Recommend a good Tremolo Pedal

[Craig V]

Hi,

I'm looking to build a nice tremolo pedal.  I want to keep the cost under $40-50, because at that point I could buy a Danelectro Tremolo, which is said to be a great pedal.

Thanks.

[cd]

Buy a USED Dano for $20-30, can't beat that (especially when a good switch and case alone will cost you $15-20).

[travissk]

The thing is, the dano doesn't have a great switch and case on its own I'm not bashing the dano stuff, I have a phaser (might unload that) and might get the pb&j delay for a nice cheap analog delay. They're not the heaviest duty pedals, however, and I'd definitely prefer a DIY approach. Still, for $20 the Dano can't be beat, and you save yourself some time.

A lot of people like the EA Tremolo. I haven't built that but can say nothing but good things about my 4ms Tremulus Lune.

http://www.commonsound.com - kits.

[thumposaurus]

The thing is, the dano doesn't have a great switch and case on its own I'm not bashing the dano stuff, I have a phaser (might unload that) and might get the pb&j delay for a nice cheap analog delay. They're not the heaviest duty pedals, however, and I'd definitely prefer a DIY approach. Still, for $20 the Dano can't be beat, and you save yourself some time.

A lot of people like the EA Tremolo. I haven't built that but can say nothing but good things about my 4ms Tremulus Lune.

http://www.commonsound.com - kits.

I was going to reccomend the Tremulus Lune also, I built the simplest version of it the other night, I had most of the parts laying around, plus it is very flexable.

[smoguzbenjamin]

I built the EA tremolo, but when I got a boss TR-2 I used the Boss. The Boss is slightly more flexible, but the EA trem gets pretty close. The biggest difference between the Boss and EA trem is the LFO waveform knob, for the rest, the ROG EA tremolo is a really good trem

[Craig V]

Does anyone remember how much the Tremulous Bear cost from Small Bear?

Thanks for the replies.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Check out //www.smallbearelec.com, you should be able to find it there.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Dang I just found out that it isn't on the site. Sorry  :lol:

[jimbob]

EA Tremolo. Its great! As opposed to anything Dano.

[Rodgre]

As a self-confessed Tremolo freak (hence Tremolo Lounge Recording...) i have to say that I still think the Dano Tuna Melt is an incredible buy.

I have tried to build many different trem circuits, only being sucessful with a few, and I've yet to find something that I liked as much as the Dano for the price, short of much much more expensive units.

So to that end, what can any of us tell is so great about the Danelectro? What's the topology of the circuit? How does it do such a solid sounding chop and sine wave trem? What makes it tick, and therefore, what circuit that is available to us DIYers is close to that topology? How does it compare to the Tremulus, and the EA?

Roger

[travissk]

I don't have one, but many of the dano minis were known for being copies of more expensive circuits, cut down, minimized and mass-produced in little plastic cases.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

The purple footpedal dunlop trem struck me as a good trem (good enough that i abandoned any thought of building one!). It had a DC controlled audio preamp chip in it (there was a bunch of these useful chips made once, typically a preamp & tone & pan able to be controlled by DC from pots, making it easy to get the controls in a car radio or boombox away from the main PCB. Tragically the world of digital has obsoleted these useful chips. If anyone knows a regular supply oif such chips cheap let us know!).

[mikeb]

I'm sure I saw an IC similar to that when browsing through the latest National Semi paper catalog - with treble, bass, 'loudness' (car stereo purpose obvious here!) and volume control ... am I wrong? I'll take a look again later.....

Mike