I believe I’m not the only guitar player who struggled for years with using and understanding compressors. Especially ones, that are really powerful and versatile. This time I try to show you all I think is important to know about them with the help of this mind blowing pedal, the Empress Compressor MkII.
Let’s check out the most hyped of all the hyped pedals, the Klon and let’s compare it to my DIY clone…
The Gladio SC is based on the Gladio 1st channel, with the exact same sound and controls, except the new CLEAN knob. This addition makes a very big dfference, and it’s the one that could actually make the sound be closer to SRV.; the clean signal is taken directly at the input of the pedal and mixed back with the overdriven signal at the output, the CLEAN knob thus manages the volume of the clean signal. with the result of having a “clean layer” on top of the overdrive sound, which help a lot to achieve that texas-blues sound.
Al Brown 