P&W Rigs/Pedalboards

[btjguitarman]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

I love the vertigo... I went in to check out a gravitas which was a legit transcendent experience until I looked at the price. The vertigo was a very satisfactory consolation prize. It sounds really really good, outrageously powerful and versatile, and really reasonably priced. I know some people get all analog snooty but it hangs right up there with the big sexy names.

Also I use trem quite a bit... big choppy sections for like the bridge and prechorus of Your Love Awakens Me, or more subtle for like Come As You Are... I really like trem a lot.

 

[kdm1218]

Please no one pull the sleeve off to check how pretty it is, but I got my cable soldered.

 

[r080]

Please no one pull the sleeve off to check how pretty it is, but I got my cable soldered.

That is great! Learning to solder is a lifelong skill that can save money. Of course, it can also put you on a path to spending more.

I forgot to mention one other thing about soldering - if you burn yourself, you will probably smell it before you feel it.

 

[ThinPaperWings]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

To me, the two most useful types of pedals, or effects, are dirt/clipping and ambience (delay/reverb). The former heavily shapes tone, timbre, energy, attitude. The latter shapes atmosphere, space, context. Modulation is less useful than these two, relatively speaking, it doesn't have to be a gimmick, but it is more like a gimmick than the other two categories. Like other modulations, trem is a great flavoring agent to add movement to clean or semi-clean tones when one doesn't want to add more business to a picking or strumming part. I do feel that within the modulation category, tremolo is the most useful and versatile, as it can sit with many different eras and styles of music. It doesn't pigeonhole you. (I feel univibe, phase, chorus, flange, wah all have more distinctive associations with eras and styles that can bother some folks. Of course, as with all spices, the more subtle your use, the more mileage you'll get.)

It sits perfectly in old school R&B type stuff:

And it also does more modern sounding things like the Smith's 'How Soon Is Now' or Green Days 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', though the track-synced stuff is very difficult to pull off live.

I've had the Catalinbread Semaphore Trem on my board forever, it's the horizontal one (not the vertical one, which I believe has the same controls but is a newer iteration, in any case, they're all discontinued.) The preamp is maybe a touch bright, but being able to go above unity is nice. There is a pretty nice range of shapes and speeds, though it goes slower than I would likely ever use. Most of the time I keep it at a moderate setting with around 50% blend. Something I can play chords with and it doesn't screw with the rhythm, it just adds texture and movement. (Something like the hard chop in Mighty Warrior would be the exception that proves that rule.) When one has to vibe over a single chord sequence for 5-10 minutes with a big ambient reverb, getting small changes to the core tone can be a welcome addition.

As a makeshift trem, assigning an LFO to the dry volume control on the Boss DD-500 (could be done on the RV-500, as well), isn't too shabby.

The rarest trem I've ever had is the Frostwave Blue Ringer Ring Modulator, which was a bit white noise-ey, but sounded really futuristic and cool.

 

[ThinPaperWings]

Speaking of gear changing. I'm waiting through the weekend to hear if one gentleman is trading his Bilt Volare LS to my Fano, His preferred trades for it would be newish CS strat or Novo so he wait's a bit to see if proper one shows up, but was willing to trade for Fano also. The Bilt has roasted woods, Mastery trem and bridge and Curtis Novak gold foil GTX humbuckers which might be cool tone. The only guitar I've heard those in are in the rare Fender CS Marauders:

Sweet, I didn't even know there were gold foil humbuckers. I've seen single coil versions in some of the new Supros and been intrigued.

 

[yeatzee]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

I think i've vocalized my struggle with trem a few times in the past on here. I LOVE when others use it, hate when i do. Since getting the princeton I've been enjoying it's onboard trem quite a bit, something about how it isn't so linear...like it can sound like there's no trem at times depending on how I attack it. I really enjoy that at home. Live I've only used the princeton once, and I left the trem on the whole time with a relatively mild setting. Very fun in the room, in the recording didn't come across as well.

I did just pick up a supro harmonic trem (featured on TPS quite a bit) that I'm excited to try out. At the moment I'm thinking it might replace my EM drive on the board and act as another gain stage since it seems to have a great gain circuit built in and then I can raise the depth to taste when I want trem. We'll see, with the way the board is laid out I can put it in place of the EM drive, VB2w, or Park fuzz. I don't anticipate wanting to swap out the VB2w or fuzz since I love those so much.

