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If there’s such thing as a cult modulation effect, the “harmonic tremolo” found in certain early-1960s Fender brownface amps certainly qualifies. Unlike most trems, which modulate the entire frequency of your signal, the circuit splits your sound into high and low bands, modulating one with an LFO, and the other with an inverted version of the LFO, alternately emphasizing treble and bass. The result isn’t pure tremolo, but a trippy trem/vibrato/phaser hybrid. Fender soon replaced this complex, three-tube circuit with the simpler (and cheaper) single-tube optical tremolo found in most Fender blackface amps. But for some players, the phasey brownface sound remains the definitive tremolo.
The harmonic tremolo effect is often resurrected in the digital realm, where it’s easy to simulate the two-band effect without tricky, tube-intensive circuitry. But it’s rarely been realized as suavely as in Coldcraft’s Harmonic Tremolo stompbox, which combines an analog preamp stage with a DSP chip and some clever new controls. It’s the company’s second edition of the effect, replacing a discontinued all-analog version.
Coldcraft has crammed so much circuitry into a standard 1590B enclosure that there’s no room for a battery—AC is required. In addition to the effect circuitry, there’s soft-touch relay switching. An oddball mix of ICs and both standard-sized and miniature analog components are laid out on two circuit boards linked by ribbon connector, with board-mounted pots and jacks. Construction seems solid, aside from soldering-iron scars on a couple of the box capacitors. High-quality metal knobs lend a classy touch.
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