I'm not sure if 'masterclass' is the right word to use in the title for this. There are a lot of tremolo sounds not covered here, it's more about getting the most from a simple three knob tremolo like the TR-2 or TC Choka. Let me know in the comments if you'd like me to do a video going into more depth on tremolo sounds using a pedal with more features than the TR-2. I hope some of you find this useful anyway.
Interesting facsimile of the 'how soon is now' tone. Curious how you'd accomplish a really heavy distortion tremolo combo like on REM's 'monster' album
How did you get the momentary effect? From everything I can find, you would either need to mod the pedal, or use an external switch (it looks like you're stomping on the pedal itself so Im assuming that's not happening here). Im looking to purchase a tremolo pedal soon and this is a make or break feature for me, so Id really appreciate it if you can clear that up. Thanks!
Thank You for exploring this pedal! I usually make "tremolo" effect with the help of a phaser or flanger. And I thought that tremolo is a "one trick pony", but You changed my mind! Great sound examples! Keep going to shoot such videos. Sometimes simple pedals can be very interesting. Greetings from Ukraine!
I agree, it's a deceivingly simple design. People are getting keen on tap tempo tremolos and things like that but a lot of the time the extra features just aren't necessary. Having said that, the new Boss SL-2 does look interesting...but that goes beyond tremolo really.
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar Just bought this pedal a couple months ago and absolutely love it. No volume drop and it does everything I was hoping for and more. Takes the Mesa Boogie F50 to another level as I would have no tremelo option at all w/o it. Much cheaper than buying a new amp with tremelo!
I’m hedging that the TR-2 will be the next Waza issue. Instead of Square wave to sawtooth blend you’ll get a switchable two modes with higher quality sound and stereo out!!! Needs to be metallic green too! The tube bias sounds better hands down.
I really like the momentary use, it’s very dynamic. XTS has a mod that allows you to hold down the pedal and use it momentarily and conversely, you could also select to have it on all the time and turn off momentarily when you hold the pedal down. Incredibly useful
You know what would sound bludi lovely with that trem... An OD-3... 04:47 YES!!! He never disappoints, does he! Just make your channel logo an OD-3, wear an OD-3 t-shirt and mask!
There's nothing modern about that square wave form tremolo. It's what vox offered since they first put that circuit on their ac 15s and 30s in the early sixties.
Great video Michael, i've always tried to get that "Gimme Shelter" tremolo sound however i could never dial it with TR-2. I've tried a couple of tremolo pedals but i always come back to TR-2, there is something really special about it.
Michael. Just completed my order for a TR2 following your video! great overview. I have been thinking of getting tremolo pedal for a good while. Thanks for a great overview, I don't think you can go far wrong with Boss.
I’m a touring musician and playing indie rock, pop rock and similar stuff on stage. I bought mine in 15 years ago and still using it. It has every little trick you except from a tremolo pedal and it’s so well built that you can’t kill it. Perfect tool for the job. Thank you.
Very cool video with great explanation of uses and styles. Tremolo is one of my favourites. I used it on a session I did where I played the same accompanying part during the instrumental verses but each time with a different tempo to accentuate alternate rhythmic feels ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-h6C3h7f7GTs.html
Boss definitely for tube tremolo. I have the Electro Harmonix Pulsar, but is is more of an effects tremolo, i.e. lots of interesting sounds, than tube tremolo with slow rates and huge modulation. I saw a video comparing the Boss to a Behringer, and the Boss does indeed sound better. No more clones and knock offs for me.
Would be shocked if the TR-2 wasn't modeled after Blackface Fender amp tremolo - your optical tremolo comparison was spot on, could barely tell it had been switched over.
Excellent synopsis. Now using the TR-2 with my '93 Blues Deluxe. I've missed my Bandmaster (sold a while ago), so I purchased the TR-2 yesterday right away after watching this. I was skeptical, but found the TR-2 to be an amazing substitute.
