Tremolo amp preference.

[newfish]

Hi!

Built a very simple Optical trem a while ago - basically a 555 triggering an opto-isolator (which is acting as a volume control).

All goes well on the test bench - using a Solid State amp.

Very little 'tremoloing' happens when plugged into a valve (tube) amp.

Whilst I have a cunning solution (buffer stage before opto-volume control to improve signal to noise etc), does anyone have any thought as to *why* this happens?
I'm sure this will work, as there *is* tremolo when I put a booster before the trem.

Is this part of the longer slew rate of 'valves as amplifiers'?

...or just valves protesting at the lack of 'Mojo' in this pedal...?

[jacobyjd]

did you use tropical fish caps? That should help.

Also, I've noticed similar effects--not between tube and solid state amps, but between saturation levels. Say I'm using a tremolo with the depth set pretty high and I run a light overdrive through it...the breaks in volume are very apparent. Then if I switch to a heavier distortion, it's as if the depth on the tremolo was set lower.

Is your tube amp distorting? Or even saturating a bit? It may be the same issue.

[petemoore]

  If 'something is very compressed, it may be difficult to notice amplitude changes that might otherwise be very apparent.
  Tremolo is amplitude modulation, and tends to sound less so if before say a reverb or distortion.
  Get a big fat signal full of compressed reverb distortion [iow very little amplitude dynamics] and try tremolo-ing that [tremolo last], then tremolo first, notice how the Amplitude up/down gets flattened.