Fans of the surfy tremolo/reverb effect combo now have two more options to consider when shopping for a stompbox that offers both effects (the list has been growing quite a bit lately).
Keeley just unveiled a pair of new Tremolo + Reverb pedals that are identical in color and share some features, but offer two completely different approaches to the format.
The mono Verb O Trem, designed in collaboration with Americana guitarist Eddie Heinzelman, is for the believers of the “less-knobs-is-more” philosophy: it offers 3 flavors of tremolo (Tube Bias style, Magnatone pitch-style vibrato and Harmonic Tremolo) and four straightforward knobs including a fixed, amp-style reverb control.
An internal switch allows you to access two reverb modes: spring and plate.
The stereo VoT Workstation version, on the other hand, targets what we may call “control-freak” guitarists. The two effects here can be switched on and off through separate footswitches and the tremolo’s rate can be set through the classic tap-tempo functionality (shouldn’t it be called “toe-tempo”?).
Both tremolo and reverb have a knob (on the left) selecting 8 different modes and a set of four more knobs controlling individual settings
Reverb modes include: 2 Spring, 3 Spring, Plate, Hall, Chamber, Room, Fugue, and Slapback.
Tremolo modes include: Sine Wave, Square Wave, Harmonic, Dynamic Harmonic, Pitch Vibrato, Ramp Trem, Les’Rotary Speaker, U-Vibe
The controls are pretty straightforward apart from the ones labeled “Morph,” which vary depending on the selected mode.
Here’s the demo by Mike Hermans of both pedals:
