Pulsing led - trem circuit

[number41]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, hope this is the right place for this thread :) I've just finished building a swamp thang with the same result as many - reversed pots and a dimmed led that goes off at high speed. Pots are easy fix and apparently the led thing is the circuit fault as someone mentioned it happens with the earlier version of the original too. Not knowing that much about theory but my question is - is it possible to use the pulsing led from another circuit like the BYOC or the EAtrem with this one? If it is possible, where should I connect the negative side of the led to the circuit? Should it replace 2.2k that goes to Q2 or just go to Q1?

Thanks in advance!

[number41]

Well, just found Mark's suggestion on how to put it on the Hearthrob/Schaller so it should work. Gonna give it a go!

[Travis]

IMO an op amp based LFO will give you better control with a low parts count. Check out the modulation add on board that's on the page for the deprofoundis delay. You could just omit the LDR on the mod board and move the LDR on the swamp thang board so that it's facing the new flashing LED

[number41]

Thanks again, Travis. Although, I have to admit I'm slightly lost with the terms you're using now since I'm new to the pedal thing. I'll try to understand it again tomorrow when sober :) I did give Mark's suggestion on the Hearthrob led a test though and it works so I might just do that since it already simpler than swamp's led circuit(well, at least less wires). I just realised today that swamp thang is based on tremodillo which based in schaller... also the hearthrob so I just wonder maybe I should just build the hearthrob!?

[Travis]

Hey dude. My apologies, I completely misinterpreted your question. I was thinking you wanted to replace the LFO in an optical trem, I was totally off on both counts lol

Yeah I think you're on the right track already. Lots of people on here seem to love the heartthrob

[number41]

Yeah, I just feel like it's the proper working version of the swamp thang since they're rooted from the same circuit but the swamp thang has little problems here and there, dunno, I might be wrong. Can anybody comfirm me about the tonal quality of these two. All pedals in this family have that fender trem character that I'm looking for but I am less familiar with the hearthrob at the moment since I've just found out about it today. I mean if they sound pretty much the same I might as well build the hearthrob next time.

PS. I did youtube it but still would like to hear from those who had compared the two.

Also I did reverse the pots and the pulsing led which turned out fine. One last thing that bothers me a little bit though is when switched to fast mode the depth pot doesn't really work until past 11 o'clock, apart from this everything works great. Anybody knows how to fix this?

[Travis]

I haven't built either so I can't comment on how they compare, but the Heartthrob seems to be highly regarded.

I have built the Demeter Tremulator which is a very nice one. It's an optical trem, similar in principle to what you find in a blackface Fender. You would probably like that one

[Pavlos]

I am rather fond of tremolo and so far I've built the Swamp Thang, Heart Throb, Vico Vibe, Electric Boogaloo and Skippy. My own opinion is that the Skippy is interesting and sounds good but is probably the least (Regularly) musically useable of them. The Vico Vibe is nice sounding but as the posts mention, a bit lacking in output volume. For me both the Swamp Thang and Electric Boogaloo have a bit more character than the Heart Throb, but it's still very much one of my favourites and I doubt you'd be dissappointed with it. Personally I'd recommend building all three and see which you like best :o)

Just to muddy the waters a little bit, the Magnavibe complements these quite nicely as well, at the moment I'm planning on putting a a Magnavibe along with a Swamp Thang and Electric Boogallo in a BB with a switch to chose which trem is selected and footswitches to switch the Vibe and Trem sides on and off.........my box of swampy old school goodness

[Travis]

Hah I was gonna recommend the Magnavibe too but I've been recommending it to everyone since I built it so I figured I'd chill out on it a bit. Great little pedal, especially for such a quick build. Sounds really cool by itself or with fuzz.

Unfortunately I was pretty drunk when I put it together so I don't remember what LDR I used lol

[Pavlos]

I'll second your recommendations on the Magnavibe, though I'm not usually too keen on vibes, they can sound a bit too sea-sick for my liking, butit looked interestingly different, the demos on YT sounded good and it was a pretty small and simple build so I thought I'd give a it a go. Very glad I did because it really does sound good, both clean, or a with a bit (lot) of dirt, can be quite addictive actually!

