DeArmond 800 Trem-Trol help??? 1st effect ever made!

[p_funk]

I just scored this pedal on ebay for a whopping $33.00 and was looking for any info I can find about it.  I know it is considered the first commercially available effects pedal ever made (1948) and that Bo Diddley used one.  I also know that http://www.americanguitars.net/products.asp?ProductID=1869&CartID=294619112006 has one for $500.00.  Doing a google search only turns up about 4 different sources and all the rest are repeats of the Wiki entry on DeArmond.  I haven't received it yet so I don't even know if it works or not, but I figured I would try to be prepared when it does come.

This is quoted from the Wikipedia entry:

"In 1948 (perhaps a year or two earlier) he introduced the world's first effect unit for electric guitar, the Model 800 Trem Trol. This foot-operated floor-mounting unit comprised a mains voltage motor that rocked a small sealed bottle fitted with two electrical contacts and containing electrically conductive fluid. The variable frequency of the 'make and break' action of the mechanism created a type of tremolo effect. This effect unit was used by Bo Diddley and by many other artists."

It functions as a tremelo or volume pedal and that is where my wealth of knowledge runs out.  If any one has a schem or knows of one... please help a brotha' out. 

I have a few pics if anyone needs to see them, but it looks identical to the one in the link above.

Thanks,
P Funk

[Rodgre]

I have one of the non-pedal Tremolo Control effects. The scary thing is that the pedal uses mercury in a tilt-switch fashion. Mercury is scary.

I had to replenish mine with mercury to make it work.

It's a neat tremolo. Totally passive. signal goes in, goes through a container with mercury and an electrode in the bottom and it shakes with an eliptical spinning motor. Voila! Tremolo.

Roger

[birt]

very cool way to make a choppy trem

i have 2 transparent glass switches that are filled with what i believe is quicksilver instead of mercury but naturally it behaves in the same way. a couple of months ago i was thinking to install one in my guitar to automaticly break the signal when i put the guitar down or something like that. there obviously must be more neat tricks to pull with those switches

[343 Salty Beans]

very cool way to make a choppy trem

i have 2 transparent glass switches that are filled with what i believe is quicksilver instead of mercury

aren't quicksilver and mercury the same thing?

[p_funk]

I have one of the non-pedal Tremolo Control effects. The scary thing is that the pedal uses mercury in a tilt-switch fashion. Mercury is scary.

Roger

I don't suppose you have any pics of the guts do you???

What's funny is, I'm sitting at work (3 back to back 13.5hr. shifts) reading this talk about "sealed bottles with a conductive liquid" and mercury switches never even entered my mind.  LOL!!!  I think this job thing is getting in the way of my music life!  LOL!!!

BTW... I love your band.  I am a long time reader/short time poster on this forum and never realized who you were.  The new album rocks.

Later,
P Funk

[R.G.]

The fluid in the originals was not mercury (or quicksilver) unless that was a very, very early one. The ones I've examined are filled with a water solution of some kind, probably a saline solution. That would work just about as well.

If you un-encapsulate the shaker bottle, it's not a bottle. It's a glass tube, with rubber diaphrams at each end. The solder blob on one end covers a hole in the metal that lets you see the rubber diaphram, and there is a syringe mark in the rubber diaphram on all the ones I've looked at.

[RickL]

Any idea of the strength of the saline solution? I have one of these (the volume pedal version) that appears to be working mechanically and the sound cuts in and out if I short the two terminals (or one terminal and the body of the bottle - it's been a while since I looked at it). I'd like to restore it but I've been hesitant about trying to get mercury into it. I'd feel much more comfortable with saline. Also, any idea of how much solution to put in?

I have also thought about jury-rigging it by zip tying a mercury switch onto the bottle

[freak scene]

i have one of these and it has no mercury.  i sent the switch off to be repaired and 50 dollars later it all leaked out and im scared to touch it.  anyone have a vial the would like to sell me???

i would be much indebted.

the one i have is the amp top unit.

[Mark Hammer]

I tried using the patent-to-PDF site, with the patent number accompanying the ad that P_Funk linked to.  The patent number seems to be in error, or else referenced to a different numbering system, because it pulled out a patent for a system for coupling cars.

....not unless that was a REALLY versatile pedal.  I mean if Shin-Ei could do sirens, hurricanes, bird whistles, etc., why couldn't DeArmond do car connections?