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Electro Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress

 

Review of the Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress by The Man in the Jar  

Features of the Electric Mistress Flanger

Construction - A nice solid folded metal design that hasn't changed for years, this unit looks exactly like my old vintage Clone Theory which was (allegedly) borrowed from the stage after a Clash gig. And if they couldn't break it...  

Ins and Outs - There's one input and two outputs, one for the flanged signal and one for a direct, clean signal.

Power - The unit comes with its own power supply.

Controls - Three knobs control Color Range and Rate of the flanging. A two position slider switch disengages the familiar automatic sweep of the effect and allows for manual positioning of the filters.

 

Sound of the Electric Mistress

The leaflet that comes with the unit says that the Color knob controls the amount of "swoosh". I set it at just above halfway, which I found to give the most pleasing tone, and moved onto the meat and gravy controls, Range and Rate. Now the Range control sets how far the flanging sweep progresses into the bass register. Further to the left (counter clockwise) sets a narrow band of sweep confined to the treble frequencies. I find this a really nice effect to use with choppy rhythm guitar sequences, but watch the Rate setting - faster rates generally require narrower ranges to sound their best.

Turning the Range knob further clockwise deepens the sweep until you reach full range at fully clockwise. Increasing the Rate will take you from a slow majestic sweep right up to rapid wobble.

Flicking the switch to Filter Matrix effectively disengages the Rate control and stops the unit from automatically sweeping the frequency range selected. To better grasp this imagine playing a chord and then manually twisting the Range knob from fully counter clockwise to fully clockwise and then back again. This mimics the sound of a full sweep of the frequencies. This means you can choose a "snapshot" within that sweep and make that a constant influence on the sound. I came up with some lovely scooped tones for country and Rockabilly solos and choppy funk chords.  

Overall Impressions of the Electric Mistress

Flanging is a lovely effect when used with subtlety. The level of control offered on the Electric Mistress means that simple, straightforward flanging can and should be part of your guitar vocabulary. The Filter Matrix control adds a whole new spectrum of static tone modulations to experiment with when you're looking for a particular voice. 

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