Simple tremolo pedal?

[tigger]

I'm not much of a pedals person, seems I always end up dumping everything but a compressor or a big muff from my chain. But I thought I'd like to build a pedal with my kids and a tremolo sounds useful. Is there by any chance a simplish circuit I could build that sounds not entirely unlike a bluesbraker trem channel maybe? I looked at Musikding kits, not that I necessarily want to buy a kit, but just to see what could be simple but while they have a bunch of tremolos, I'm not sure what they sound like from the examples. It seems to me people often demo these things turned to 12, but I really just like that slight shimmer of the trem channel..

Thank you for any help!

 

[owlexifry]

I'm not much of a pedals person, seems I always end up dumping everything but a compressor or a big muff from my chain. But I thought I'd like to build a pedal with my kids and a tremolo sounds useful. Is there by any chance a simplish circuit I could build that sounds not entirely unlike a bluesbraker trem channel maybe? I looked at Musikding kits, not that I necessarily want to buy a kit, but just to see what could be simple but while they have a bunch of tremolos, I'm not sure what they sound like from the examples. It seems to me people often demo these things turned to 12, but I really just like that slight shimmer of the trem channel..

Thank you for any help!

Dirtbox Layouts

dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com

 

[tigger]

Dirtbox Layouts

dirtboxlayouts.blogspot.com

Thank you!
That's a lot of designs to go through!

 

[owlexifry]

Thank you!
That's a lot of designs to go through!

have fun

 

[cometazzi]

I've had good luck with General Guitar Gadgets kits, and I plan on doing their EA Trem this summer. Here is GGG's Wall O' Schematics if you just want to do one up with what you got.

 

[tigger]

I've been going through the sound samples and reviews and it sort of looks like I'll have to build a trem amp

 

[Bendyha]

Here is an 8-page article from Radio Constructor, 1964, with an old school transistor tremolo pedal build that is quite simple, and offers a lot of description for a bit of reading material with educational purposes. The drawback is that all the old germanium transistors will be a bit of a problem to find, although I must admit that I have a stock of old transistors and diodes that would allow me to use the ones stated.

 

[Killing Floor]

Surfytrem. And it’s also one of the best sounding at any price.

 

[G Stone496]

I'm not much of a pedals person, seems I always end up dumping everything but a compressor or a big muff from my chain. But I thought I'd like to build a pedal with my kids and a tremolo sounds useful. Is there by any chance a simplish circuit I could build that sounds not entirely unlike a bluesbraker trem channel maybe? I looked at Musikding kits, not that I necessarily want to buy a kit, but just to see what could be simple but while they have a bunch of tremolos, I'm not sure what they sound like from the examples. It seems to me people often demo these things turned to 12, but I really just like that slight shimmer of the trem channel..

Thank you for any help!

The Boss TR-2 is a great sounding tremelo and only costs $99 USD new. The middle knob is called a "wave" knob and you can adjust the trem sound from triangle to square wave, and all points in between. Lots of usable sounds and variety and subtle nuance in spades .

 

[Zepfan]

My Silvertone 1482 amp has a tremolo circuit in it that's awesome.
It's tube driven(6AU6) and when turned down you get that chorus effect then a shimmer effect when going up a bit more. Then of course comes that tremolo/vibrato effect.

 

[tigger]

To conclude, we built the EA Tremolo. It's not quite done yet, but the 8 yo Tigger Jr. really likes it. The key was dropping the depth resistor because the default is just too high. For me the maximum admissible depth was really at the 68k which is the minimum in the schematics. We're adding a switch to bypass the pot+resistor completely to turn it into a clean boost. We used a tayda PCB which was a mistake as it's going to be a pain to fit it all in.

Here is the WIP enclosure, waiting for decals. I'm trying to end up with a reliable system of having a 1590b enclosure with top mounted neutrik style jacks. It works in principle but usually needs soldering in place if you want it neat. And really need a pretty flawless hole placement.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

To conclude, we built the EA Tremolo. It's not quite done yet, but the 8 yo Tigger Jr. really likes it. The key was dropping the depth resistor because the default is just too high. For me the maximum admissible depth was really at the 68k which is the minimum in the schematics. We're adding a switch to bypass the pot+resistor completely to turn it into a clean boost. We used a tayda PCB which was a mistake as it's going to be a pain to fit it all in.

Here is the WIP enclosure, waiting for decals. I'm trying to end up with a reliable system of having a 1590b enclosure with top mounted neutrik style jacks. It works in principle but usually needs soldering in place if you want it neat. And really need a pretty flawless hole placement.

View attachment 1237247

Cool! Will you be selling these?

 

[tigger]

Oh no! We're just making a bunch of pedals with the kids and trying to standardize the design. The ski season is over, I'm home after an ACL surgery so I can't MTB with them, ice hockey season hasn't started yet, at 8 and 5 you need to keep them occupied!

 

[tigger]

It is done. I quite like it. The only small issue is that the pulsating light on the footswitch isn't particularly bright. I suppose I could drop the resistor before the LFO but I imagine higher current would impact it somewhat and I may need to add a ground resistor after?

I'm not a fan of buying PCBs at this point, it seems easier to breadboard everything, make your changes, then put it on a strip board.