdrive stage, increasing the overall output level of the pedal. This is ideal for pushing the amp input or subsequent pedals without changing the gain character of the Drive.

Input Impedance: 1MΩ
Output Impedance: 100Ω
Frequency Response (-3dB):20Hz – 22kHz
THD+N (buffer bypassed)
(20Hz – 20kHz, 1Vrms):＜0.1%
Input Voltage: 9V DC (center negative)
Required Current: 250mA
Power Input Connector:2.1mm Barrel Connector
Size: 63.5 × 121.9 × 66.0 mm
Weight: 454 g