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Catalinbread Semaphore Tremolo Review(Up now)

#21
In my experience it does take some effort to find good uses of trem in a band context. But the simplest are (1) as part of a synth sound (2) in a swampy, CCR type rock fashion or (3) to add movement to a slow song, especially if it's dark/moody. U2's Love Is Blindness is a good example.
 
#28
Greetings, all.

Doolz, I'm in the market for a tremolo, and emailed Catalinbread some questions about the Valcoder. "Mike" said that he didn't think the Valcoder had enough headroom for bass, but that the Semaphore running at 18v would work well.
 
#29
d180fuzz said:
Greetings, all.

Doolz, I'm in the market for a tremolo, and emailed Catalinbread some questions about the Valcoder. "Mike" said that he didn't think the Valcoder had enough headroom for bass, but that the Semaphore running at 18v would work well.
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I've never tried a Valcoder so I can't verify that part of it, but I'm certain the Semaphore at 18 V would avoid clipping.

That said, the Empress Trem running off 9V has a lot of headroom.
 
#31
rcubed said:
I'm having a hard time figuring out which tremolo to start with. It's between this one, the Guyatone VT-X, Red Witch Pentavocal, T-Rex Tremster and Voodoo Lab Tremolo. I've tried the Red Witch and T-Rex so far but no one else carries the others around here.
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Well, all three of the ones you haven't tried are nice trems. But bear in mind that the Voodoo Lab and Guyatone are solely tube trems (a real tube for the VT-X and a simulation for VL but both really good) and won't do square wave, hard cutting trems. The Catalinbread doesn't do an authentic tube trem sound but is much more versatile. A great tremolo.

Of course, I'm very obviously a huge Empress Tremolo fan.
 
#33
TheBigO said:
Well, all three of the ones you haven't tried are nice trems. But bear in mind that the Voodoo Lab and Guyatone are solely tube trems (a real tube for the VT-X and a simulation for VL but both really good) and won't do square wave, hard cutting trems. The Catalinbread doesn't do an authentic tube trem sound but is much more versatile. A great tremolo.

Of course, I'm very obviously a huge Empress Tremolo fan.
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Yeah, I like tremolo but I'm trying to figure out what type of tremolo I like the most. I should probably be throwing the Empress Tremolo in the mix as well. But I'd prefer to keep it under $200 so that might factor into what I end up with. I probably would have this pedal by now but I'm not setup for running a 18V pedal yet and I'd want to get the increased headroom out of it. Obviously the downside to the Guyatone is having another wall wart to deal with.

I should really buy another power supply before I get more pedals. :hmm:
 
#34
Yeah, figuring out what kind of trem you want is crucial. Personally, I love trem and found uses for low depth triangle wave all the way to hard cutting square so I like ones with more versatility. But if you find that really you are using it sparingly or just for one sound, there's no reason to pay for superfluous options.

And on that note, there isn't a reason to spend a tone on a trem. Having played pretty much every tremolo I could (still haven't found a Goatkeeper) I think the Empress is clearly the best, but depending on your needs, you shouldn't have to spend a ton.

In fact, two Boss trems are pretty good. The TR-2 really needs to be modded to correct the volume drop (a fully Keeley modded one is under $150) but it's a really solid trem. And if you want really hard cutting, a used (it's out of production) PN-2 is great. Hell, even the Danelectro Tuna Melt does a pretty nice triangle wave trem for under $35.

Not that it matters, but I'm currently using a Moog Ring Mod for my trem needs. Really fat and warm sound and you can do some cool rate based effects with it.
 
#35
I've been dying to try a Goatkeeper myself, but they're pretty rare and I've never seen one up for sale.

There's another bizarre trem I found on HC called the Hollow Earth that's worth checking out. It's a pretty mind blowing DIY build, and the builder is considering going into production. Here's a link:

Link Removed

I have a Hummingbird, which is similar to the Valcoder. It's very limited, but sounds really good at the one thing it does well--hard chop.

I just built a BYOC Tremster, based on the old EA circuit, and it sounds very sweet and organic. This one has a broad speed range and I don't notice any low end loss. There's a trim pot inside to cure the volume drop, but too much gain introduces some hiss.

Anyway, not sure what my point is here... just know that there's tons of trems to try out.
 
#36
Mr. Pickles said:
I've been dying to try a Goatkeeper myself, but they're pretty rare and I've never seen one up for sale.

There's another bizarre trem I found on HC called the Hollow Earth that's worth checking out. It's a pretty mind blowing DIY build, and the builder is considering going into production. Here's a link:

Link Removed

I have a Hummingbird, which is similar to the Valcoder. It's very limited, but sounds really good at the one thing it does well--hard chop.

I just built a BYOC Tremster, based on the old EA circuit, and it sounds very sweet and organic. This one has a broad speed range and I don't notice any low end loss. There's a trim pot inside to cure the volume drop, but too much gain introduces some hiss.

Anyway, not sure what my point is here... just know that there's tons of trems to try out.
Click to expand...

That's a huge IC in that Hollow Earth pedal!
 
#40
So I just recieved a Valcoder. When people say it might lack headroom for bass, what exactly would that do to the sound? As far as I can tell it seems to be working fine...in fact I'm really digging it.

I picked it up because I had a little room on my pedal board and I got it for a good deal. Don't really need anything too complicated as I don't have a lot of band use for it.
 

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