Trondolo Tremolo

I am using a vintage Maton semi-acoustic guitar (L-202) with a Vox AC-50CP valve head and a vintage Vox 2x12" Celestion cabinet. Running into the amp through a Korg Pitchblack tuner and a George Dennis wah, with everything else in the effects loop (controlled by a Boss PSM-5 master switch). the Trondolo is second in line after an MXR flanger and before a Biyang AD-7 analogue delay and a Boss GE-7 EQ. This is a great pedal! I love the sound. It's got a bit of a retro feel about it, and a real analogue sound, which I like. It's very clear, and doesn't mess with the tone of my sound at all. It's true bypass, so when it's off you wouldn't even know it's there. It has a good range of effect as well. Very slow to very fast rate, quite mild to very abrupt tremolo. The two extremes - from minimum depth, sine wave to maximum depth, square wave - are worlds apart. With a bit of tweaking, I can recreate just about any tremolo I can find in my CD collection, including, for example, the slow sharp one in Midnight Oil's 'Only the Strong', the classic organic-sounding one in Riders On The Storm. I've had it for a couple of months and it can get just about anything I try to do with it. The only sound I can¿¿¿t get is a really ultra-mild, hardly noticeable one. That's not a problem for me, but I guess it's a little room for improvement.

This thing is built like a tank. The case is cast aluminium, the sockets are firmly attached to the case. It could go head to head with a Boss and it would be a dead heat. You could be charged with carrying an offensive weapon if you were stopped by the police. Etc. I don't have any backup pedals. but if I did i wouldn't bother with this one. I did have a small problem with it, though (see next section), which is the only reason I'm giving it less than 10

This is pretty straightforward: knobs for rate and depth, and a toggle switch to select square or sine wave. it's pretty easy to get the sound you¿¿¿re looking for. The rate knob gives more control over slow speeds than high speeds, this is brilliant for matching a slower tremolo to the tempo of a song but makes it a little tricky getting a fast tremolo exactly right. A small inconvenience but actually worth it for the greater control at the bottom end. My only other, quite small beef with this is that the LED is a bit too bright. If you look right at it it blinds you and you can't see where the knobs are set to.

After I'd had it for a short while it suddenly stopped working. When it was switched off all was fine (cos it's true bypass), but switched it on it was silent. I emailed Aji, he was very responsive, I sent it back (to Indonesia), he tested it and found it worked fine! Must have been something erratic. he replaced possible suspect parts and shipped it back out to me immediately. The whole thing cost me just the one-way shipping to Indonesia. I was happy with this as the cost of shopping internationally and dealing with a one-man part-time operation. And the pedal is worth much more than what I initially paid for it. This experience makes me confident that i would get good support if I had a more serious problem

I play retro-flavoured pop-rock in a band that plays all original music. I also work with a pianist in a duo that has a more alt-folk feel. the Trondolo perfectly suits my style of music, especially with my love for all things vintage. Although I rated most of the categories less than 10 (recognising a some room for improvement) I'm giving it an overall 10 because I'm completely happy with it. it's my favourite pedal actually. And would be good value for money if it cost twice as much.