Trem Advice For Client

T

thabigburrito

New member
Hello everyone,
I have been asked to build a trem to replace the left side of the Strymon Flint on a customer's board. The Flint has Harmonic trem, Tube/regular trem, and Photocell (which is basically just regular trem with a sharper waveform). I initially threw out some ideas like a double pedal with a harmonic trem and amplitude trem with a switchable waveform, but he said he'd like to keep it as small as possible, and he suggested stacking the boards on top of each other. I don't think everything will fit in a 125b if I have to stack two boards plus a 4pdt three-way selector. I'm tempted to just build it in an FV-1 dev board and program the effects myself. Any advice or ideas for circuits that would achieve these different trem modes would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
 
Last edited:
If you go the FV-1 route, in addition to the PedalPCB EEPROM builder, I'm sure Robert could load anything you want from here:


FV-1 Programs

This project aims to be the comprehensive list of FV-1 programs for DIY guitar effects pedals and other hobby projects, and is an open, community-driven resource
mstratman.github.io mstratman.github.io



Your client wants it as small as possible, but does he want it as simple as possible? If so, then I'd recommend the Pythagoras platform which supports 3 algorithms.

The Arachnid platform, on the other hand, would offer greater versatility in the same size enclosure, 8 algos — which would allow you to cover the client's basic wants and then thrown in a few wildcards as well.


If you get a TAPLFO from Electric Druid, you could take a regular Trem and supercharge it with multiple waveforms, not to mention tap-tempo being a great feature.


Kicking it oldschool, the mighty Vox Repeat Percussion, known on PedalPCB as the Woodpecker, gets great hard-chop tremolo, which is too oft overlooked when shopping for Trems.
 
Last edited:
One idea, You should be able to add a toggle switch to convert the pendulum into a standard optical trem. I haven’t done this mod on the pendulum but the cardinal harmonic tremolo circuit has the same concept.

Edit: first sketch I posted wouldn’t work… something like this with a dpdt should I think
 

Attachments

  • 20834C30-D753-427A-9224-E7CF0EAA425C.jpeg
    20834C30-D753-427A-9224-E7CF0EAA425C.jpeg
    395.6 KB · Views: 23
phi1 said:
One idea, You should be able to add a toggle switch to convert the pendulum into a standard optical trem. I haven’t done this mod on the pendulum but the cardinal harmonic tremolo circuit has the same concept.

Edit: first sketch I posted wouldn’t work… something like this with a dpdt should I think
Click to expand...
I wish I had thought of this! Maybe this will be a revision to my current design. I drew it out and got some boards done at jlcpcb that are basically are harmonic and optical trem that share an lfo, with a 4pdt on-on-on switch to toggle between harmonic and amplitude and then between smooth and choppy. This solution seems like it would simplify my design a lot, thanks.
 
I’ve got a harmonic trem design in the works that Chuck helped me with but it’s not ready yet. I has switchable harmonic and optical trem modes. It’s 125b with tap tempo and multiple wave shapes. If your client can wait then that might be an option.




POLYTREMa2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here's how it's used in my schematic. To be clear, I can't yet verify that any of this works and, looking at it now, the switching system is very clunky. The first stage switches between the two trem circuits (could also do what phi1 suggested) and the second stage switches the values of resistors in the lfo circuit in the way that a shape knob does.
Schematic_TremProto_2022-10-25.png
 
JamieJ said:
I’ve got a harmonic trem design in the works that Chuck helped me with but it’s not ready yet. I has switchable harmonic and optical trem modes. It’s 125b with tap tempo and multiple wave shapes. If your client can wait then that might be an option.




View attachment 34462
Click to expand...
I might have to make one of these for myself! Looks really cool and trem is one of the only modulation effects that I find tap tempo to be very helpful.
 
Briefly reviving this thread with an update and one more question. I finished my schematic and got some boards made and it almost works perfectly! The only issue is that the depth is quite low even when the knob is turned all the way up; the LEDs seem to be winging between ~4 and ~6 volts. A different value potentiometer did not have an effect. Any ideas on how I can make the LFO depth higher? I've attached the schematic below; it is based on the pendulum LFO and the witch affects shape like the knob on the Moonshot trem. Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • Schematic_TremProto_2022-11-20 (1).png
    Schematic_TremProto_2022-11-20 (1).png
    128.4 KB · Views: 14
thabigburrito said:
Briefly reviving this thread with an update and one more question. I finished my schematic and got some boards made and it almost works perfectly! The only issue is that the depth is quite low even when the knob is turned all the way up; the LEDs seem to be winging between ~4 and ~6 volts. A different value potentiometer did not have an effect. Any ideas on how I can make the LFO depth higher? I've attached the schematic below; it is based on the pendulum LFO and the witch affects shape like the knob on the Moonshot trem. Thanks.
Click to expand...
What LDR and LED did you use and how are they installed?
 
I tried to simulate the LFOs to compare, but it wouldn't work with the switch, not sure why. Changing the R29 R30 voltage divider back to 2.7Meg slowed it down and got a wider swing like the pendulum, but I'm not sure if it would affect your waveform switch as that part wouldn't simulate for me.
1668989361311.png

Might be worth experimenting with increasing those resistors, even 1Meg was a pretty good improvement.
1668990100875.png
 
Thank you so much! This fixed both the depth issue and the lack of a slow rate. Not sure why I changed those values, to begin with. By the way, what program are you simulating these voltages on?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top