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Let's talk tremolos - what are you using?


Phil O'Keefe

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I tried the voodoo labs microvibe. Major tone suck' date=' killed the high frequencies. I'd love to get a true Leslie tone without lugging one of those beasts around.[/quote']

 

The Strymon Lex is very good. I've also heard reports that the Neo Ventilator is supposed to be outstanding, but I have not tried one yet myself.

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Can anyone recommend an analog trem that inherently does a little bit of the pitch vibrato (like the tremolo in a classic fender amp)? I don't need fancy wave shaping options (though they would be nice), I just care about sound quality! And no tone sucking!! And not crazy expensive!!!

 

I built a 4ms Tremulus Lune 10 years ago and loved it. But at some point last year, I realized it's got some tone suck--OR maybe I stepped on it and damaged something? It pulls down the guitar signal a tiny bit. It's true bypass, so it shouldn't, but when I've got it in the chain and unplug it's power supply there's no tone suck. Then when I plug in the power supply, it adds a little resistance while still switched off. I tried a battery. Same issue. I can follow instructions to build and mod things, but I don't know how to deal with this.... I've poked and prodded inside and see no shorting or anything. Ugg!

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Can anyone recommend an analog trem that inherently does a little bit of the pitch vibrato (like the tremolo in a classic fender amp)? I don't need fancy wave shaping options (though they would be nice)' date=' I just care about sound quality! And no tone sucking!! And not crazy expensive!!!![/quote']

 

EHX Wiggler or EHX Worm

 

I've never heard a classic Fender amp that has a built-in pitch vibrato, despite the fact that Fender labeled their tremolos as "vibrato"

 

The vintage Magnatones have the most famous pitch vibrato I know of... it is delightful

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Thanks. I was watching Wiggler videos last night and it looks awesome, but the funky power supply and gigantic pedalboard footprint ruin it--same reasons I don't use my EHX tube EQ. I feel like there is a tiny little bit of inherent pitch vibrato. Definitely not a wobble, but a little bit of micro micro pitch mod. Maybe I'm just imagining it, or maybe it's some illusion. Anyway, I'll check out the Worm!

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I really love trem. It's the only modulation I consistently and frequently use.

 

Right now I've got the fulltone supa-trem. The half speed button is really fun and I like the hard setting for choppy percussive stuff. The soft setting doesn't sound very exciting though, just sounds like the hard setting with less mix.

I

Ideal trem would do both the choppy vox repeater sounds and the biasy vibratoey sounds with a half speed button (tap would be cool too, but I usually can't get it fast enough for some of the stuff I do) I'll probably have to run two trem pedals one of these days.

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Ideal trem would do both the choppy vox repeater sounds and the biasy vibratoey sounds with a half speed button (tap would be cool too, but I usually can't get it fast enough for some of the stuff I do) I'll probably have to run two trem pedals one of these days.

 

Two trems at once can be pretty fun - just ask Johnny Marr. :)

 

As far as your ideal tremolo, maybe it could have a multiplier switch so that your tempo taps are doubled? That way you could tap in a faster tempo with less furious footwork. :)

 

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I hazily remember something about it taking 6 hours to get the sound and trem sync he wanted out of 4 twins or somesuch for "How Soon is Now?" - how'd that go again?

 

 

I'm not sure how many hours it took, but apparently it was a bit tricky to record. My understanding is that it was recorded without tremolo, then reamped to four Fender Twin Reverbs, with Marr handling two of them and the producer the other two; each manually controlling the Speed knobs on the amps in an effort to keep them in sync.

 

This article talks a bit about it on page two...

 

http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2013/04/interview_johnny_marr.php

 

Regardless of how it was done, I think the results are pretty spectacular - certainly one of the best uses of tremolo on record IMHO.

 

[video=youtube;hnpILIIo9ek]

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Two trems at once can be pretty fun - just ask Johnny Marr. :)

 

As far as your ideal tremolo, maybe it could have a multiplier switch so that your tempo taps are doubled? That way you could tap in a faster tempo with less furious footwork. :)

 

That'd be pretty great. I used to run two trems and really loved it. I just wasn't using it live at the time so I went down to one for pedalboard size (I need to get over being self conscious of huge boards I guess). I'd even turn em both on sometimes while recording for almost polyrhythmic sounds. Had a earthquaker devices hummingbird and a ehx wiggler. I'll have to go back to something like that once I find a deal on something.

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" certainly one of the best uses of tremolo on record IMHO." Indeed.

 

Admittedly a bit of a homer on this, but in case you ever wondered "where on earth did REM get the idea for "Crush With Eyeliner," well here's the (vastly superior) original ....

 

[video=youtube;777LQ7z8ICE]

 

And let's not forget this:

[video=youtube;wIjUY3pjN8E]

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I don't use trem too often as it rarely fits in with my playing. I usually just use the trems on the istomp, which are pretty cool. Ping pong stereo and lots of different waveform options in a multi-effect single pedal format is a no brainer for me.

 

If I used trem more, I would definitely check out the Kingsley Bard. It's pricey, but sounds ohhhh so go oo oo oo oo oo od!

 

(Haven't heard one in person, just YT vids)

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]
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