Teach me about the history of amp vibrato

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moosie

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I am wondering if Trem/Vibrato was built in to amps because it was new and cool. There were no other effects at the time. From the second half of 50's to early 60's vib/trem was probably all there was. No? Reverb was not in guitar sounds yet. Nobody really wanted dirt then. It just developed as pop music (ie. Stone and Beatles) started turing up amps. Pop songs with dirt became very popular. Then dirt/fuzz pedals came along. Univox, EHX LBP-1 ect. Then came flange, delay, chorus, phase and tons more. In the late 50's were there any other neat effect options to add to amps? I'm not sure. Just assuming trem/vibe was the **** man!
This was my thought as well. There were no pedals. There was no reverb quite yet. Leo got his from the Hammond Organ company a bit later. Delays and echoes, in the form of tape machines, oil cans, etc were unwieldy, yet very very cool.

I don't remember if I ever figured this out. Maybe you guys know: why do only the smaller Fender amps have the bias vary tremolo ('vibrato')? I used to think it was something to do with the wattage, but Allen's whole amp line, even the large amps, have luscious bias vary trem. Was it simply tube economics? The smaller amps had an extra triode available that the larger amps did not?

@theprofessor, you mentioned your trem pedal using an opto circuit. Yep. If it's a pedal, it's either opto, or purely a digital recreation. Bias vary (obviously) and Harmonic both require actual tubes!
 

radiocaster

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The classic Vox AC15 and AC30 had a switch for switching between vibrato and tremolo.
 

mad dog

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Words matter. Regardless of what Leo called it, there's a world of difference between the amplitude shifting effects on his amps and the pitch shifting effect found on Magnatones. Hard enough to generalize on tremolo (amplitude shifting), as even there, how it's accomplished makes all the difference. For example: I sure do appreciate a good tube bias trem. Not so much the harmonic trems of brownface fenders. The opto trem fenders vary quite a bit too. Had a BFSR with that trem which was impossibly tasty. Heard many others of the same vintage that did not have that magic.

As to why trem is a built in effect. No great mystery. Trem sounds so damn good!
 

Abu Twangy

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The sounds of tremolo (and vibrato) were popular with guitarists in the 50s right into the early '60s. When I was interested in an amp in the early '60s I wanted tremolo, not murky sounding reverb.

The built-in tremolo was kind of like built-in chorus in amps--following the market. Built-in chorus would have been great in the mid 70s but when most of chorus amps hit the market chorus was already fading from overuse.
 

Willie Johnson

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One of my favorite examples; on the rhythm part, listen to how he times the attack of the note with the volume swell:
It's also just a painfully beautiful song.

Love the throbbing, blue plasma glow of the trem in my silverface princeton amp; I like adding some ambience, with the speed on 4 and the intensity on 3.
 

Platefire

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The First Guitar Amp Tremolo
Nathan Daniel created the first guitar amplifier with vibrato in 1947, the year he founded the Danelectro company. He called it a “Vibrato System for Amplifiers,” and his extended description explains that the circuit produces a “tremolo or vibrato effect.”

GibsonT50_WEB_350.jpg

The Premier “66” may have been the first amp introduced with tremolo, in 1947. Gibson’s GA-50T from 1948 was one of the first amps to feature a built-in tremolo effect. Fender’s first tremolo amp was 1955’s Tremolux. Later brownface and blackface Fender amps would feature radically different versions of the effect.
The patent was granted in 1949, but we’re not sure exactly when the circuit was first used in a Danelectro amp. According to Nathan Daniel’s son Howard, “I have no knowledge of this, and I suspect there's no living person who does. I can speculate, however, based on my knowledge of my dad, that he introduced tremolo sooner than 1950, as soon as he could following his application for a patent.” Tremolo definitely appears on Danelectro’s 1950s Special model amps.

But Multivox and Gibson may have beaten Danelectro to the market with trem-equipped amps. A 1947 Multivox ad trumpets the company’s new model: “Guitarists! You owe it to yourself to try the new Premier ‘66’ Tremolo Amplifier. Yes, you too will be sold on this new amplifier from the very first trial. The built-in Electronic Tremolo lends a new organlike quality to your tone.” Meanwhile, Gibson’s first tremolo amp, the GA-50T, appeared in 1948.

(Note to Magnate fans: While Magnatone began manufacturing steel guitar amps in the late 1930s, their first tremolo-enabled amplifier, the Vibra-Amp, didn’t arrive until 1955. Their “true vibrato” circuits, using varistors to alter pitch rather than volume, first appeared in 1957’s Custom 200 series.)

The tremolo section of a vintage amp circuit (yes, it’s called “vibrato” on many amps and schematics) involves at least one tube. A wavering voltage affects the tube’s bias. How that wavering voltage is generated, and to which section of the amp circuit it is applied, account for the sonic differences between various tube tremolo circuits. Without getting too technical, let’s look at how they work, using several Fender tremolo amps as examples.
 

syrynx

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Yeah, I heard Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser" on the radio in May of 1958. But I heard Link Wray's "Rumble" at a sock hop in April of '58. Wray kicked on his Premier amp's trem at ~1:45...

 

Bendyha

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Silverface

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I was playing in the mid-60's and tremolo (or vibrato) was as essential to the songs of the day as reverb was to surf music! Sometimes intense, sometimes subtle - but used very, very often through the 70's.
 

Fiesta Red

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I have noticed that, too...I have often clicked on the VIB switch on my '63-reissue Vibroverb, but turned the speed all the way down. It has a very subtle-but cool effect on the overall sound--warmer, fatter and a bit more lo-fi. With the Speed all the way down, the Intensity knob acts like a "fattening" control--not drastically, but noticeable enough.

I don't know if this works on other types of (Leo-mislabelled) Vibrato/Tremolo/Whatever-you-call-it, but it works on the "direct-coupled" oscillator circuit found in the '63-reissue Vibroverb very well..
 

theprofessor

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I have noticed that, too...I have often clicked on the VIB switch on my '63-reissue Vibroverb, but turned the speed all the way down. It has a very subtle-but cool effect on the overall sound--warmer, fatter and a bit more lo-fi. With the Speed all the way down, the Intensity knob acts like a "fattening" control--not drastically, but noticeable enough.

I don't know if this works on other types of (Leo-mislabelled) Vibrato/Tremolo/Whatever-you-call-it, but it works on the "direct-coupled" oscillator circuit found in the '63-reissue Vibroverb very well..
Very interesting! I suppose this is a way of engaging the 12AX7 that runs the tremolo but without having it loaded down with the oscillation. Maybe it kicks in a bit of warmth instead.
 

W.L.Weller

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There's a compilation album of Robert Ward's playing with the Ohio Untouchables called Hot Stuff. If I were Robert Christgau I'd give it an A. I don't have a lot to add about the history of mis-named tremolo circuits in Fender amps, or about the glorious Magnatone vibrato that Ward is showing off here. But I'm glad that it was the thing for however long, because I can't get enough. I've got 3 vibrato/tremolo pedals now, and a Hohner amp with bias-vary tremolo, and I want more. Big Tone made a "Maggie" pedal that I'd definitely part with some coins for.
 
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