 

[ebenezer]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

I've got a Basic Audio Throbby, which is the closest I can find to my onboard Trem on my amp. I can't recommend enough. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that some Trem's do, but for sound, I'd be hard pressed to find something better.

 

[ebenezer]

I love the vertigo... I went in to check out a gravitas which was a legit transcendent experience until I looked at the price.

I had the Gravitas for a bit, amazing sounding trem!

 

[btjguitarman]

I had the Gravitas for a bit, amazing sounding trem!

Dude I like vanished into musical bliss for about a half hour in my local shop with that thing

 

[kdm1218]

I like the idea of trem more than I ever practically use it. Honestly that is any mod for me anymore unless it’s chorus in a specific song, or I’ll put trem on if we do This Is Amazing Grace. For me in part there’s too much mixing rhythm in with hooks to do a lot of adding modulation into the mix and therefore extra stomps. But I have fun playing with various mod flavors in the Helix if I’m just fiddling around though.

 

[boyce89976]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

I've used a few and never really bonded with any of them. For me, and for most of my use, it has to be rhythmic and most trems I've used are REALLY difficult to lock into the beat (that may be a function of using the PBC to send global clock). But, even the Mobius is hard to nail on the beat... so I've ended up rarely using trem.

We did Rattle recently for a student service, and I didn't even try to use trem because I couldn't reliably activate on the beat.

The solution has been to use the Timeline's Tremolo Delay with the mix all the way up. It's been great, and never seems to get off-click. You set the trem pulse like you would the subdivisions for delay.

 

[kdm1218]

In light of this discussion I think I’ll actually work to reassign that trem footswitch I have that I’ve used maybe twice since getting the Helix to something more useful...

 

[JokeSmuggler]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

Trem is tricky to pull off well, for sure. Usually works best when the texture is sparse and you have a good bit of room. Somebody said Come As You Are, perfect song for that. Also sounds AWESOME with fuzz, look up spaghetti western music that uses this.

I have tried some different ones, my favorite with most mojo is the Basic Audio Throbby (bias trem). I’m not a huge fan of the photocell trems because they seem to just take the whole signal in and out, and it comes off more harsh. A bias or harmonic trem sounds more organic, like the signal is pulsing and less like something keeps squashing it. Another really great way to do trem is a slow ring mod (the LFO at .1 to maybe 5-6 cycles can work). The Moog trem works like that. Not every ring mod can go that slow, but it’s a very musical sounding way to do that effect.

Also as mentioned, the timed trem is difficult to pull off because it requires the duty cycle to start at a certain place, it’s not like delay where the actual repeated sound is continuous. It’s a lot like using an untimed delay to me—trust your ear, don’t make the depth too extreme, and try to make the time totally unrelated to the tempo of the song so that it’s not distracting.

 

[ebenezer]

To me, the two most useful types of pedals, or effects, are dirt/clipping and ambience (delay/reverb). The former heavily shapes tone, timbre, energy, attitude. The latter shapes atmosphere, space, context. Modulation is less useful than these two, relatively speaking, it doesn't have to be a gimmick, but it is more like a gimmick than the other two categories. Like other modulations, trem is a great flavoring agent to add movement to clean or semi-clean tones when one doesn't want to add more business to a picking or strumming part. I do feel that within the modulation category, tremolo is the most useful and versatile, as it can sit with many different eras and styles of music. It doesn't pigeonhole you. (I feel univibe, phase, chorus, flange, wah all have more distinctive associations with eras and styles that can bother some folks. Of course, as with all spices, the more subtle your use, the more mileage you'll get.)
Most of the time I keep it at a moderate setting with around 50% blend. Something I can play chords with and it doesn't screw with the rhythm, it just adds texture and movement.

That’s how I like to use it too. I love it on soft clean stuff, and then you dig in and get harder and it disappears. Amazing effect.

 

[He_Ma]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

I use trem occasionally (Helix currently). I used to have Flint, but then I moved to Bigsky with my verbs and have been without one. If I would consider trem pedal I'd get Supro trem which to me is best trem pedal I've tried. Mad professor Mellow yellow trem is also maybe same level, but pricier than the supro so... If you need more choppy trem stuff then I'd just go with Boss offerings. No experience with Vertigo, but I bet it's good too.

Sweet, I didn't even know there were gold foil humbuckers. I've seen single coil versions in some of the new Supros and been intrigued.

