Electric Mistress

The Electric Mistress is a flanger, one of a type of effects (modulation) used primarily for electric guitar. It is produced by Electro-Harmonix, who also make the Big Muff. It can be heard in many Pink Floyd songs, being a favourite of their guitar player David Gilmour. However, it should be noted that both the Original and Deluxe had serious noise issues, and Gilmour's units had to be modified by Pete Cornish [ [http://www.petecornish.co.uk/relics.html Pete Cornish: Pink Floyd Relics ] ] . Other users are Andy Summers of The Police, and Dinosaur Jr guitarist J Mascis.

The Electric Mistress was first produced in the 1970s, but Electro-Harmonix stopped producing effects pedals later. Recently they started again, and reissued the Electric Mistress as the Deluxe Electric Mistress.

The Original Electric Mistress

The original, less known Electric Mistress had a somewhat different sound than the deluxe. It was presented in the wedge shaped box primarily associated with the Big Muff. The controls were identical to the better known Deluxe. It was possible to run the Electric Mistress from two 9 Volt batteries, unlike it's successor, the deluxe. Some modifications redesigned the circuit to run from 1 nine volt battery.

What's notable about the Electric Mistress is its "Filter Matrix mode" - allowing you to freeze it at any point in the Flange. It offers distinctive chime-like tones.

The Deluxe Electric Mistress

The Deluxe Electric Mistress had the same controls as the original but with a slightly different sound, very rich which provides a lush chorus effect, vibrato, phased and metallic flanger effects. It retains the Filter Matrix. It is much larger, and cannot be powered by batteries, which many users find cumbersome. To counter this, they created the Stereo Electric Mistress.

= The Stereo Electric Mistress =

The Stereo Electric Mistress, released in late 2007, is a smaller, cheaper, digital recreation of the original. The controls changed completely - it now has Rate, Flanger Depth, and Chorus Depth. Interestingly, there is no Filter Matrix switch - instead, the first few notches on the rate knob activate this mode. The Chorus and Flanger and run in parallel, blended together, rather than one into the other, making for a unique sound. It takes a standard Boss type 9 Volt power supply, but does not directly run on batteries.

References

External links

* [http://www.ehx.com/ Electro Harmonix site]
* [http://www.ehx.com/products/deluxe-electric-mistress Official Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress page]