Harmonic Tremolo

JB_From_Hell

JB_From_Hell

Jomo's Nimions
I was listening to That Pedal Show's podcast, and heard one with Joey Landreth. He had an old brownface Super, and spent a great deal of time demoing the amp's harmonic tremolo. To say it was one of the most glorious things I've ever heard would be an understatement.

Does anybody have a harmonic tremolo pedal they'd recommend?
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

Aceman said:
Never heard of this!
Click to expand...

It's more like phase, or a uni-vibe than what you normally think of as tremolo. I'm going to get this wrong, but rather than affecting amplitude, it splits the signal in half, modulating each half opposite of the other, or something to that effect. Let me find you a good example...

Go to 19:14 for the explanation, but the whole video is pretty sweet.

 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

They did a full episode on it with various pedals, is this the one?

Flint is an obvious awesome choice, but there’s a Keeley, and Supro too. The massive Walrus sounds great.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

This one is Joey-centric, but they spend a good deal of time discussing his brownface Super and its harmonic tremolo.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

What's the meaning behind the name? What is the difference between that and normal tremolo?
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

It was only available on some older amps including a couple Brownface Fenders. It’s an expensive circuit requiring more than a bias or photocell Tremolo. As JB mentions, rather than a simple volume up/down it’s like the treble is dipped then the bass is dipped, giving a chewy, phasey tone almost like a Uni-Vibe in shallow depth.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

Hmm... From PFDarksides description I wonder if EHX Worm trem setting does this?

It changes the frequency response along with the volume. Volume at low point signal gets quite dark and when going up it starts to get brighter along the way. The high point is well on the boost side of the signal and much mid-heavier and brighter. Change of frequency follows right behind the volume making wavy, livelier effect than just volume fluctuation.

It sure sounds great tremolo. I don't have enough with other examples though to compare.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

Mincer said:
What's the meaning behind the name? What is the difference between that and normal tremolo?
Click to expand...

It modulates bass and treble differently, so there’s a phase/vibe feel to it (though it doesn’t get as sea-sick as a Univibe can). I use the harmonic trem on my Strymon Flint as both a Leslie type swirl and a subtle thickener.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

JB, take a break from the confines of Hell and go to the closest Guitar store to Hell and try the Strymon Flynt and move the switch to "61 Harmonic Tremelo" and prepare to be amazed.

Also there is powerful amount of tweaking that can be done to the sound from dip switches inside. -plus it has Tap tempo

Report back once you are back in Hell.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

Oh! It is like a bias tremolo, I had heard of that. I didn't realize it had a different name. I use (a model of) that all the time on my Fractal. I don't have a vintage Fender to compare it to, but the model is amazing.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

Mincer said:
Oh! It is like a bias tremolo, I had heard of that. I didn't realize it had a different name. I use (a model of) that all the time on my Fractal. I don't have a vintage Fender to compare it to, but the model is amazing.
Click to expand...

Bias tremolo is different. The signal is cut off and restored, causing the volume modulation.

I definitely need to check out the Flint.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

PFDarkside said:
They did a full episode on it with various pedals, is this the one?

Flint is an obvious awesome choice, but there’s a Keeley, and Supro too. The massive Walrus sounds great.
Click to expand...

The Flint was the first one I thought of. I really need to get one.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

After a little research about this, I found this page, which explains what exactly is happening with different trem types.
 
Re: Harmonic Tremolo

Just wanted to say thanks for pointing out that video with Joey Landreth. Finally dug into how to use the Harmonic Tremolo in Helix Native. And eventually wound up building a patch to try to mimic the Brownface Super + Blackface Twin with bias tremolo stereo setup they were doing.

Litigator (weird amp somewhere between a Dumble and an early Boogie) into Harmonic Tremolo into speaker model (I am using IRs because of a trick with switching IRs per-snapshot, have 8 snapshots using 5 different IRs.) into univibe is pretty crazy. The Harmonic Trem + Univibe is much more like a rotary speaker (I have yet to figure out how to make the rotary sims do what I want on the Helix).

Random aside, I'm also using a ridiculous array of boosts, ODs, and fuzzes in front of the amp, in parallel paths (with panning, instead of a simple split or switch). Absolutely crazy patch that'd outrage most Dumble fans (you're not supposed to do more than enjoy the quirks of it's clean to lower medium gain range). It does have nice edge of breakup, but with cascading lots of low gain boosts, you preserve a surprising amount of the dynamics while also having crazy searing gain & compression on full guitar volume with heavy picking... Fun!
 
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