Great vid man! I was thinking... TR2 or the Ibanez MINITRM. Tremolo is my fav modulation effect. I currently use a Mooer Trelicopter. But it hasn't a great square wave sound. After this I'll just buy the TR2. Ibanez mini trem it's a great looking pedal and saves space, but the upper knobs are not just ridiculously small. They lack of a white and clearly visible mark.
Nice man. You’ve got a gift that inspires the wonder of learning music. Keep it up. I ended up going with pedal pawn Chicken Quiff. I’m still undecided how I feel about it. It does the spaghetti western thing, which is why I bought it.
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar I actually looked a little deeper into this. It does not actually do a "sine" wave per se. It starts to plateau off the tops of the triangle until it is a square wave.
Enjoyed rhis vid. Trem has been the one effect I can't settle on, though i love it. A few moths ago I bit the bullet and bought a Flint, which is ace, but in all honesty, i was happy enough with the reverb in my Hot Rod Deluxe. I reckon the TR2 would do all I need. Any reason to keep the Flint?
As usual a very good and interesting video! I'd like to know if you can say since when the "new" TR-2s are on the market, so I can buy one on the used market and don't need to install the trim pot myself.. Also I can't decide wether it should be a TR-2 or a Marshall VT-1. It seems to me like the Marshall does merely the same as the TR-2 but with the perk of having a vibrato mode to choose..
Thanks! I read in a forum that the circuit was updated with the trimpot in 2006 but you might want to try and verify that if you can. Forums are sometimes a sketchy source of information in my experience. The Marshall VT-1 looks cool, although I've not heard one, it has a stereo out too which is nice.
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar Thanks for that information. I might try the VT-1 first because it's a little less expensive than the TR-2 on the used market. I have several other Marshall pedals and I really like them, good sound and not expensive. They do have that nice feature with the stereo output when used mono: output 1 is just a regular mono, but output 2 lets the effect ring out instead of ending it abruptly. You might wanna demo some of them sometime.
What kind of tremolo did the old 60's Vox amps have? Beatles used it on several songs in the '65 to '66 era, but it was usually on a somewhat buried rhythm guitar so it's hard to hear.
I think the original 60's Vox amp tremolos are a different beast entirely. Sort of like Fenders harmonic tremolo in some of their amps...but not. I decided not to include anything on Vox tremolos in this video as it seems like a can of worms that could be its own video entirely. Sorry I can't be more help. Maybe others who are more knowledgeable on electronics may be able to give a better answer...
Hey man nice review good job! Question, im plannin buying this one in used condition. I remenber some people complain about a volumen drop on this pedal, what do you think about it?
The reason there is a perceived volume drop is that the tremolo turns your signal on and off. So…half of the signal is removed. Essentially it gives you less overall sound. When I first read that I noticed it and it bugged me but I eventually got over it. It sounds great to me and I’ve compared it to others. You can also go in and adjust the volume of the internal trim pot R9. There’s a simple mod where you remove a capacitor C4 I think 🤔. It seemed to open it up but I ultimately went back to a stock tr2. They’re quiet, reliable, and sound fabulous.
MICHAEL BANFIELD< how can you get those Jimmie Vaughan Tremolo effects? it sounds like his tremolo decays differently which might have been modified by cesar diaz
'Nice Demo...I've been trying to re-create the tremolo tones that I used to get from my old Ampeg Gemini Series amps back in the day and the Boss TR-2 does a pretty good job of it. I really don't need anything more than the Boss to get there, it's works for most of the classic rock and country stuff that I'm playing these days. Thanks for the video, 'so easy to watch and listen too! Cheers!!
This video will save a lot of headaches regarding pedal tremolo choices. Simple has once again proven to be the most effective. EHX makes wonderful tremolos for the price as well. The only thing that would make pedals like these better would be a Mix knob to make bias tremolo sounds more believable, an easy enough mod if you really want it.
