EARTHQUAKER
DEVICES
NIGHT WIRE
REVIEW BY DAVID A. EVANS
STREET PRICE $195.00
Among modulation pedals,
EarthQuaker Devices’s
new Night Wire fills an
interesting niche. Billed as
a harmonic tremolo, the
sparkling black-and-purple
pedal combines traditional
tremolo, filtration, and
phasing. This fusion
produces some pretty
useful twists on otherwise
standard effects. The Night
Wire provides Uni-Vibe-like
phasing, auto-wah envelope
filtration, and even a more
straightforward, shimmering
tremolo all at the twist of a
few knobs.
According to EarthQuaker
Devices, the pedal combines
a traditional tremolo circuit
with a harmonic filtration
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GEAR REVIEW
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circuit. The latter circuit
consists of two filters, one
high-pass, and the other
low-pass. After the signal
passes through these filters,
a low frequency oscillator
(LFO) further modulates
the signal. What makes the
Night Wire unique, says the
company, is that the filters
themselves are adjustable.
Fortunately, EarthQuaker
Devices didn’t skimp on
the number of possible
effects settings because
the Night Wire provides six
combinations of tremolo
and filtration via two
“master” toggle switches.
The toggles offer two
options for the tremolo
circuit and three options for
EarthQuaker Devices Night Wire
the filtration circuit. While
the tremolo’s Rate switch
allows for either Attack or
Manual mode, the filtration
circuit’s Frequency toggle
allows for those two modes
plus a fun LFO mode. The
LFO filtration mode sets the
two pass filters to sweep,
back and forth, thereby
creating a cool sound that’s
a little like phasing. Perhaps
the most fun of all, however,
are the two Attack modes,
both of which directly link
their effects to the strength
of the input signal.
As might be expected,
changes to the Frequency
and Rate toggles create
radically different sounds. A
Manual Frequency setting