Electric Mistress fans?

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HH1978
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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by HH1978 » Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:03 am

Checked their website, only US distribution :)

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by HH1978 » Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:03 am

meant :(

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by stevejamsecono » Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:44 am

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 2:37 am
never been a flanger fan but i know an electric mistress was used on this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc7hMWdG3Pg
My recent mistress obsession has been because I've been going back down the Ruts rabbit hole. Paul Fox did some tasty stuff with his DEM.
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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by chromewaves » Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:43 am

The Retro-Sonic Flanger is a pretty solid repro of an 18V Electric Mistress in an MXR-sized box. Plus it has a level control!

https://www.retro-sonic.com/flanger

I like mine.

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by BlueSparkle » Fri Jan 17, 2020 8:46 pm

Flangers are REALLY subjective.
There are certain nuances about the mistress that make them desirable and plenty that makes it a PITA to use on a board.

I have never found a 'quiet' one.
I have never found a 'loud' one.

By this I mean they are all noisy, and it is the inherent clock noise that you have to live with which makes it so nice sounding.

They are also really dead, in the signal chain. Every single one I have played has cut the signal by at least 4-6 db which is HUGE.

Eventually I gave up on finding a good one, also I had a lot of friends tell me they have had them and they are notoriously unreliable as well.

So I still wanted this holy grail, and my next choice was to investigate options. I started with a brand new MXR m117 flanger, quickly followed by a strymon Mobius, from that followed a vintage BF-1 boss, and eventually I realised that the reason none of them sounded the same or similar, was because of the BBD.
I started looking deeper into the whole BBD thing, maybe I could pillage a chip from some other old gear etc... but no.

By luck, there was a local ad for an original 1979 A/DA Flanger, which has the Reticon SAD1024 BBD. So I bought it, and took the gamble on another 40 year old pedal.
Not long after buying it, I realised that it was vastly different to the EHX. but in a GOOD way. the noise floor is gated. and adjustable. what a win.
ALL the clarity and none of the clock noise when you're not playing.
it has gain built in and all the usual flanging adjustments.

Then I experienced the unreliability. These original 70's flangers have a different Vreg and require a 24v centre + feed, with a 2.5mm jack, not too dissimilar to the old mistress.
but because I use a modular power setup (gigrig) I ordered a more useable-to-me 'custom shop' 9-24vdc 2.1mm centre neg adapter, and I changed the input on the pedal.

Part of this was also because I had some noise issues on the pedal and I tore it down to investigate further.
The board was full of 25vdc tag tantalum caps, which is not ideal, so a couple of orders to element14 and digikey and I had all the replacement components I needed to overhaul the board.

The result is actually impressive. the noise floor is even better, but more importantly, the transients are cleaner. So it was a worthwhile exercise.

Having said all this, I would not suggest that it is the "ideal" solution, the A/DA flanger does some very cool flanging things, and covers more extremes than the mistress, is easily as clear and crisp, but because it has such a huge range of adjustments and gain, the pedal gets used for more extreme stuff than I would otherwise use.

Then there is the cost. It's totally NOT worth it. Even though I got mine at a bargain by todays current listings, the time spent, plus the power adapter plus the cost of all the replacement caps, diodes, pots and other sundries, plus redoing the conformal coating made it a quite expensive investment.

Now the really sad thing - you can absolutely get about 95% there with the MXR m117 flanger. brand new, with warranty, much smaller (is 18v though) and be just as happy as EVH was when he used it.

Love a mistress, but as in life, you can't live with them easily. :derp: ;D
:o)
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'95 JDMJMCS Blue Sparkle w/ McNelly 46/58's.
other non-offsets.

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by stevejamsecono » Thu Mar 05, 2020 7:53 pm

Huh, so I ended up solving this problem in an unexpected way.

In my research (watching and listening to endless youtube videos) I stumbled upon the early three knob Maxon/Ibanez flangers and found myself into the sounds I was hearing. Sounded Mistressy to me. So I took a chance and ordered one of the reissues from the late 90s/early 2000s this week. It showed up today and it sounds fantastic. Super usable and definitely in the Mistress ballpark as far as the sounds I'm looking for. Makes me wonder if there are any circuit similarities, given how Maxon ripped off the Big Muff for the D+S II.
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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by Singlebladepickup » Thu Mar 05, 2020 8:13 pm

I've got the Mooer copy, "E-Lady" or Elec Lady, I forgot what it's called. Sounds great, and it was super cheap. I think they now have a mini ibanez one, and it would go nicely next to my ibanez mini chorus and mini delay. Plus, I think it's yellow like the old one which would be awesome

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by somanytoys » Sun Mar 08, 2020 2:48 pm

I had a late ‘90s/early 2000s deluxe, and hated it. Tone suck, volume drop and too much noise. Sold it a few years ago and had no regrets.

I’m not the biggest fan of flangers, but they can be cool. I have a few pedals with flange - Fromel Seraph deluxe, Keeley Bubbletron, TC Nova Mod, and as an “extra” on things like the Polymoon.

I would totally buy one of those Longamp ”Ghost in the Machine” boxes to try out. If it sounds as good as it looks, I’d be happy with it.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by tune_link » Fri Mar 13, 2020 6:27 am

I'm super curious about this thread. I have only used one flanger ever, which is the TC Electronics Vortex. I've had it a few years and thought about branching out to something else just for fun. I've never noticed it being noisy or cutting my signal at all when I use it. It's the only TC pedal I still own (had the Hall of Fame but traded up for a nicer verb a while back). I don't think the Vortex is a particularly great pedal, it has a "tape" setting that I use and I basically have only been using it for slow filter sweeps and really weird whooshy shit (think Dinosaur Jr "Freak Scene"). I noticed that Mascis uses an old Electric Mistress but it does sound noticeably noisy in a way that I've never gotten from the Vortex. Is it possible this pedal is some kind of secret weapon or am I deaf to something it's doing here or just lucky?

