Description
The Tremulator wasn’t built to chase a trend—it was built because Ry Cooder wanted his amp’s tremolo in a 9-volt box, and James Demeter figured out how to get a tube-amp feel out of an all-analog optical circuit. That was over thirty years ago. Guitar Player later named the original one of the fifty coolest pedals ever made, and it’s still in Cooder’s own rotation. The name itself comes from studio guitarist Steve Carnelli, who insisted “it’s not a tremolo, it’s a Tremulator”—which is why every Demeter pedal since carries an “ulator” tag.
The Plus takes that same optical heart and hands you a full set of sound-shaping controls Demeter accumulated over decades of player feedback:
- Bias control moved up top (no more trim pot digging) to set the on/off ratio of the optical cell—park the knob straight up for the classic Cooder setting
- Selectable Clock Waveform: pure triangle for a smooth, rolling volume swell, a flattened triangle for smooth motion with a firmer bite on the attack, or square wave for a sharp, choppy on/off pulse
- Gain control to push the tremolo depth as subtle or aggressive as the part demands
- Rate LED that visually tracks the speed you’ve dialed in
- True bypass switch for a clean pull-out of the circuit when you don’t need it
On a pedalboard, this sits comfortably after distortion/overdrive and before time-based effects, letting the optical modulation breathe cleanly into your delay or reverb tail. Hand built in Templeton, CA. This unit is open box and graded mint.
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