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November 2011 Guitarist 149
Quicktest
Electro-Harmonix
Neo Mistress
£59
The smallest Mistress yet!
CONTACT: Electro-Harmonix PHONE: N /A WEB: www.ehx.com
The Bottom Line
We like: Ease of use;
compact design; versatile
We dislike: At this price
point, genuinely nothing
GUITARIST RATING
The Electric
Mistress is a truly
iconic stompbox and, at the feet
of master players such as David
Gilmour and Andy Summers, it
can produce some wonderful
flanger tones.
E-HX’s Nano range of small-
sized, stripped-down versions
of these and other classic units
of yore offer an improved
simplicity of use in comparison
with their bigger brothers, but
even the Stereo Electric
Mistress, which we confess to
using a great deal, offered both
a chorus and a f langer.
The Neo Mistress is a
straight-ahead flanger, doing
away with the always-
mysterious resonance and
manual pots often included in
the spec of such an effect in
favour of rate and feedback
pots. It possesses the
customary sturdy construction
and enigmatic vibe.
Sounds
Where to start? The sound
changes with every
combination of the two pots
and we were able to recreate
just about all scenarios we
could think of: the unmoving
honk of Stereophonics’ Dakota,
the classic wobble of Message
In A Bottle or the clean
Hysteria-period Def Leppard
shimmer. Most flangers are
fun to experiment with, but we
didn’t find a tone we couldn’t
envisage a use for here. The
one effect it doesn’t seem to be
able to do is an all-out jet
flange, but all in all the Neo
Mistress is incredibly versatile.
Verdict
Flangers are best used
sparingly, thus you may not be
too keen on spending a fortune
to have one in your rig. But at
under £60, this Mistress is
certainly worth spending some
quality time with. [SB]
QUICKTEST
MISCELLANEOUS
GUITARIST RATING
higher levels of the sustain knob
helping them sing longer or take
off into feedback.
Verdict
More sustain without dirtying
up the tone is a desired goal of
many players, and here’s a pedal
that can help achieve that while
also capable of some standard
compression tasks. [TC]
The Bottom Line
We like: Adds sustain;
tonally neutral
We dislike: Not a massive
contrast between fast and
slow settings
T-Rex Tonebug
Sustainer
£109
A bug for squashing…
The latest in T-Rex’s
more affordable
Tonebug series is the
Sustainer, a pedal
that compresses
your signal then adds
gain. Running from a
battery or a standard
9V power supply, the
Sustainer features two
knobs to control the effect
and a two-way switch to
select slow or fast attack.
Sounds
The compression knob ramps
up the amount of compression
by simultaneously giving you
a higher ratio and a lower
threshold as the knob is
turned. With fast attack
selected the compression
kicks in almost instantly,
whereas the slow attack lets
through a little more of your
initial note or chord before
compression begins.
At lower compression
settings you can get pretty
straightforward squeezing,
which is useful for keeping
chords and picking at
consistent levels. Wind up the
compression knob, though,
and you can conjure up a
distinct effect where the
compressor initially clamps
down on the note or chord you
play, which is then followed by
a swell in volume – a nice effect
to keep chords hanging in the
air or for Santana-style legato
sustain on single notes, with
CONTACT: Westside Distribution UK PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.t-rex-effects.com
GIT348.rev_quick.indd 149 10/6/11 5:55:45 PM