Diamond Pedals Tremolo

A two-engine analog tremolo — optical amp-style modulation on one side, a sharp FET chopper with a momentary kill function on the other - in a pedalboard-friendly enclosure.

Tremolo is one of the oldest effects there is, originally found in amps in the early days of electric guitars. The Diamond Tremolo keeps that foundation intact and builds two more tremolo voices around it, so a single pedal covers ground that usually takes two or three.

Optical, amp-style tremolo. This is the warm, natural voice players associate with vintage amps. It's the smooth rise and fall of a volume swell rather than a hard on/off chop. The Diamond runs it through three waveform shapes: a rounded sine, a shark-tooth ramp, and a square wave for a more pronounced pulse.

FET chopper. This mode offers a sharper, more aggressive tremolo with a completely killed bottom of the cycle - the hard-edged stutter sound rather than the gentle wash. This is the voice for rhythmic, percussive playing where you want the effect to be the part, not a texture under it.

Dicer mode. Arm the pedal and the footswitch becomes a momentary kill switch. Press for silence, release for signal. It's the studio glitch-and-stutter trick made playable in real time with your foot. Beyond the three engines, there's an 11-position Rhythm control for preset depth, mode, and tempo accents; tap tempo with subdivisions; and a speed Doubler that works momentary or latching. It's a deep pedal, but the layout keeps it approachable, meaning, you can get a great sound without reading the manual, then go further when you want to.

Build details. All-analog Burr-Brown audio path with microprocessor control handling the timing and switching. Top-mounted jacks, relay-based true bypass, compact enclosure. A lot of pedal in a footprint that won't dominate a board.

For players who think of tremolo as a creative tool rather than a set-and-forget background texture, this one rewards the attention.