The original inspiration for this pedal dates back over a decade. I wanted to improve on and develop an old triangle wave tremolo pedal that I built years ago which I vaguely recalled sounded nice. But as I got further into testing that old circuit, it became apparent that I much preferred sine wave tremolo. So, part way through the design process I changed gears, learned a little bit about analog circuit simulation software, and designed a sine wave oscillator. This was a challenging process to feel out but after weeks of experimentation I eventually got it working. It was well worth all the effort because that nice smooth sine wave tremolo sound is undeniably what I was looking for all along. The Safe Water Tremolo is the result of that sine wave oscillator design combined with all the features I cared about most.
My goals for the pedal deisgn were versatility, simplicity, ease of use for playing live, a wide speed range, soft touch relay buffered bypass switching, and stereo wet/dry capability in a compact form factor. This combination of features makes it unique. This is also the first pedal I've made that operates on 34 Volts rail to rail internally, powered by a 9 V DC input!
The name and graphics are based on the safe water mark nautical buoy, which is specifically identified by its red and white colored stripes. The purpose of the safe water mark is to indicate the entrace of a bouyed harbor; therefore, the buoy can be viewed from two different perspectives: It's either the start of a daring adventure into the open ocean or a homecoming to familiarity. This theme illustrates an interesting artistic parallel subtly prompting the player to choose how they might decide to shape their tone with the Safe Water Tremolo.
There are three 1/4” audio jacks on the Safe Water Tremolo. Below are two configurations for routing the audio cables to/from the pedal:
1. Mono: The two jacks at the top of the pedal are used for typical mono operation. Connect an instrument to the input jack on the top right and connect an output cable to the top left. When the pedal is in bypass, the signal from the instrument will be buffered at unity level inside the pedal and the output will have no effect. When the pedal is engaged, the output signal will have the tremolo effect and the output level will oscillate according to the settings for Wavelength and Depth.
2. Stereo, “wet/dry”: Connect an instrument to the input jack on the top right and connect an output cable to the top left. Then, connect a second output cable to the output jack on the left side of the pedal next to the toggle switch labeled WET DRY. (Note: It is up to user preference whether to assign the left or right channel to the top jack or the side jack.) When the WET DRY switch is up (“DRY”), the output jack on the left side will only output the clean buffered signal, while the output jack on the top left will output the tremolo effect. This configuration produces a stereo effect, similar to a ping-pong style effect, where the volume fluctuations of the top output jack contrast with the non-oscillating buffered side output jack. When the WET DRY switch is down (“WET”) both output jacks will output the tremolo effect simultaneously, which is useful for full wet operation in a two-channel setup.
Features:
- Wet/Dry switch for stereo operation.
- Top mounted input and output jacks, and one side output jack in 125B enclosure.
- Rate LED mode switch, accessible internally for "always flash" or "flash off for bypass" settings.
- Rubberized, anti-glare and high contrast knobs for volume and depth controls.
- Foot-adjustable wavelength knob.
- Soft touch footswitch with relay controlled buffered bypass. Smooth, long-life operation with no switch pop!
Specifications:
- 9V DC center negative polarity power supply only! Safe Water Tremolo utilizes a charge pump circuit which internally increases the voltage. Damage to the pedal will occur if the wrong type of power supply is applied.
- Max Current: 78 mA
- Input/Output: 1/4" jack (top mounted input/output, one output on side)
- Dimensions (approx.): 5.0"L x 2.8"W x 2.5"H
- Weight (approx.): 0.71 lbs
Click here to order Safe Water Tremolo
Click here to watch the demo video by Jack Fossett