How often do you use Tremolo? Do you have a generic setting you use or are you always adjusting?

I know it’s such a subjective thing, based off of your taste, and there is no “right” or “wrong” answer, but just curious what people on here prefer…

Me personally, I like to leave it on all the time , I just love the texture and mood it adds to any song.

I also like to mess around with the rate and depth depending on the song, which would surely be a pain in a live situation

racingsnail84 wrote:

How often do you use Tremolo? Do you have a generic setting you use or are you always adjusting?

Only in tunes I deem it suitable for atmospheric reasons and half of those times on the rhythm guitar. I have a tremolo pedal on which you can adjust the tremolo speed by tapping the stomp knob. But you can also of course adjust things with potmeters. The settings differ, but what works best for me is the speed about 1/4 up, depth a little under half, say 45%, volume little over half, 55% and I have a 4th knob to determine on which count it goes, which I generally leave untouched, although I should experiment more with it. I leave it starting at the full count. I need to figure out what all the options mean and how to use that. Then there is a switch which lets me choose between vintage sounding squares or not. I usually leave that on the vintage setting.

Me personally, I like to leave it on all the time , I just love the texture and mood it adds to any song.

Used on a rhythm guitar with only one hit per full beat gives imo the best results and adds the most atmosphere to a tune.

I also like to mess around with the rate and depth depending on the song, which would surely be a pain in a live situation

I use it too little to be messing around with it, so for shows, I'd leave it at one setting and use that setting for all the tunes I'd play, regardless if it doesn't agree with the studio version.

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Last edited: May 12, 2023 08:40:43

synchro wrote:

For me, it sorta depends. Harmonic tremolo lends a throbbing effect, without a big change in overall volume, so it works in a lot of situations. Bias-modulating trem', or the trem'-pedal equivalent, has a bit more pervasive effect, and while I love it, I still use it somewhat sparingly.

What are some Harmonic trem pedals you like?

I’ve only ever used the Boss tr-2 and as much as I love it , it produces a slight but noticeable hiss when engaged. It can also be a bit too much, even for a tremolo freak like me lol

I have a suspicion I’ll love the harmonic trem and that may be the effect I’ve been chasing without knowing the difference between harmonic vs bias modulating

I really appreciate your input…. Thanks!

racingsnail84 wrote:

synchro wrote:

For me, it sorta depends. Harmonic tremolo lends a throbbing effect, without a big change in overall volume, so it works in a lot of situations. Bias-modulating trem', or the trem'-pedal equivalent, has a bit more pervasive effect, and while I love it, I still use it somewhat sparingly.

What are some Harmonic trem pedals you like?

I’ve only ever used the Boss tr-2 and as much as I love it , it produces a slight but noticeable hiss when engaged. It can also be a bit too much, even for a tremolo freak like me lol

I have a suspicion I’ll love the harmonic trem and that may be the effect I’ve been chasing without knowing the difference between harmonic vs bias modulating

I really appreciate your input…. Thanks!

I have three pedals which provide tremolo, the Stanley Blue Nebula, the Source Audio Vertigo Tremolo, and the Source Audio True Spring Reverb, which includes the same basic tremolo effects as the Vertigo Tremolo, plus some great Spring Reverb emulations.

The Blue Nebula has a basic, sine-wave tremolo, which is a pretty decent bias-modulating tremolo emulation. The Blue Nebula has an array of tape-delay and magnetic drum delay emulations, along with great Plate Reverb, a Dual Chorus, a great clean preamp, and lotsa other good stuff. If you want to duplicate Hank Marvin’s delays, from the Shadows, this pedal is the perfect tool, and it’s a great, overall, modulation effect processor.

A couple of years ago, I was visiting amp-builder Winfield Thomas, and he let me play through a ‘60s Fender amp with the five-triad harmonic tremolo, and I was smitten. These tremolos were on the Brownface Showman and Bandmaster amps. Instead of simply modulating volume, Harmonic Tremolo, uses filters and varies the volume by frequency band, so the highs will be at low volume while the lows are at high volume, and vice versa. The effect is a throbbing, pulsing, complex sound, but there is not the volume loss of a strictly volume modulating tremolo.