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by somanytoys » Fri Mar 13, 2020 7:40 am

The DEM was one of the earlier flangers, and (to me) has certain sounds that made it famous, like The Police, Pink Floyd, and many others. It’s just that most people I know found the same problems when trying to use it - a very noticeable volume drop when it’s on, and a weird tone suck to your sound when it’s off.

I liked its chewy sound, it just wasn’t friendly overall. I found the same thing with my EHX Small Clone chorus from the same era. They may have improved them a lot since back then.

I thought about having the DEM modded to fix the issues, but later I got the TC Nova Mod, and it has a pretty versatile flanger, and everything else on it. I haven’t gotten the DEM sound from it, but also haven’t really tried. I assume that the Vortex is similar, but I’m not familiar with it.

Flangers can be different, and the sounds are subjective, depending on what you’re trying to achieve and how it sounds with your setup. Some people like the thick, chewy sounds, others like the sweeping jet sound, some want the zero through flange that disappears when “the streams cross”.

The one I like the most is the Keeley Bubbletron, but it’s kind of specialized. I think it has an internal switch to make it more normal, but I bought it for what it specifically does.

I’ve heard good sounds from a Boss (a guy I played with had one), and I imagine the old Ibanez ones are good. From there, I’m sure there have been many, many good ones made since.

If you can, maybe it would be worth bringing yours up to a music store and comparing it to a couple of others that they have , to see if you prefer a different sound/brand, or if you’re actually happier with what you have.
-David

It's a boost booster, to boost your boost - it makes your tone much muchier.

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by stevejamsecono » Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:24 pm

tune_link wrote:
Fri Mar 13, 2020 6:27 am
I'm super curious about this thread. I have only used one flanger ever, which is the TC Electronics Vortex. I've had it a few years and thought about branching out to something else just for fun. I've never noticed it being noisy or cutting my signal at all when I use it. It's the only TC pedal I still own (had the Hall of Fame but traded up for a nicer verb a while back). I don't think the Vortex is a particularly great pedal, it has a "tape" setting that I use and I basically have only been using it for slow filter sweeps and really weird whooshy shit (think Dinosaur Jr "Freak Scene"). I noticed that Mascis uses an old Electric Mistress but it does sound noticeably noisy in a way that I've never gotten from the Vortex. Is it possible this pedal is some kind of secret weapon or am I deaf to something it's doing here or just lucky?
The fact that it's a digital version that's emulating the DEM is probably why it's missing all the "quirks" of the original (volume drop, tone suck, whatever). If it's a sound you dig already, I see no need to change it up!

The problem with some of the older EHX pedals is that as magic as they were they were not the best made things and there were compromises involved. I had a 90s DEM that a forumite here had modded with a clean boost to deal with the volume drop and I still didn't really get on it with it that well so it wasn't long for me.
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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by Ursa Minor » Sun Mar 15, 2020 7:35 pm

I just got a DOD FX75-B after going through a bit of a flanger renaissance. It's excellent! It's not a Mistress but its analog and cheap (and stereo fwiw) and it does a very good job keeping up with all the big ones. I use mine more for a chorus sound and it's both shimmery and thick and does the vibrato sound I was looking for perfectly. Just throwing this out there as a good inexpensive diamond in the rough. DOD had some really great pedals that are oft overlooked. Sure they have issues with flimsy switches, but I'm not touring it so as long as its in good enough shape I'm down with DOD.

I also considered the yellow Ibanez four knobber. Those sound great in demos. I may eventually have to wet my whistle on one of those as well.
The artist formerly known as kosmonautmayhem.

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by stevejamsecono » Sat Jul 25, 2020 7:02 pm

Zombie thread res, but thought it was worth mentioning:

The Maxon fell out favor after a few months. Not a bad box, but ultimately it wasn't "that thing", so it had to go. I found a good deal on the Retrosonic Flanger on Reverb last week, so I went for it. It showed up this morning and welp... there's all those sounds.

Obviously it's still honeymoon right now, but I'm finding it very tweakable and user friendly so far. I used to have a DEM and I have to say -- the people who say there's a big difference between this and the original aren't wrong. The DEM sounded cool, but I did find it more "jet"-like and a bit more over the top, so I didn't keep it. This one -- assuming it's as accurate to the originals as they say -- DOES have that liquidy chorusy thing going on that's a lot more usable for my type of playing.

A more in-depth report once I've spent more time with it, but thumbs up to everyone who rec'd it. Definitely a winner. :)
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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by Maggieo » Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:59 am

I finally got a DEM to replace my big box 80's EM, and I'll be, it nails it. I had the Andy Summers' sound in around 30 seconds.

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Re: Electric Mistress fans?

Post by stevejamsecono » Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:41 am

Maggieo wrote:
Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:59 am
I finally got a DEM to replace my big box 80's EM, and I'll be, it nails it. I had the Andy Summers' sound in around 30 seconds.

Image
I really gotta get one of those Joe Gore pedals eventually. I love his youtube personality so much and his playing is always really inspiring, so I wanna support the guy.
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