Tremolo circuit using incadescent lamp?

The Gator

The Gator

Well-known member
So I'm really into Old School analog stuff. I recently watched a video about the original tremolo shaking a tank of liquid with a motor and an offset wheel.
The de armond tremolo by rowe. It looks and sounds awesome!
However, I looking at building a little more practical tremolo circuit to begin with.
I own a few '68 Fender amps that have nice tremolo but I am interested in something different. Perhaps a harmonic tremolo.
Are there any circuits out there utilizing an incadescent lamp like the univibe circuit does? Or are they all led to reduce current draw?
Thank you for the input as always
Gator
 
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I’d think you could combine the lamp, circuitry for powering the lamp and the correct LDR from a univibe, and graft it into a trem design. Gotta say though that LEDs really simplify the issue. I’d imagine there’s been studies about the lag times for changing an incandescent lamp’s brightness, and how it has a more “natural” curve than an LED does 😉.

The Pendulum is great sounding. I have a good tube bias based trem in my amp, and at lower settings, the Pendulum is remarkably similar sounding.
 
www.instructables.com

Anachronistic Audio Effect Unit: Tremolo

Anachronistic Audio Effect Unit: Tremolo: As part of my residency at the Pier 9 Workshop, I explored the analog roots of some audio effects that are very commonplace in the current digital music world. The goal was to re-create these effects as they would have been designed in the Florentin…
www.instructables.com www.instructables.com
 
LOL. yeah I watched all of those over the weekend lol.
I love that contraption type stuff.
I will probably end up making a mechanical tremolo eventually. Right now i am interested in the pendulum harmonic tremolo. Possibly with sone mods.
Alan did you build yours stock or?
 
I built a Pendulum a while back but sidelined it because I was getting strangeness perhaps from the vactrols I used.

I think my plan was to go back to LED + LDR. if fact, I ordered the LDRs but never got back to it.

I should open that back up over the weekend.
 
The acclaimed all time 'best' Fender Tremolo was on the Tremolux, the circuit set up an oscillation loop, and that CONTROLLED THE TUBE BIAS, so the power tube output voltage was undulating...... 6g9 (a,b and c) are the model numbers. Due to production problems (i.e. finicky as hell), the design was changed to use the tremolo roach, which were used in the blackfaces.......

I think a few other brown faced amps used this as well.....
 
RetiredUnit1 said:
The acclaimed all time 'best' Fender Tremolo was on the Tremolux, the circuit set up an oscillation loop, and that CONTROLLED THE TUBE BIAS, so the power tube output voltage was undulating...... 6g9 (a,b and c) are the model numbers. Due to production problems (i.e. finicky as hell), the design was changed to use the tremolo roach, which were used in the blackfaces.......

I think a few other brown faced amps used this as well.....
Click to expand...
My Allen Encore uses that bias trem, and it’s lovely. I was amazed at how close the Pendulum gets to it, one of those “if it’s not immediately switched, I wouldn’t trust my guess” which seems almost silly to me. I run the amp trem at a very low level about 75% of the time; it just adds harmonic richness, even if it’s below the noticing the swirl threshold.)

I did a few small mods, based on several build reports. R14 was 680R (allows faster trem speed), C4 was cut to 100N, C6 to 2U2, the speed pot was upped to C100K (for a slower range) and the volume changed to A50K. Also, every part measured, and pretty much at spec. and if something looks like it wants to be symmetric, I make them as close as possible, etc.)

Before I take it apart to decorate it, I plan on upping the LED resistors (16 & 25) and trying it out at 18v, just because. So far, playing “clean”, it’s upped the headroom on pretty much everything, so I expect more of the same.
 
Alan W said:
My Allen Encore uses that bias trem, and it’s lovely. I was amazed at how close the Pendulum gets to it, one of those “if it’s not immediately switched, I wouldn’t trust my guess” which seems almost silly to me. I run the amp trem at a very low level about 75% of the time; it just adds harmonic richness, even if it’s below the noticing the swirl threshold.)

I did a few small mods, based on several build reports. R14 was 680R (allows faster trem speed), C4 was cut to 100N, C6 to 2U2, the speed pot was upped to C100K (for a slower range) and the volume changed to A50K. Also, every part measured, and pretty much at spec. and if something looks like it wants to be symmetric, I make them as close as possible, etc.)

Before I take it apart to decorate it, I plan on upping the LED resistors (16 & 25) and trying it out at 18v, just because. So far, playing “clean”, it’s upped the headroom on pretty much everything, so I expect more of the same.
Click to expand...
I have that board in my to-do box. You wouldn't happen to have compiled the parts list would you? Because:
1678406008675.png

That'd save me some work :)
 
If you want an old school sound build a tube tremolo

Mirage Tremolo - Tube Tremolo Project

Matchless has always been one of my favorite brands out there, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I got to this one. The Matchless Vibrobox is an all-tube tremolo/clean preamp with a vaguely Vox-ish flavor. Mirage Tremolo takes the Matchless circuit into a 1590BB enclosure, getting...
forum.pedalpcb.com forum.pedalpcb.com
 
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