One of the things that really makes a good Tremolo effect pedal is the Rate at which the LFO (low frequency oscillator) moves and shimmies, right? Now, bending down on a poorly-lit stage to try and set the speed of these pulses can be challenging, which is why we love a good tremolo pedal that incorporates Tap Tempo functionality. Today’s pedal does that and much, much more – the Tacana Tap Tremolo comes to us all the way from Sentimental Bob Electronics in the Ukraine, and we’re glad it made the journey.
The Tacana Tremolo has got a lot going for it, and it sounds fantastic. The Volume, Depth and Speed knobs cover what they should on any tremolo pedal, but that’s about where the normal-ness of this pedal ends. There’s a Waveform selector knob, which gives you access to 8 Standard waves and 8 Alternative waves, each with their own musical prowess to unleash on the world. Ranging from normal Sine and Triangle waveforms to Quad Pulse and Ramp +Oct, there’s no holding back here, which makes each and every one of these modes a blast to experiment with. The Shape knob distorts the waveform, changing the duty cycle between the upper and lower peaks. Finally, the Tap Division is a tempo multiplier, used to determine the final LFO frequency. This allows the LFO to produce changes at double or half-speed, or produce triplet times.
Quickly double-click the Bypass switch, and you’ll enter into Hold mode, where the tremolo effect only comes through when you hold down the Bypass switch, giving even more rhythmic pulsing and choppy, in-the-moment bursts of tremolo to incorporate into your playing. There’s even a 3.5mm jack for external synchronization, and an internal trimpot to set the maximum level of the Volume output, which also works as an excellent clean boost. Basically, hats off to the Sentimental Bob Electronics’ team for this one, a whole lot packed into a normal-sized enclosure, with top-mounted jacks, soft switches and relay bypass switching – what’s not to love? Check them out on Facebook and Reverb, and don’t forget to hear the Tacana in action in our demo below. Hang in there, folks, we’re gonna get through this together, believe it….and please wash your hands.
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