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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Tremolo choices: cheap regular trem or harmonic tremolo?

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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

I would highly recommend this one

https://www.surfyindustries.com/surfytrem

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

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

Since you mentioned regular tremolo, and cheap, it’s definitely worth trying a Danelectro Tuna Melt. Got mine off Amazon for $40 and it can get fast and super slow as well, which I like because all my amps have great tremolo but this can get even slower than them.

I would say the price is definitely not at all reflective of sound quality, it’s a very nice sounding vintage regular tremolo. Looks cool 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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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.

Daniel Deathtide

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.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

+1 on the Surfy Industries SurfyTrem.

revmike wrote:

I would highly recommend this one

https://www.surfyindustries.com/surfytrem

Rev

Bob

Thanks for the information guys Smile much appreciated

If you really like tremolo and use it often I wouldn't go cheap on it.
This is the best harmonic vibrato in pedal form:
https://www.jampedals.com/harmonious-monk/

-

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

I currently don't play any trem which is why I would be a bit cautious to invest a full price into it. But it also is better to invest in good equipment instead of buying cheap and twice.

Keeping the attack for drip is interesting!

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

Spaceman Effects Delta II is extremely nice and versatile. Does the shifting low pass/high pass harmonic thing, plus several other sounds (and special modes).

it is the only tremolo pedal i’ve ever liked, and i’ve even built two brown bias-vary tremolo amplifiers as well as a harmonic tremolo brown super amp.

the delta ii is staying on my board forever.

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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Here's what I found having (regular) Tremolo and Harmonic Tremolo.

I find regular tremolo more versatile whereas harmonic as more of a niche. When I had both I'd only use harmonic tremolo on a few songs. I find regular Tremolo covers more ground and I would miss it more then harmonic trem. Tremolo can cover harmonic but for me harmonic
can't cover regular trem.

The surfybear pedals are great but then you'd need two diff ones.
There is the Flint that has 3 tremolos (and verb) and costs about the same +/- as two Surfy Bear trem pedals.

For affordable regular tremolo, Boss TR2 and MOOER Trelicopter.

I also like the Danelectro cool cat and Tuna Melt, but I find these darkened my signal a tad.

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?

derekirving wrote:

Here's what I found having (regular) Tremolo and Harmonic Tremolo.

I find regular tremolo more versatile whereas harmonic as more of a niche. When I had both I'd only use harmonic tremolo on a few songs. I find regular Tremolo covers more ground and I would miss it more then harmonic trem. Tremolo can cover harmonic but for me harmonic
can't cover regular trem.

The surfybear pedals are great but then you'd need two diff ones.
There is the Flint that has 3 tremolos (and verb) and costs about the same +/- as two Surfy Bear trem pedals.

For affordable regular tremolo, Boss TR2 and MOOER Trelicopter.

I also like the Danelectro cool cat and Tuna Melt, but I find these darkened my signal a tad.

Why would they need 2 SurfyTrems from Surfy Industries? SurfyBear refers to the reverbs.
One single SurfyTrem pedal toggles between Brownface (harmonic) and Blackface, since they are the exact same circuits as found in those Fender amps that had vibrato.

http://www.satanspilgrims.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Satans-Pilgrims/8210228553
https://satanspilgrims.bandcamp.com/
http://www.surfyindustries.com

Last edited: Oct 27, 2021 14:03:59

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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Bringing instruments back to life since 2013.

ldk wrote:

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.

Older Boss TR-2s had that problem, but they corrected it a few years back.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

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