Tremolo Pedal recommendations

Gulliver

So, I used to own a Boss TR-2 and once modified, it was OK.  But I sold it when I wasn't using it much for gigging - and now I'm missing some tremolo in my life.

What I want is a really lush, warm sounding tremolo - nothing like a Vox Repeat Percussion clone/based tremolo...  Tried a Mooer Trelicopter and wasn't sold on it.

Would like it to cost under £150 - but can go over that for the right thing.

Suggestions please!!

John_P

It's over budget unless you find a bargain but I really like the strymon flint. 

Gulliver

John_P said:

It's over budget unless you find a bargain but I really like the strymon flint. 

I've thought about the Flint, but I'm happy with my amp reverb and probably wouldn't use half the pedal, which seems like a waste.

digitalkettle

Hi...I have this: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/79500/fs-empress-tremolo if you're interested.

vasselmeyer

Diamond TRM-1. It was the best term I've ever owned and I'm a bit sorry I sold it now. It is a brilliant mixture of a 100% analogue  opto-optimiser (same  circuit as in many classic vintage amps)  along with a  digital controller to give some real flexibility.

It has tap temp as well as a speed doubler when holding it down. It has a waveform switch with four different shapes including sharkfin, sine wave, square wave and  chop which gives you a JFET-based circuit to give you a sharp kill-switch type effect. There is a mode selector which gives you five different time-based modes and another "chaotic" mode  which gives you random intermittent pulses. You can even set the tap tempo to be a kill switch in the manual mode. One feature which is often missing from temolo pedals is the boost function so you can increase or decrease the sound. I've even used it as a clean boost by turning the temolo completely down but increasing the volume.

simonk

Suhr Jackrabbit or Source Audio Vertigo. The latter offers a lush harmonic mode.

djspecialist

I love my David Rolo Twin Peaks.

Wide variety of waveforms, tap tremolo and a nice harmonic tremolo / vibe-y mode.

JohnPerry

The Vertigo sounds perfect for you. It's a much more tweakable Flint without the reverb.

Having had both, the Vertigo's trems are every bit as good and can be tweaked to be even better.

Amazing value given the used price they fetch. The Neuro app is a bit tricky but worth the effort 

dindude

Well, I've had a lot of the £150 - £200 trems and they've all had "things" I couldn't live with.

Demeter Trem - sounds really great overall but there's a slight treble lift and volume boost that you need to be happy with, the volume boost was just a tad too high IMO, and the bypass sound wasn't good in a line of pedals.

Fulltone Supa Trem - this fixes most of the issues of the Demeter, with its adjustable volume, and sounds great, but the board real estate it takes up was too much to justify.

Hamstead Trem - now this is a lush sounding trem, the nicest sounding of the lot, however, it's kinda so lush it doesn't really cut through as well as some. The biggest issue is that the boost is bizarrely implemented in that it is completely independent of the trem on /off - so if you want a slight volume lift with the trem (and you need with this one due to the above) you are turning two switches at once. And the switches have a truely horrible stiff spring action.

Mojohand Bayou trem - fine, but sounds a bit bland.

Boo Instruments Tremolo - this is actually a very nice UK made trem that can be bought for about £50 new. The range in the depth control is insane though, I was usually knocking around the 1 - 2 mark and wanting to dial it back. Apparently you can request the builder to change the taper, but I didn't know this at the time.

All this recently brought me to a good old Boss TR-2 - and I absolutely love it. I haven't been able to A/B it with any of the above but it just seems to work so well with my rig.

So there you have, you were right first time IMO

Edit: the only two that tempt me now are the Kingsley Bard, although it's very power hungry, and the Basic Audio Throbby, which needs to be imported from the US.

Moe_Zambeek

I had the Vertigo and liked it, but ultimately the invisibility of the control lettering in stage settings and the slightly...sterile feel of it were enough for me to sell it. However as mentioned, for the price and utility it's very good. They need to sort the lettering though!

I have a Zvex Sonar now - much more fiddly but it just feels great to play somehow, though it took an age to get dialled in. It has a certain undefinable something about it.

Beexter

Suhr Jack Rabbit.  There is one for sale on here as well at a great price. 

Teyeplayer

Depends what you are after, throb or choppy? Personally I'm all about the old school throb of amp based bias tremolo and find a swamp thang clone does that sweetly. I found the boss too choppy and that's why my one went.

lukedlb

The Kingsley Bard needs the speed mod to get some maximum trem. The volume boost is the same as the boost side of the jester and is fantastic. You can push your amp incredibly well. Oh yes, the tremolo is great. It's 9v so easy to power for an amp standard pedal. Beautiful inside. 

UnclePsychosis

Tremolos are awkward in this price range: there's lots of good ones. You basically need to choose what features are most important to you, because they all sound pretty good. 

I've got an Empress V1: it has excellent tap tempo implementation and the "two speed" function is really cool. There's also an insane amount of boost available if you need it. 

murraypops

I really like the Fredric West Germany Termolo.  Sounds very amp like and never harsh, blends right into the amp. 

breezytele

I had a keeled modded boss. Very good, but almost too hifi for my taste.
 I swapped to a SwampThang a few years ago

Gulliver

JohnPerry said:

The Vertigo sounds perfect for you. It's a much more tweakable Flint without the reverb.

Having had both, the Vertigo's trems are every bit as good and can be tweaked to be even better.

Amazing value given the used price they fetch. The Neuro app is a bit tricky but worth the effort 

My issue is after I had a Neunaber with USB editing, all the sounds were OK - but nothing special.  I like to be able to fiddle everything on the pedal, not tweak in an app.

Beexter said:

Suhr Jack Rabbit.  There is one for sale on here as well at a great price. 

It sold already   otherwise i'd have been all over that.

digitalkettle said:

Hi...I have this: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/79500/fs-empress-tremolo if you're interested.

Let me go listen to some stuff on youtube and I might be in touch soon...

VJIves

I didn't realise how important tap tempo was until I got one without, something to keep in mind.

Gulliver

VJIves said:

I didn't realise how important tap tempo was until I got one without, something to keep in mind.

I managed without with my modded Boss TR-2 - I don't use a tap-tempo delay so can't see tap tempo being something I use in a tremolo.

Although tap-tempo tremolo might help keep my drummer in time, so it might be a good idea!!

UnclePsychosis

VJIves said:

I didn't realise how important tap tempo was until I got one without, something to keep in mind.

---depends what you do with it. Don't really need it myself. 

colourofsound

Check out the Malekko omicron Trem; i have one for sale