We’ve had some great experiences reviewing and demoing pedals from our friends at Big Joe Stomp Box Company, and we get to do it again today! The R-409 is an all-analog, vactrol-based optical tremolo, one with a bunch of controls that allow you to create almost any tremolo sound your brain can come up with, and some that have yet to be discovered. Join us on a funky and modulated journey through space and time, won’t you?
Starting off, the Speed (rate) and Depth (intensity) knobs work together to set and control the R-409’s modulation effect, between 1Hz-10Hz. These two are so much fun to experiment with, mixing and matching different pulses and speeds, and they interact perfectly with the other controls, too. The Tone knob allows you to alter the mood and make up for any potential tone loss that usually surrounds this kind of effect, keeping those vintage sounds but with modern amenities.
Shape controls the waveform of the tremolo, ranging from square to triangle, but with a big, fat range to sweep and discover differing blends of these two modes. Output rounds out the controls, and functions as a gain trim pot control, boosting the pedal’s volume where needed – again, this type of effect is also known for volume drop issues, and this knob takes care of those with ease.
There are so many sounds to extract from this pedal, it’s a little mind-blowing when you first sit down with it. Capable of doing more modern, new wave-ish sounds, as well as tasty vintage tremolo tones, you can easily dial in classic vibes reminiscent of early Vox and Fender amps in a heartbeat. Everyone will use the R-409 Tremolo pedal differently, but I’m sure we can all find a use for it somewhere in our setup or pedalboard. Thanks again to the crew at Big Joe Stomp Box Company for sending this shiny silver beauty over to us – please check out how it sounds in the demo video below, then head over to see what else Big Joe has waiting for you on their website. And don’t forget to stay tuned for more reviews of their gear coming this year, cheers!
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