The tremolo pedals were subjected to listening tests in one marathon session so that each could be given a fair comparison. Although some testing was done with a Les Paul and a 5w EL84 Class A amp, the final tests were made using a Fender Stratocaster and a Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp set up for clean sound so that the true sound of the pedals could come through. 
A tremolo pedal should pass the full range frequencies without dulling the tone and importantly, have no throbbing or pulsing caused by the internal low frequency oscillator modulating the power supply or feeding through to the output. Also, if the pedal is noisy, the signal will have a faint cyclic hissing sound. While not audible on a typical noisy stage, it could be a problem while recording. Click here for a sample of the LFO throb sound. Please realize that this is highly amplified for demonstration, but it is definitely coming from the pedal since the throb matches the pulsing of the LED and changes when the Rate knob is adjusted.
Many of the tremolo pedals tested have a common problem in that the range of the rate control has the fast frequencies all bunched up near one end of the control range making it hard to get a quick and accurate setting of the tremolo frequency. This is caused by using a linear taper pot for the frequency control when a reverse taper (hard to find) would be more appropriate.
All of the pedals in this test make a decent tremolo sound. They are more similar in sound than different. I’m not going to dress up the reviews by using a bunch of colorful adjectives like “buttery smooth” and the like. Some were slightly smoother than others but it is very difficult to tell the difference. I’ll concentrate on the items that are most important to the sound - residual noise, loss of tone and distortion. Anything much beyond that is getting too subjective to be beneficial.
Many thanks to everyone who sent me pedals for use in this review session. Now, on to the reviews!
Many of the tremolo pedals tested have a common problem in that the range of the rate control has the fast frequencies all bunched up near one end of the control range making it hard to get a quick and accurate setting of the tremolo frequency. This is caused by using a linear taper pot for the frequency control when a reverse taper (hard to find) would be more appropriate.
All of the pedals in this test make a decent tremolo sound. They are more similar in sound than different. I’m not going to dress up the reviews by using a bunch of colorful adjectives like “buttery smooth” and the like. Some were slightly smoother than others but it is very difficult to tell the difference. I’ll concentrate on the items that are most important to the sound - residual noise, loss of tone and distortion. Anything much beyond that is getting too subjective to be beneficial.
Many thanks to everyone who sent me pedals for use in this review session. Now, on to the reviews!