Improved EA Tremolo - Improved!

[Ch0jin]

I've had a GGG Improved EA Tremolo kit in my FX loop for quite a while. One of the first kits I ever built as it happens, and I really love the sounds it can produce.

However, for some time now I've been bothered that, for me, the only usable setting on the depth control was at dead minimum. Anything above that and the effect was way too pronounced for my taste.

A little reading reveals the improvements over the original design included mods to the depth control, so I basically tracked down the original and compared them to the improved version.

The original uses a 560K resistor and a 1M pot to ground to setup up the range of depth control, so when the depth is minimum, the oscillator section is effectively shorted to ground and the pedal is a clean preamp.

The improved version changes the setup to a much smaller pot (250K), and much smaller source resistor (120K) and add's a 68K in series with the pot to ground so you can never turn the LFO "off" entirely.

So I decided to switch mine to the original spec and have a listen.

WAY better

My depth control now goes from zero to very heavily effected and has much finer control over the blend.

In the documentation, there is a mod to add a switch that shorts the LFO to ground so you can use the preamp only. In it's original configuration all you need do is turn the depth to min and you've achieved the same thing with less complexity.

I -feel- like I've -maybe- lost some of the super extreme end of the effect, but I never found it to be in any way musical at that level anyway. This is probably due to the massive change in the value of the resistor that feeds the pot. I suspect dropping this from 560K to 330K or 270K would yield an even wider range from the depth control and add more extreme modulation at the maximum, but it's just not needed imho.

Anyway, here's a quick mp3 demo I recorded with my trusty iphone.

What do you think? Is that enough tremolo effect for you or would you try for a more extreme sound?



This is just my Maton w/ '59 bridge into amp into 4x12 with the tremolo in the FX loop.

A really cool thing about this pedal design is the clean preamp with volume control. If I position it last in the FX loop I can use this pedal, tremolo effect mixed in or not, as a level control for the loop. Bonus!

If anyone is interested in doing this themselves and wants more info lemme know

[deeaa*]

Yes I like it fine, would not want more of the effect!

[Ch0jin]

Thanks Deaaa, After a few days of it back in my rig I love it even more.

Now that I can just wind the depth control back and use the level control as an FX loop return volume it's like having a built in attenuator as well.

Just turn the pedal depth to minimum, crank the preamp gain on the amp and adjust pedal volume to acceptable levels.

My amp actually has preamp gain, level and master volume anyway, so this is like a second master volume, but it's so cool to have I don't know why anyone would prefer the "improved" depth control...

[deeaa*]

That's clever use of it, yeah...doesn't change the poweramp's sound too much does it?

[Ch0jin]

...doesn't change the poweramp's sound too much does it?

Nah, not at all at the low volume I use at home. Sadly there's not much going on in the power tubes when the master volume sits around 1. It just allows me to explore the full range of the three channel volumes at low volume.

The Peavey has amazing volume controls, but 60 toob watts is hard to restrain