Michael whats your thoughts on amps, if I was to get a princeton for mainly using diffrent pedals. Do you recommend a 65 or a 68 reissue? I see you have the 68, did you try both and why fid you get the 68?
I'm considering the Ibanez mini tremolo (blue one) instead of this because it's smaller, has all the same controls plus a volume trimpots on the side; and sounds as good to me. The Boss on the other hand is much more easy to find used cheaply. The only thing I don't know is about the taper of the Ibanez knobs and if it can go faster or slower. On the paper the Ibanez seems a bit more convenient but I don't understand why almost everyone is still using the Boss... Maybe it's more musical.
I'm not familiar with the Ibanez pedal but I think the TR-2 is so popular just because it's been around for so long (1997) and it's become a bit of an industry standard for tremolo pedals. I would think the Ibanez is likely very similar in sound.
Thanks for the awesome demo Michael, I have owned the TR-2 since 1999. I bought it to use for several songs that I wanted to learn and play off the R.E.M. Monster L.P. I run mine after delay and reverb and it works well. Sure there are several other boutique Tremolo pedals out there but the TR-2 is tried and true and has plenty of magic in it for my simple purposes.
Thanks for this video Michael, it's really helpful. Out of interest, do you notice any volume drop when using this pedal? I know that used to be an issue with older TR2 pedals and I've read conflicting posts about whether Boss has now fixed this.
6:45 Supros are configured this way, spring reverb into their tremolo circuits, and IMO it's a big part of their character as compared to Fenders. Moving the tremolo (or most any mod effect) around in the chain is a great way to shake up the sound!
I think I've binged watched most of your videos over the last few days. Love the channel, you've single handedly encouraged me to buy an OD3! Keep up the great work mate!
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar I'd love to see your take on what you'd put on a little boss pedalboard. I'm the process of building a little Boss board out of Japanese only pedals. I think two drives, tremolo, delay, tuner, compressor... Should do most gigs!
I think you did a really good job demonstrating what the TR-2 has to offer. That said, it has dropped down a little lower on my list of pedals I'd like to explore further. Not that it isn't great a what it does, but it terms of what I want to do. Thanks for providing the information I needed.
The only problem with this pedal is you can never start it from zero phase .. its tempo lives by its own and you can’t tap the tempo which makes it almost useless live with a band.
I know what you mean, tap tempos can be useful if you're using really choppy synth like tremolo sounds and using it only for certain sections of a song. But I find most of the time a tap tempo isn't that necessary for a lot of tremolo sounds, even for songs like How Soon Is Now by the Smiths, Blow up the Outside World and Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Either the song starts with the tremolo setting the tempo for the rest of the band or like on Blow Up the Outside World the tremolo wave form is smooth enough to still sound rhythmic and in time whilst not being theoretically perfectly in time. However if you're going for Slicer style trem sounds then yeah point taken, tap tempo is going to make those kind of sounds much more rhythmic.
@@MichaelBanfieldGuitar i just like my delay and trem to be in sync with the tempo whenever I use it during the song. And you can tap the delay live for a certain tempo but can’t with this boss tremolo .. so I’m looking for a replacement.
Because they don’t really need them and pretty much all tremolo pedals with preamps provide far too much and have a very narrow range where it does what it’s intended to do. then there are some that change the sound as well. The most a tremolo pedal needs to do is double the signal, so that’s a 3 or 6dB boost maximum. The other issue is user error, setting a tremolo to a high depth with a triangle wave will create a perceived loss in level because the signal spends very little time at the peak value, so the waveform control on the TR2 and other tremolo pedals is very important, basically as the depth goes up, also move the waveform towards a square wave, obviously this isn’t the sound everyone is after, but that’s where some adjustment comes in. Tremolo pedals with other waveforms allow for some adjustment, so if you’re after a high depth and super smooth, a sine wave will work better than a triangle wave as more time is spent at the peak level in comparison. A well designed tremolo pedal wouldn’t have a volume control, any boost could be done in conjunction with how the depth and shape are set and not be available to the user at all.
