A Very Simple Tremolo Pedal | DIY Modulation Effect 

Thanks for watching! :D

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching :)

Thanks haha, glad you like the videos! I have a couple of ideas and hope to make new videos soon, but I've just graduated college and started a research assistant job so things are and have been a bit hectic. Nevertheless, thanks for watching :)

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching :)

Thanks for watching! :)

Thank you! Glad you like it :)

Glad! Thanks for watching :)

Glad you liked it :)

Awesome! Glad it helped!

Glad you liked it! I'd love to hear how it goes if you try and build it :)

Haha no, but thanks :)

Thanks haha! I do plan to make a couple of videos in the coming months.

Haha, thank you! So glad you like it. I just don't upload very often unfortunately :P

A phaser is a bit more complex than this but I might try someday haha. Glad you liked it, thanks for watching :)

You're very welcome :)

Thanks! I'm not sure what designation exactly the LDR is. I've seen listings for "5mm LDR", that would be my best bet... but honestly I don't think it matters a whole lot.

@@Psychotenuse thank you for the reply, I will give it a try and see if I can make one

No sé. Usé el LED porque demuestra visualmente el LFO. ¡Gracias por ver y comentar! :)

Thanks :) The voltage rating of the capacitor should be higher than 9 volts, but otherwise doesn't matter.

Glad you like it! I've never seriously considered it. My craftsmanship isn't that great :P Maybe someday though. I suppose I might consider selling a version of my neon bulb drive pedal with the removable element...

@@Psychotenuse I will be the first buyer 🔥

As far as I can tell the difference between bt169b, bt169d and bt169g is the max voltage rating, which shouldn't matter.

Hi, it could definitely be done but would require a few extra components, probably.

@@Psychotenuse thanks for the info, appreciate it

The directionality of a photodiode complicates things.

You could try smoothing the LFO output by putting a capacitor across the LED.

@@Psychotenuse I'll try!! Thank you very much!!

Yes, it does. Thanks for watching! :)

Well, anything like that would be much more complex than this circuit. In particular I'm not sure how to make a true sine wave LFO with analog circuitry, though I'm sure it's possible.

Yeah, that's the point. That resistor forms the top half of the voltage divider that attenuates your guitar signal. In other words, it is a drop resistor, which means the difference between the input and output signal voltages lives across that resistor. With no resistor, the input and output signals would be the same. Now if you get rid of the 10k resistor, the tremolo effect might still _work._ It would be relying on the drop across the actual source impedance of the incoming signal. This means it could behave very differently depending on what the signal is coming from (guitar/pedal/preamp). It would not work at all if the signal source has low impedance.

Yes, you're right, it would sound less choppy (but also less loud) if you remove the Zener... which gives me a cool idea actually! You could make a "depth control" (technically It would be more like height control) by simply putting a variable resistor in series with the Zener.

You could use an RC filter to smoothen the envelope. I think what you would need would be two resistors in series with the LED, and a capacitor in parallel with the LED and one of the resistors. Like this: --------)|-------- ----|

@@Psychotenuse Ive build a six way tremolo in my guitar with this circuit. It worked really nice. At the end, I didn’t change the tickling. It’s actually nice to hear it it my guitar. I’ve uploaded a video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YnWfE17oyTk.html

I think you just want a volume pedal, which is essentially an expensive potentiometer in a box

This circuit doesn't use a transistor; you could try another sensitive-gate thyristor instead of the one I use, but I'm not 100% sure it will work :/

Well at that point it seems like it would make more sense to just set up a pedalboard, no?

The bt169 is I believe a sensitive gate SCR. This circuit should in theory work with other sensitive gate scrs, but the resistor values may have to change. The circuit is a bit finicky unfortunately and I've only ever tried it with the bt169.

I assume you have a current limiting resistor in series with the LED? A capacitor across the LED might help then. Maybe 10 or 100 microFarads

@@Psychotenuse ok thanks, I'll give that a try.

Yes, in my case the guitar signal was going straight to the tremolo. What matters here is the dark-state resistance of your LDR. It should be on the order of 100k (ideally 250k-500k) for this to work. If it's much lower then the circuit will only work for line level signals.

@@Psychotenuse Thank you for clearing that up. It was a bit confusing as to why it wouldn't work. I'll revise this project.

It's just a latching on/off switch

@@Psychotenuse Thanks I thought it was a 3dpt or something

White might work, but I'm not sure. You can try it out.

I'm sure it could be done, but I don't really know what kind of optocoupler would be best.

I would start by using a VTL5C3 Vactrol / Optocoupler. Seems to be very common in the audio world

Thanks for watching! It's kinda sorta something along the lines of a sawtooth wave or triangle wave. There will of course be no true straight lines in the waveform. There will be an approximately exponential charge and discharge of the capacitor as with most relaxation oscillators, but there are plenty of nonlinear effects too due to all the semiconductors.

@@Psychotenuse I see, I've just made it, I've being thinking of using this circuit to generate an osc then amp it back to another stage of another circuit for the generation of an arc that can be used as a plasma lighter ''kind of'', but i think it wont work cause as you said, due to the ''nonlinear'' effects of the oscillation caused by the physical aspect of the silicate, i have to find the right magnetic resonance response that are needed for the generation of the arc, and obviously that need to be the more stable possible, I've also replace the cap for an 10uf and the diode for an germanium 0.3v, seems to be stable but i don't know if it will be enough, thank you for your response, i really appreciate, cheers from Canada.

The point of this circuit is that it is a Low Frequency Oscillator, which is generally harder to make than a high frequency oscillator. Higher frequency oscillators typically make use of some stray inductance at least. A plasma lighter would run at perhaps hundreds of kilohertz. You would probably want to use some sort of LC oscillator driven (with feedback) at resonance, and then a transformer or voltage multiplier to step the voltage up to arc levels.

@@Psychotenuse Thank you for the tip, i will study that, by the way nice to meet you! ;)

I like the way you play your guitar too, keep going!

I think you need a sensitive gate SCR. It might not work with the BT151. You can _try_ using a smaller value for R1.

@@Psychotenuse I tried using a smaller value for R1 but it doesn't work. I think I should find another shop to buy the BT169. Thank you for your advice.

Alright, good luck :)

@@Psychotenuse Hello, I found the BT1690, a make the same circuit like the diagram have been given, but the led doesn't blink :(( Can you help me pls

@@ngotiendung7660 You can try adjusting the value of R1, try a bit higher (~15k) or a bit lower (~7k). Also you can try it without D2. Sorry I can't be more helpful :(

As a variable resistor in series with a diode, between the anode and gate of the thyristor. There is a schematic linked in the description. Thanks for watching :)

Yeah, that would work better. It might have made the video less easy to understand, though. Thanks for watching :)

One very simple way would be to put a variable resistor (100k or so) in series with the LDR. Glad you liked it!

I bet it could, in fact if you have a higher voltage DC rail and a bunch of LEDs in series then it's actually easier to make a flasher using a thyristor.

@@Psychotenuse Already have some thyristors (2N1613) and a couple other ones so I'll try it out sometime.

I talk about that from 2:54

@@Psychotenuse thank you man, my english its not so great hahah

@@lucalull13 Your English seems fine :)

I currently live in UP, India.

I graduated this year.

@@Psychotenuse o nice

@@Psychotenuse hello have you graduated from NIT warangal?

No, BIT Mesra. I was at NIT Warangal for a couple of years but dropped out.

@@Psychotenuse will you mind if I ask you why you left NIT warangal as it is a central institution?