Tube Tremolo lovers - question/survey...

SirFlintstone

SirFlintstone

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Well-Known Member
So, do you love a good tube tremolo?
If so, are you more partial to slower or faster tremolo?

Speeding up the top side or slowing down the bottom side of a tube tremolo has a tendency to speed up or slow down the over tremolo speed range; at least, that's been my experience with it.

While doing this I became interested in how other tube tremolo lovers may prefer the over speed range of their tube tremolo's and maybe even what some of your favorite, if any, tube tremolo tweaks are...

Me, I generally increase/decrease the value of a capacitor or two in the tremolo circuit, sometimes I might mess with a resistor depending...
 
I got a home made all tube amp my Uncle made and it has this.It works great.He built this amp from scratch. i mean the frame the tubes set in and the whole works.i forget what schematics he used built its like a Wards Airline amp or something,Ill get pics of it later im going to a birthday party right here in a bit
 
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JohnnyGoo said:
I got a home made all tube amp my Uncle made and it has this.It works great.He built this amp from scratch. i mean the frame the tubes set in and the whole works.i forget what schematics he used built its like a Wards Airline amp or something,Ill get pics of it later im going to a birthday party right here in a bit
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I like home brew amps. My biggest thing with this amp is deciding want speed range I want to tweak it to. Once stuff is soldered in the range is set. Kind of makes me want to make a home brew with a three position tremolo speed range ;)
 
My Traynor YGM3 has both on board spring reverb and tremolo. I pretty much always have the reverb on about 3. Haven't used the tremolo much over the years, but I was messing around the other day and the combination of pedals, reverb and the tremolo kicked in.... the darned guitar sounded like an organ. I liked it.... but then, I'm easily amused.
 
What I like about tremolo is if you find just the right setting it aides in the vibe and kind of pumps notes on the guitar. I'm actually a big fan of tremolo and reverb together.
 
I tell you what... "What?"

I have a Allen Amps Sweet Spot, which is "loosely" like a blackface Fender Princeton Reverb which has the tremolo circuit. I very much want to get some slower speeds out of it. I haven't try the mod yet, but supposedly changing a couple of small value caps by doubling their value is suppose to do this. There are 3 caps in series in that circuit: .02, .01, and .01. Changing the two .01's to .02 suppose to do the trick.

I need to put this mod on my priority list... :gotta-love:
 
Mine has three .022's. I clipped some values in parallel (increases the cap value). I liked doubling the center one the best when just changing one value. But using .022, .033, .044 is nice too (even a bit more slow). I can just solder caps in parallel to do either. I'd like to try .01, .02, and .03, but I'd have to remove one cap or at least one end to connect a .02 in series. I may try it tomorrow if I get the time, but not sure if it's really worth the extra effort.
 
I haven't had an amp equipped with for a good while, but my favorite was in an old Aussie made Vadis 601 amp (that I really regret selling). Had r/c coupled spring reverb & tremolo. The tremolo comprised 1/2 of a 12AX7 set up as an oscillator (no LDR) incorporating the speed control, the depth control on the input of the 2nd half of the 12AX7 that ran no anode load resistor & its cathode tied through a 470r resistor to the cathode of the reverb mixer. Beautiful tremolo with very wide range of speed & depth. My next planned amp build is a Vibroverb type with the Vadis 601 tremolo & (slightly modified) r/c coupled spring reverb circuits transplanted in. Cheers
 
Here ya go Sir Fred,Pics of my scratch built Uncle George Amp.he also gave me a home made Solid State Rectifier tube i can swap out with the tube unit so ive been told this would be like a primitive dual rectifier set up.20170521_194658.jpg
 
ivan H said:
...The tremolo comprised 1/2 of a 12AX7 set up as an oscillator...Beautiful tremolo with very wide range of speed & depth. My next planned amp build is a Vibroverb type with the Vadis 601 tremolo & (slightly modified) r/c coupled spring reverb circuits transplanted in. Cheers
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Tube tremolo and tube driven spring reverb - my favorite set up for an amp. No master volume and a single preamp tube. Tone stack optional (I like both with and without). Crank the amp up and use the volume control on the guitar ;)
 
SirFlintstone said:
Crank the amp up and use the volume control on the guitar ;)
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Also how I use. My LP has Linear volume pots & I'm considering putting in all my guitars. With Audio taper, about 6 1/2 or 7 is where the big volume drop occurs. With Linear that same point is about 1 1/2 or 2 on the dial. So many shades of overdrive available between 1 1/2 & 10. Cheers
 
SirFlintstone said:
Tube tremolo and tube driven spring reverb - my favorite set up for an amp.;)
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Yes, can be very nice. The above mentioned amp is my only experience with r/c coupled reverb (no transformer), though I believe that Gibson & possibly Ampeg produced amps with this type reverb circuit. The Vadis amp used the current from a 12AU7 to get a large enough voltage swing across the load resistor to drive a high impedance Acutronics tank (FB series) well. It was capable of that 60's surf type reverb. I intend to modify to not pass the lows & lower mids through the tank, as it can make the reverb murky. Cheers
 
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