About Empress
Empress is created for musicians who love classic Tele-style tones, but need more concerning playability and comfort. We aimed on creating a guitar able to handle three distinct musical styles. The bridge pickup is clear, smooth and organic. It is made to recreate 50's Rock 'n Roll tones without loosing the ability to soloing.
The neck pickup is clear and completely balanced to the bridge pickup's output. It will work perfectly with clean and distorted riffs. Just roll-off some highs using the tone knob and a new Jazz world starts to pop up.
The real magic happens at the middle position. The combination of these two tone monsters is a beautiful, unique, twangy sound with the right amount of attack and body. It is simply the best T-style tone that you will ever encounter. Vintage feel, balanced frequency response and sustain for days. Use the middle position for all that Country-style spanky finger based riffs.
Tonewoods
The Empress body is made of Obeche. Although it is not common, Obeche is an exceptional tonewood. It is lightweight and balanced. It has lots of Swamp Ash character in it, but it is more in everything. You will be amazed from the organic nature and the harmonic structure of this beautiful tonewood.
Our choice for the neck is Flame Maple and Madagascar Rosewood. Smooth, balanced and vibrant. A perfect combination to the Empress body.
Contours
The Empress shape can be described as classic with a modern touch. We added a beautiful arm rest contour and a comfortable tummy cut. We designed the neck heel to provide easy higher fret access. The neck shape is a BMC custom designed tapered C type. Being right at the sweet spot of all classic style necks, it will work perfectly for all players.
Hardware
Empress features Gotoh Hardware. The Tuners are auto-locking and staggered. This sets us free from the requirement to use a string retainer that comes together with unwanted friction. The nut is a self-lubricating TUSQ XL nut. Tuning will hold even on extreme bendings.
The truss rod can be easily adjusted using the provided key or any 2.5mm rod. No need to take the neck off to adjust. Easy and quick, as required from musicians who travel a lot or need to play gigs at difficult environmental conditions such as open theaters on sunny or rainy days.
Buzz Feiten Tuning
Empress features the Buzz Feiten Tuning System. We really couldn't resist to the benefits of tuning compensation. We created the Empress for demanding musicians and we know that good intonation is a must have feature. Take a look at the "Quality in Depth" section for more concerning the BF tuning system.
Guitar Specs
25.5" Scale Length
Buzz Feiten Tuning System
Setup: 010-046 Elixir String Set
Obeche Body - Comfort Contours
Flame Maple Neck - BMC Custom Tapered C profile
Madagascar Rosewood Fretboard - Compound Radius
Gotoh Bridge - 6 Shadles
Gotoh Tuners - Locking / Staggered
BMC Tight Neck Screw System with Brass Inserts
BMC MOJO E Pickup Set (Scatterwound)
CTS Pots
CRL 3-way switch
NOS Pio Capacitor
Switchcraft Jack
21 Narrow/Tall Stainless Steel Frets
2-way Spoke Wheel Truss Rod
TUSQ XL nut
Guitar weight 2.50-2.70 kg
Gator Hard Case