Greetings.
I am not using tremolo much but I would like to get to using it more.

Ive only had a very simple one on a mini multieffect before.
But i have seen some reviews on harmonic tremolo's which supposidly keep the volume instead of ducking.
A example would be the Nightwire by EQD which also can respond to your picking strenght.

Which tremolo's do you guys recommend for nice sounds not per se historically accurate

Aha this has the harmonic trem and regular thats nice bit cheaper than the eqd nightwire pedal too

I use Marshall Vibratrem, nice tremolo and vibratо and it boosts sound a little bit.
Harmonic tremolo is really nice, I had Flint for a couple of years but ended up with Vibratrem.

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DeathTide wrote:

Hold on a second, this is news to me. Is there an alternative to the 2 1/2 tube harmonic tremolo? I went on that search and found a few pedals that claimed they provided harmonic tremolo, but it sounded nothing like the actual amp harmonic tremolo. I contacted a builder about building me a stereo harmonic tremolo unit, and he said it would cost $4000 and he didn’t want to do it because it was super complicated.

I would imagine that it can be simulated with a pedal, but the actual Fender circuit was pretty complex and not at all easy to duplicate.

Recently, I had the opportunity to play through, a Fender amp with harmonic tremolo that was impressive, but for me, it’s definitely a try before you buy proposition. I have heard other harmonic trems that literally nauseated me. It’s an easy effect to get wrong. Unless I come into possession of an amp that uses the actual Fender circuit, I’ll pass.

For my playing, now, in the real world, I prefer not to use the optical tremolo on the Blackface Fender amps. I find it too abrupt. The bias varying tremolo on my Winfield Tremor is very pleasing. I also have a Boss TR2 pedal which I set to a sine wave tremolo, for times I am using other amps.

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Thanks for the information guys much appreciated

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Last edited: Mar 03, 2022 04:33:51

There's some great cheapy trems to be had. Wish I still had my Danelectro Tuna Melt, that was cool. Right now I use a Chord Pedal _weird UK company making nice retro stuff in heavy cast casings. Have the Catalin Valcoder, that's ok but could live without it. A bit twitchy, rapidly goes from very little to helicopter. Willing to sell that. Nice overdrive from it too, with or without trem

Last edited: Oct 26, 2021 17:16:16

Might want to consider the Keeley Verb o Trem. Has 3 modes of trem/vibrato - standard bias mod trem, magnatone style vibrato, and harmonic trem/vibrato - and a very basic reverb that can be switched via internal DIP switch between a plate and spring reverb emulation. Brand new at $149, but I grabbed one used a year ago for $85 and they seem to be readily available used for around $100.

The trem and vibratos are quite good, to my tastes. The typical bias mod trem mode is solid if not exhilirating. The vibrato is very good, and stacks up pretty well with my '57 Magnatone 260 - of course, ain't nothin' like the real thang. I really like the harmonic trem - I've had a couple of brown Fenders with it (long gone unfortunately), but I think this stacks up OK. I find it very musical. The pedal has a gain control - it's possible to get some extra gain, but I mostly use it to avoid a volume drop when the trem/vibrato kicks in, as happens frequently with a lot of trems.

Reverb is not gonna blow away a serious surf guitarist. It's very basic, and as far as I'm concerned, the plate emulation is the better of the two, but I have never really used plate reverbs for guitar. But the spring is better than nothing and I sometimes use it on a small board when I just need some reverb and am not too fussy. Not gonna compete with my real Fender tank or my Topanga, or even my Oceans 11 for that matter. But I really got it for the 3 trem/vibratos - to me the reverb is just an added attraction that makes it possible to use it as a combined reverb/trem pedal.

Several good reviews online - e.g.,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fcasetTR1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMwOldG_2vM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EupTJzctcU

There is also a 'workstation' model at double the money. Not tried it, but it doesn't check the boxes for me - it's large, expensive, I'm entirely happy with the trem/vibratos on the small box, and I will be surprised if the reverb is a whole lot better than on the small box. Reverb-wise, I haven't tried any small pedal that stacks up to the Topanga.

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Thanks for the input guys i want to dip my tor in trem country but finances im also saving for a jaguar.
You mentioned the harmonic trem not covering regular trem. Is that bacause regular trem can be more choppy?

One thing to be aware of with some tremolo pedals is that the apparent volume will drop when you switch the tremolo on. This is not a problem if you have the tremolo on for the whole song and make adjustments to volume beforehand, but if you switch it on mid-song, like with Rumble, it's a problem.

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