If, like us, you were born in Italy (or France) more than 3 decades ago, the images on the Zeppelin Design Labs product page will look familiar to you. They seem inspired by very tasteful vintage European posters from the ’40/50s (the style was called Art Deco) which ended up becoming a collector’s item.
Zeppelin Design is not based in Europe, though, but in Chicago, and even though it’s featured in this blog, it’s not fully committed to the creation of stompable devices. Instead, their agenda is to manufacture next-level DIY kits of musical gear of any kind: pedals, synths, mics, amps, – you name it. All their products are sold both as kit or in their finished version, for increased costs in a range of 50-150% (each product’s “finished” price reveals the amount of labor required to build it).
The only guitar effect they offer at this stage, though, is rather remarkable: the Quaverato is an harmonic tremolo that costs $89 as a kit and $189 as a finished pedal. What’s noteworthy and unheard of about this unit is that it is – as far as we know – the only DIY kit of a digitally controlled pedal with a 100% analog path.
Although not recommended as your first build-it-yourself pedal kit, the adventurous DIY guitarist, with a little time investment (and some luck!) can end up with a fully featured, great sounding tremolo for just $89.
The Quaverato is far from being a generic circuit: for example, it modulates the high and low frequencies independently, and features extra internal controls that allow for custom crossover frequency selection and individual high and low signal path volume adjustment.
The bypass footswitch can also be used as either a toggle or momentary switch.
This is how it looks disassembled:
Here’s a video by Mike Hermans:
And here’s a video of it by Shnobel
Quaverato Harmonic Tremolo Pedal combines many features to make a great sounding, versatile, and practical stompbox. Available as a DIY KIT or Ready-to-Play (select below).
- Digitally controlled, all analog signal path combining maximum flexibility with great tone.
- Both Traditional (In-Phase) and Harmonic (Out-Of-Phase) Tremolo modes
- Up to 15dB of gain
- Modulates the high and low frequencies independently for dynamic swirling effects
- Extra internal controls allow for custom crossover frequency selection and individual HIGH and LOW signal path volume adjustment, for full tonal control
- Bypass footswitch can be used as either a toggle or momentary switch
- Plus all the usual:
- LFO wave shape, rate, depth and spacing (aka wave form shift or duty cycle)
- Tap Tempo footswitch and multiplier selection
- Relay controlled, true-bypass switching scheme