Didn't you post pics of that build? if it's the one I'm thinking of it's probably neater than my sober attempts lol

[Beaker]

I've not built the Swamp Thang, but have built the Hearthrob and the Schaller.

The Hearthrob has a greater speed and depth range, but sounds a little too polite for my tastes.

The Schaller (as stock) sounds much better to me - hotter and gnarlier - it's a much more "menacing" sounding trem, but does not go anywhere near slow enough (for me at least). Fortunately a simple swap of two capacitor values sorts that out.

The Schaller is my favourite conventional tremolo pedal by far.

[Travis]

Yeah Pavlos I posted pics in the guts thread. The board is all wrapped in tape lol

Mark you're making me want to build the Schaller now, though since I got the Twin I've been really hooked on the built in trem. Kinda killed my desire from trem pedals aside from the good ol Repeat Percussion

[Pavlos]

very neatly wrapped in tape.......especially for someone who has been partaking

I reckon you'll have a tough job finding a trem to measure up to the one on the twin though, unless you go for something niche to compliment it, like the VRP you mention. Fender managed to come up with so many nigh on perfect designs in both in guitars and amps (Other great amps and guitars are available) and the fact that we still measure so much new equipment against those 60+ year old designs goes to show how good they were.

[number41]

@Travis >>>> A friend of mine suggested a demeter when I told him I was gonna build a trem pedal because he's a Ry Cooder fan. I did give it a listen and quickly came to a conclusion that I'm not a fan of opto trem, be it amp or pedal, don't get me wrong - they sound great but just not my cup of tea. I'm a die hard tweed fan and always prefer a one trick pony over a jack of all trades. You've already built a 5e3 and if you're gonna keep on building amps I'd like to suggest build a 5g9 and a rub a dub reverb, for ~20w range this couple is really hard to beat. A 5g9's tremolo is the best of all fender trem(imnsho!!!).

PS. you got me itching on that Magnavibe!

[number41]

@Pavlos >>> yeah, I'm in love with the trem effects too man simply because I've built two tweed tremolux models and get to realized how beautiful they sound that's why I'm looking for a pedal with that triply/hypnotic character.

@Beaker >>> Thanks for the confirmation! judging by my ears, of all the four terms in the family I would probably rule out the tremodillo and the heartthrob too because they do sound polite just like you said. I am quite interested in the schaller now hope you don't mind me asking a few question

- From the clip I've seen it seems like in the fast mode the depth pot of the schaller doesn't really do much before 11-12 o'clock too. Is it the same with the schaller you've built?

- Would you mind sharing the value of the cap(s) the you've replaced in the schaller?

Cheers!

[Beaker]

Here you go:



Change the 4.7uF cap above Q4 to 10uF, and the 10uF at the extreme right hand side of the board to 22uF. That will extend the speed range right down to swamp rock territory. It's awesome for Poison Ivy type gnarly trem sounds.

Yeah you are right about the depth - it's there but the high speed kind of overides the depth and makes it sound less apparent. If you want high speed stutter/chop action, you won't get it from any of these trems - you need to look at the Vox Repeat Percussion / Eartquaker Devices Hummingbird.

Hope this helps.

[rocket88]

great stuff beaker, i've been meaning to build both the schaller trem and the vox/earthquaker. i've been looking at how to make the repeater/hummingbird from the v2 to v3, but not clear gutshot as to the capacitor values on the switch. really the only difference is 1 more setting, so it's slow, medium, high speed. i'm sure if i just sit down and look at the schematic it's not hard to figure out.

[Pavlos]

hmm, I think I'm going to have to build the Schaller now as well........thanks Beaker, not as if I haven't already got enough on my to do list my vibe/trem mega box is now temporarily on hold and it's all your fault lol

gotta be worth a go with your mods though :o)

[rocket88]

pavlos, the list never gets smaller, only larger. haha

[Pavlos]

well my list has actually been surprisingly stable in size, at least since I got over the initial build up while I was lurking and trying to muster up the courage to start building. I had a few that I really wanted to build, and there were all sorts of suggestions for other builds, so as one gets built, another sneaks onto the list, a dissapointing circuit leads to a surprisingly good one, which then leads onto another, simple builds lead to more difficult and complicated ones, and sometimes in a spirit of adventure I even have a go at something I doubt I'll ever use just to see what it's like.......doesn't always work out too well though lol