In the lead-up to my Mega Tremolo Rundown, I have just two more to tackle after this one - the Swindler Red Mountain Tremolo, and the Rounder Sounds Zebra-Trem - with my final selection covering 30 diverse Tremolo pedals!
This Night Wire alas seems to be discontinued now - it’s a Harmonic variety and reminds me a little of my Anasounds Ages as that too has that dynamic pick-attack envelope follower functionality which can trigger a response via your playing style and pick attack.
This is a lot easier to set up and deploy than the Anasounds Ages - and therefore a little less granular and less shapeable - but it does have several of its own advantages.
Controls - Level, Rate Mode : Pick-Attack/Manual, Rate, Depth, Frequency Mode : LFO / Manual / Pick-Attack, Frequency / Sensitivity (Attack).
It’s actually a really neat Harmonic Tremolo - where that genre is typically my favourite - but I do like most every format and genre of tremolo. Lovely purple-ish sparkle finish on the enclosure too. Shame that this one is discontinued - perhaps Jamie has a new variant in mind!
This one was part of my final roundup - where I snapped it up as I was waiting for the Red Mountain and Zebra-Trem units to land - where it’s just the latter I’m still waiting on now. So I will do two more individual reviews, and then do the full rundown.
At the start of the year my Tremolo Capsule Collection was the least impressive of my various modulation selections - and I was determined to bring that up to speed and make it more representative. I may have overcompensated though - as I’ve added rather a lot this year! There are still some targets out there for me - but I feel that 30 is about enough for me at this moment.
For the Night Wire I love that it has a separate level control - which really helps you get the pedal up to and beyond unity volume, and I mostly deploy this with either Rate or Frequency set to Pick-Attack - occasionally both even by accident!
A really elegant design for a Harmonic Tremolo - which covers all the essentials really well, and looks and sounds great with it, I’m glad to have added this to the reference collection - it is my 11th EarthQuaker pedal! It has a really gorgeous voicing, and while not as full-fat as the Harmonious Monk - it does though acquit itself highly admirably as you can see/hear in the below demos. I will have 5 tremolo pedals on the board when I go live - and this will be one of them!
The Night Wire is no longer part of EQD’s current range - hence discontinued - while you can read more about it on the EarthQuaker Devices website. I believe it was around $195 when first launched, while Sweetwater currently has its last of that type selling for $169 - which would seem to be a bargain! I paid a little more in the UK - I think I snapped up one of the very last brand new ones in circulation on this side of the pond! Definitely worth a consideration! There’s not too many second hand ones around - so this one is fairly well loved.