This brings us to the TR-2, which I feel is a pretty good pedal. The older TR-2s suffered some volume loss, because the older TR-2s basically left the peak volume intact, and modulated by lowering the volume, which had the effect of lowering the “area under the curve”. More recent TR-2s boosted the signal for the high volume parts and cuts the volume of the low volume parts, keeping the area under the curve constant, and eliminating the sensation of the volume being lowered when the pedal is engaged.

Bias-modulating tremolo, such as a Tweed Vibrolux or a Brownface Princeton have, works by actually changing the bias of the power tubes. This makes for a very deep tremolo, which sounds very rich. Bias modulation has one significant limitation, because it is actually acting directly on the power amp section of the amp, it puts some added stress on the power tubes. For lower power tubes, such as the 6V6, this isn’t much of a problem, but for higher power tubes, such as 5881s or 6L6s, the tube life will be compromised. The amazing 1963 Vibroverb was one of Fender’s most innovative designs, but the combination of bias-modulating tremolo and the 6L6 power tubes made for reduced service life for the power tubes, especially if the tremolo depth was set high. This problem led directly to the optically-coupled tremolo circuit of the Blackface era, which sounds good, but does not have the lushness of bias modulation. Think Tommy James and the Shondells, Crimson and Clover.

So the Source Audio pedals both emulate bias, harmonic and optical tremolo. The Vertigo Tremolo has these three as primary effects, which can be selected with a three-position switch, and one of the knobs allows you to select 1/4 note, 1/8 note, triplet or 1/16 note divisions of the tempo. I use a Tap Tempo pedal to set the speed.

The Source Audio True Spring has tremolo as a secondary effect, which can either be selected by pressing a button-switch on the pedal, or from an external switch. However, I use the external switch as a Tap Tempo, so I use the button on the pedal.

The quality of the tremolos in the Source Audio pedals is great. The Harmonic Trem’ sounds quite authentic, as does the Bias Trem’. The Optical Trem’ has that more abrupt sound of the mid ‘60s amps. Beyond that, the True Spring has excellent reverb emulations.

I have a small pedalboard I use at home, which is right next to me chair, where I can reach it to make adjustments on the fly. It’s a Boss Analog Delay, a True Spring, a Blossom Point and a Tap Tempo. The True Spring is so versatile that I can use it for pretty much any genre. The greatest advantage to the Vertigo is that it’s easier to switch the tremolo on and off via foot switch, so I use it on my main board.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Jojobaplant wrote:

racingsnail84 wrote:

What are some Harmonic trem pedals you like?

I use TC Electronics Pipeline, fairly affordable and has the added benefit that it has a function in which you can decide the speed by tapping it on the stomp knob. You can also set it exactly to the beat you're playing in.

https://www.gear4music.ie/Guitar-and-Bass/TC-Electronic-Pipeline-Tap-Tremolo/2018?_gl=1*1ndzsld*_up*MQ..*_ga*OTA3MzIxOTg5LjE2ODQwMTk0MDQ.*_ga_2663YXEZD1*MTY4NDAxOTQwNC4xLjAuMTY4NDAxOTQwNC4wLjAuMA..

Should you decide to get one of these, don't buy it from these guys though. Whilst I myself bought it from them, they have the nasty habit of increasing the price every time you look at an article. For example last week you looked at it and it was, say 100 quid. Today you look at it and it's suddenly 105 quid. They do it every time. It's a great shop with plenty of useful articles to sell, but I really don't like that trick they pull. When I bought the pedal, it was 89 Euro and that's less than 3 years ago. But frankly I only buy there because it doesn't take weeks for the stuff to get here.

I’m aware of that pedal, and have thought of buying one, although I’m pretty happy with what I have.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I rarely use tremolo, even though I do like the effect. When I do use it, it's usually my PRRI's tremolo. My Oceans 11 also has a nice tremolo that I use when I'm playing through my DSL5CR.

synchro wrote:

taijiguy wrote:

I rarely use tremolo, even though I do like the effect. When I do use it, it's usually my PRRI's tremolo. My Oceans 11 also has a nice tremolo that I use when I'm playing through my DSL5CR.

The Ocean’s 11 is an impressive pedal. I’m pretty geared up, with regard to reverb and tremolo, but it’s tempting.

I have it paired with an EHX Canyon. Some interesting sounds can be had.

i use a red witch phaser with the trem/phase setting give a harmonic tremolo type of sound. i just use it to thicken up everything