Double Flush tremolo

[eniacmike]

Double Flush Tremolo!

Thanks to madbean for the PCB and the help debugging. I ended up having 2 solder bridges but once I cleaned those up it works great. Sounds really good. I really like how all the controls are usable. I have a ehx stereo pulsar tremolo and it has so much range on the speed and depth that is "fun" but not usuable in a musical setting.

This sounds really close to the fender vibrochamp trem just with more control over the sounds. I really like the balance knob because you can have an intense trem shimmer with clean sound mixed in.

I built this pedal on my birthday so I called it born on the bayou after the CCR song that is probably the first thing I think of when I hear tremolo.

[raulduke]

Nice build mate.

I've got a couple of these boards on order and I am looking forward to building one.

How would you compare it to the EA Tremolo? That is the only tremolo I have so I am hoping that the double flush can offer something different.

I'm liking the guitar tone of Budy Miller on the Band of Joy album at the moment so tremolo is right up my street.

[eniacmike]

This is the first tremolo I have built so I can't really comment on how it compares to the EA tremolo. I have an ehx stereo pulsar, and I have used the boss tr-3, and the fulltone supa-trem and I prefer it to all those. The boss tr-3 has a volume cut which is really annoying so having the volume control on the Double Flush is really helpful. The EHX has really unrefined controls and it is really hard to to hit the right tempo becuase all the usable stuff is bunched up and it goes so slow that it will switch on and off once a second! and goes into ring mod territory on the high side.

I think this sounds alot like the fulltone supa-trem. In fact you could also make the double speed switch using the double flush. You just use a dual gang stereo pot for the rate control and then use a footswitch to wire the two gangs in series effectively doubling the speed. I still need to test the wiring on that mod but I am pretty sure that is how fulltone does it, and theoretically it makes sense.

[eniacmike]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRh-RWmIrX0
little demo video

[masterlk]

Nice build. I have also had the same issues with the Boss Temolo. At one point I did a mod from Brian Wampler that helped a bunch. I got to a point where I didn't have room for a tremolo on my board so when we did Born on the Bayou I just put my MXR Phase 90 at about 2 O'clock to mimick the tempo. It sounded kind of "swampy." I would love to build one of these so I can eventually sell the Boss.

[eniacmike]

The boss tr-2 is a great sounding trem and if you do the volume mod it helps. I modded one for my friend and he loves it now.

With the balance set to half way on this thing it really sounds like a rotating speaker. awesome!

[jackbart1960]

Mike,
Great build and video. Even through this crappy laptop it sounded excelent!!!
But realy you guys have got to stop this though. Every time I think I've got it nailed down to what I'll build next one of you post a rock'n build and throws my whole plan out the window. 
Peace. J.J.B.

[nzCdog]

Nice job eniacmike... hey what did you end up using for the Vactrol or LED/LDR arrangement?

[eniacmike]

Nice job eniacmike... hey what did you end up using for the Vactrol or LED/LDR arrangement?

I used a 10mm red led from radio shack, and the largest LDR that comes in the radio shack assortment. I put them in a piece of 3/8" black heat shrink tubing.

[nzCdog]

thanks dude... your demo sounds great can't wait to try the build myself

[Gyrofist]

Nice job eniacmike... hey what did you end up using for the Vactrol or LED/LDR arrangement?

I used a 10mm red led from radio shack, and the largest LDR that comes in the radio shack assortment. I put them in a piece of 3/8" black heat shrink tubing.

So was it one of the photocells that come in a pack that you used? Is there a measurement on it that I should know? I'm thinking of building one myself and this is the only part that I'm confused about. Would a photocell like one of these work? (I don't know which rating I would need):
http://www.smallbearelec.com/Detail.bok?no=711
Any help's greatly appreciated. I don't have tons of experience with this sort of thing.

[eniacmike]

I don't know a whole lot about LDR's I just grabbed the grab bag of photocells from radio shack and used the biggest one in there. The only other time I ordered a photocell was for my tap tempo tremolo and I used small bear 8002 part number. I think for tremolos pretty much any LDR will do.

[Gyrofist]

I don't know a whole lot about LDR's I just grabbed the grab bag of photocells from radio shack and used the biggest one in there. The only other time I ordered a photocell was for my tap tempo tremolo and I used small bear 8002 part number. I think for tremolos pretty much any LDR will do.

Awesome, thank you. I'm ordering a bunch of stuff from smallbear, so I'll just add the 8002 in there, and if that doesn't work for some reason, I'll pick up a pack from radioshack and try those.

[Gyrofist]

So this uses just normal mono 1/4" jacks, right?

[eniacmike]

So this uses just normal mono 1/4" jacks, right?

I used STEREO 1/4" jack for the input to switch the battery off when the input is unplugged.
a mono jack 1/4" jack for the output.