Yup. I had to research on these too.. Curtis Novak is one of those pickup brands that seems to get praise everywhere, but I've never played any of his pickups. These Bilts are really rare in Finland and that's why I'm so eager to try one. Hopefully in eight hours the Bilt will be mine.

 

[Pax]

Who's using Tremolo here? I'm craving some fun sounds. How useful is Trem? I remember seeing tremolo on Michael Guy Chislet's board back in the days of the United we stand album.

Those who use tremolo, what are your fav pedals? How good is the source Audio Vertigo?

I realize I don't really have board space for this, but I'm also thinking about moving up in size anyways (we'll see).

Haven't posted in a long while. Board and guitar have stayed pretty much the same, except that I've been fooling around with modulation and have been trying to do that affordably. I've really been excited about finding the appropriate spots for trem and vibrato. "Come As You Are" has been mentioned and I have been using trem in that song for months. Just played it last week as a matter of fact. To see it mentioned with trem let's me know I'm not totally off track with its applicability. Don't pay too much attention to the settings of anything on the board. Knobs get moved in transit.

I realize the Behringer stuff may not get much respect, but both these pedals are highly usable. The construction is cheap so I'm careful with them, but the sounds are spot on for what I'm looking for. Same circuits as their Boss counterparts. The trem can go from subtle to chop no problem. If I find a lot of uses for these sounds I may upgrade. For now, though, they're more than fine and only $30 each.

Side note: the Behringer Vibrato is almost impossible to find new online. After trying to order for awhile with no luck, I walk into my local shop and both these pedals along with the chorus are sitting in the case. Didn't care for the chorus, but bought the other two on the spot. Support the local guy when you can!

 

[Steely Glen]

Need some playing advice. Bottom line is this: my playing is a fraud. I don't really know what I'm playing. I'm like a foreigner who might perfectly memorize and beautifully recite a Shakespearean sonnet or the 23rd Psalm in King James English, but when you come up to speak with them conversationally, they only know German. Their English was just memorized without really knowing what they were saying. That's me on guitar, if I'm honest.

I'm confronting this major shortcoming of my playing and committing to learn the fretboard. I've taken some private lessons from Guthrie Trapp and those lessons have made the shortcoming painfully obvious to me. Guthrie has provided some tools to help me.

My question is this: do I stop everything else I'm working on and dive headlong into the learning CAGED shapes and the accompanying scales? Or do I take 10-15 mins a day and integrate it into my practice routine? I really feel this obstacle is in the way of any significant musical breakthrough in what I play. Have any of you taken this on? If so, what did you do?

Thanks!

 

[He_Ma]

Need some playing advice. Bottom line is this: my playing is a fraud. I don't really know what I'm playing. I'm like a foreigner who might perfectly memorize and beautifully recite a Shakespearean sonnet or the 23rd Psalm in King James English, but when you come up to speak with them conversationally, they only know German. Their English was just memorized without really knowing what they were saying. That's me on guitar, if I'm honest.

I'm confronting this major shortcoming of my playing and committing to learn the fretboard. I've taken some private lessons from Guthrie Trapp and those lessons have made the shortcoming painfully obvious to me. Guthrie has provided some tools to help me.

My question is this: do I stop everything else I'm working on and dive headlong into the learning CAGED shapes and the accompanying scales? Or do I take 10-15 mins a day and integrate it into my practice routine? I really feel this obstacle is in the way of any significant musical breakthrough in what I play. Have any of you taken this on? If so, what did you do?

Thanks!

I'd say integrate it to your playing. Maybe five years ago I started to go to guitar lessons at age of 27 and it really helped me theory wise and ofc chops improved a lot. Before that I knew some basic basic theory that my friend teached me. I'm still not the best theory guy out there, but good enough for P&W. I really recommend it. But also play something else than some CAGED practices to keep it interesting.

 

[He_Ma]

Also NGD! I traded my Fano to Bilt Relevator LS. I will probably post proper NGD thread in couple days once I got more playing time with it. All roasted Woods, Curtis Novak gold foils and mastery bridge and trem. I like the feel of this type trem arm even though I am not huge fan of how it looks. Otherwise I dig the looks a lot even though I personally would spec something different. The case looks also nice!

Based on 30 min test run I really dig the pickups. They have plenty of highs but still not piercing tone.

 

[jordanchristie]