Someone erase my link to eBay, because it's just too blasted tempting! Yes, you're looking at my latest relapse into Gear Acquisition Syndrome, only I can't say I regret it!

One of the only gaps remaining in my ever-growing pedal collection was a tremolo. I've had a few near misses trying to hook a Danelectro Tuna Melt, so when this opportunity came up to get the Vibratrem, I pounced. Or should I say that I sniped? If you're an eBayer, you'll know what I mean!

Right off the bat, I must admit I like the looks of this Marshall line. These pedals look both sleek and sturdy. In fact, I bet you could use one of these Marshall pedals to crack open a BOSS, that's just how tough they look!

But I didn't buy this pedal because of its potential as a lethal weapon - can it do the job musically?

The potential is there. This pedal does double duty, combining tremolo with vibrato. As the picture shows, this pedal has four sturdy control knobs.

The first control is a basic two-way which selects the MODE, VIB or TREM. Once you've picked the mode, you can fiddle about with the other three knobs, SPEED, DEPTH, and SHAPE. The SHAPE control adds tonal flexibility as it allows you to choose from a triangle wave to a square wave, or anywhere in-between. To my untrained ear, it sounds like the square wave has more of a obvious "pulse". Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes it can be a bit overpowering, so I'm glad Marshall gives me a choice. Finally, the Vibratrem also provides two outputs, so there's stereo if you've got the amps for it!

As far as the vibrato goes, the Vibratrem doesn't seem to have the same range as the Danelectro Chicken Salad. I couldn't get any "Trower/Hendrix pseudo Uni-Vibe" sounds. however, with SPEED set halfway, and DEPTH at 3/4, the pedal produced a very nice "shimmer" that I found very seductive indeed. I prefer to keep the WAVE at the triangle setting. It'll make you quiver!

To hear a sample of this setting click here!

To hear the same setting, but switched to TREM, click here!

I did say I bought this pedal for tremolo, and this is the Vibratrem's strong point. The pedal provides a wide range of useable tremolo sounds. In fact I cranked up SPEED and DEPTH fully and got a great 60's psychedelic vibe - it was really shaky yet still musical. I combined it with some distortion and it was time to sing songs about wearing strawberry Rolexes while munching on chocolate mushrooms, man! Moving the DEPTH back to halfway sounded great for chords, especially when I added echo. Being a big fan of Link Wray, I was able to get that "Rumble" sound (from subtle to shaky). All in all, I was very pleased with the tremolo and had lots of fun with it.

The bottom line is that the Vibratrem is a fine standalone tremolo, with the bonus of a nice, if somewhat subtle, vibrato effect. It should be noted that when I turned the DEPTH control fully off, the pedal produced no noticeable effect in either tremolo or vibrato mode, even with the SPEED cranked full up. However doing the reverse is guaranteed to leave you at risk of getting seasick.

	
Sample Notes
Guitar: Stratocaster on "Bridge" position

POD Setting
Amp Model: Modern Class A
Output Level: 2
Drive: 5
Bass: 8
Middle: 7
Treble: 6
Chan Vol: 10
Reverb: 0
Effects: Bypass

More Samples:

	TREM
	SPEED: full
	DEPTH: full
	WAVE: triangle
	

	TREM
	SPEED: full
	DEPTH: full
	WAVE: square
	

	TREM
	SPEED: full
	DEPTH: half
	WAVE: triangle
	

Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem Pedal

Want to shake up your sound? Musician's Friend is ready to serve you!