Tremolo has always been one of our favorite effects, and in recent years, pedal builders seem to be embracing them more and more as well. Today’s pedal from our friends over at EarthQuaker Devices is a tremolo on steroids, with a ton of options to choose from, and a million-and-one sounds to be created. The Night Wire™ is a harmonic tremolo (more on that in a minute), and one that really adds an entirely new level of sonic prowess to rigs of all shapes and sizes.
Level gets things in the control room going by setting the overall output level, with unity being right around 12:00. Rate sets the speed of the tremolo effect, and works differently depending on which toggle mode you’re in. Using the Rate toggle switch, you can select from Manual Mode, where the speed is set by turning the knob, or Attack Mode, where the speed is set by your pick attack, and the Rate knob controls the sensitivity.
The Depth knob adjusts the intensity of the effect; when fully counterclockwise, the Night Wire™ turns into either a fixed filter, envelope-controlled filter or phaser, depending on where the Freq toggle is set. Finally, the Freq knob itself controls the center frequency of the filters when in Manual Mode, and the sensitivity when in Attack Mode. The sounds protruding from the depths of this pedal are warm, rich, lush and crazy all at the same time, twisting and bending your previous perception of musical reality into an auditory pretzel…with extra mustard.
There’s a lot going on inside this pedalboard-friendly enclosure, as is usually the case with pedals from EQD. You can check out the demo video below to catch a glimpse of some of the sounds the Night Wire™ can produce, but it is truly a piece of gear that needs to be sat down with, paid attention to and explored to unleash its full sonic power. Thanks as always to Jamie, Julie and the EarthQuaker Devices crew for their generosity and partnership in doing some more pedal reviews with us – stay tuned for more incredible marvels coming out of their shop featured right here in the next couple of weeks!
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