Electro Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress Review

Price Bought

$80 (US) ( Used)

Sound Quality

This is very good for getting the Andy Summers (from the Police) chiming guitar sound, as heard on songs like "Walking on the Moon," "Bring On The Night," "When The World Is Running Down," "Tea in the Sahara..." Yeah, Summers used this pedal a lot, especially live. Play a telecaster with a good compressor, the Electric Mistress, and some nice delay/reverb, and you ARE Andy Summers.

It's kind of a chorusy flanger, as opposed to something like a Boss or MXR or Ibanez, which sound a bit dryer than this (but with a more pronounced sweep). All sorts of sounds are available. Good for the more arty 80's flange sounds (like Siouxie & The Banshees, The Cure, etc.) as opposed to 80's butt rock flange sounds (Van Halen, ad nauseum). Good Nirvana sounds as well. I realize many of you aren't looking to imitate other artists' sounds, I'm just using them as examples of the kinds of sounds you can get.

Here's a great setting for the classic Police flanger sound:

Color: 10:00
Range: 11:50
Rate: 8:50

Andy Summers described this sound as "warbling cloud." It's a pretty good description. Try striking a chord and fading it in with a volume pedal or your guitar's volume knob, using lots of reverb or echo. Very mysterious-sounding.

10 out of 10

Build Quality

Seems solid... a bit big for my tastes. Easy to use with three knobs (Color, Range, Rate), on/off switch, and the Filter Matrix switch (disengages flange sweep).

But, on the other hand, there are so many micro-varieties of flange sounds that it can take quite a while to find the exact sound you're looking for.

The plug in is nice I guess, but there's a lot of cord that I have to bunch up and looks unsightly on the pedal board. Oh well.

8 out of 10

Defects Upon Purchase

None

Additional Comments

This is a good match for the music I play. I play a lot of strange, subtly dark music, in addition to more down to earth acoustic music. I like this flanger best clean, either palm muted or with jazz and suspended 4th/7th chords. It sounds good distorted too, but usually I like my distortion with no modulation effects. It's also perfect for playing Police songs.

I love the beautiful, delicate pulses of chorusy flange. The sound, in my opinion, is more interesting than any other flanger I've heard.

Reviewer

Ben