Marshall VT-1 Vibrato - Tremolo ?????????

Does anyone own one of these or have you tried one?? Input please!

I have a HRDx. Love it. I miss tremolo for jazz & blues stuff. I bought one of the mini Dano tremolo pedals for $20 at a local store (the yellow one). It's actually a very nice pedal but I can't live with plastic casing on my pedal board.

I tried the Boss Pedal. It seemed to deaden my tone. The Marshall has true bypass. I have a Marshall ED-1 compressor on my board now and I'm very happy with it. I cannot find a VT-1 locally. Tremolo doesn't seem to be a popular pedal around here. All I can find are the Boss and Dano pedals.

I can order the Marshall VT-1 on line for $70.00. I wish that I could get a few reports on the pedal.

Input??? Thank You!

John

Honestly, the Marshall vibrato/trem is one of the most anemic sounding pedals I've ever played. I've been through a slew, and sold this one in short order.

Tonally, the little yellow plastic Dano eats its lunch. Some guys re-house and true bypass the Tuna Melt, and call it a day.

Among other reasonably priced units, the Voodoo Lab trem sounds way better than the Marshall (to me), and has more control over parameters (including volume, which is invaluable). My only beef with VL peds is that the switches routinely fail before their time.

I have my personal faves, but they don't fall within budget.

new at $75,a small bump in volume when engaged. a cool pedal for the dough.

Tim,
Thanks for saving me $75.00. Funny, I tried the Boss unit and the Cheap Dano and the Dano sounded better than the Boss. Other than a Boss RV-3 reverb that I use mainly for Martin acoustic applications, I tend to hate Boss pedals. That Dano might be a cheap gem.

Stan,
Thanks. I have a Guyatone Flanger that is fantastic. I should try a Guyatone tremolo.

John

Based on reading all of Tim's posts, I have no doubt that he has much more experience with these things and has compared many more of them than I have.

That being said, I picked up a VT-1 on ebay for about $40 and am perfectly happy with it. I use the Vibe side much more then the trem side. It kind of takes the place of a chorus because I really don't like chorus that much. The trem does OK if you keep the mix (intensity) on the dry side. If I turn the mix wetter, it then becomes real obvious that I'm not using my Princeton's or Super Reverb's trem.

So, no, I wouldn't buy one new. But the Marshall pedals are well made (I have three now and sold a chorus [see above about chorus]), so I don't think it's a bad option if you find one used.

FYI: The Marshall pedals are not true bypass. They use some type of buffer (passive bypass according to their website). I think people tend to think they are true bypass simply because they have a nice, sturdy, mechanical foot switch that looks like most true bypass switches.

When you say the Boss (i'm assuming TR-2?) pedal "deadened your tone" was this while the pedal was off or on? I've not noticed a massive amount of tone suck with my TR-2 when it was disengaged, but there was a volume drop and a slight loss in high-end when i turned it on. There's a simple mod to alleviate this - removing the C4 capacitor on the circuitboard stops that kind of "smoothed off" tone that the TR-2 can give when used stock. I know a lot guitarists, myself included, who have done this and are much happier with the trem now.

Maybe you could ask around and see who has done this and try it out? I agree about the Dano being an awesome trem, though!

My recently purchased TR-2 improved a bit with the removal of C14, but this did nothing to help the volume drop. I run mine in front of a dirty amp, so it masks the drop a bit, and I doubt you'd hear it in a live situation.

As far as suckage when disengaged, I can't detect any.

For my money, (and I bought it used) it's as good a pedal as I'll need, and I've seen it on the boards of some pretty high-profile players recently.