The Electro-Harmonix Micro Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Effects Pedal is everything you love about the Pulsar in a small, die-cast aluminum package.
Controls:
Wave shape switch: selects between the wave triangle mode and the square wave mode.
Shape knob: changes the shape of the waveform that modulates the tremolo.
In wave triangle mode, as the shape knob is turned from the fully counter-clockwise position to the center position, the wave starts as a rising sawtooth and becomes a triangle. From the center position to the fully clockwise position, the wave changes from a triangle to a falling sawtooth.
In square wave mode, as the shape knob is turned from the fully counter-clockwise position to the center position, the wave starts as a small pulse-width wave and becomes a square-width wave. From the center position to the clockwise position, the wave changes from a square-width wave to a large pulse-width wave.
Depth knob: adjusts the amount of tremolo that will be applied to your signal.
Rate knob: adjusts the speed of modulation for the effect.
Rate/status LED: if the effect is engaged, the LED will blink at the same rate that the effect modulates. If the LED is off, the Pulsar is in bypass mode. The footswitch engages/disengages the effect. 9V DC power jack.
Small die-cast aluminum case saves valuable pedalboard space
Depth, shape, and rate controls
SPECIFICATIONS
XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
9V DC-100 1/8" tip positive power supply optional (product# 336050).
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I had the Pulsar in my pedal board for about a year before removing it. While the sounds are very nice I couldn't use it for two reasons: loss of signal when applied and too much micro tweaking to use on multiple songs in a set. While the vast amount of adjustment could be viewed as a strength, I found that it was too much bother trying to adjust the knobs between songs since a tiny turn of the knob took it from useful to useless so getting it dialed in wasn't practical for me in a live setting. If the adjustments weren't so extreme I'd use it live.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.Awesome, awesome, awesome sound out of this thing. The only reason i don't give it ten is this: The pedal is sooooo versatile. why is that bad you ask? Because I have trouble getting back to a seeting once I find one I like. The knobs are SUPER touchy and have a huge range. Seriously. This thing will swell so slow that you wont have time to sit around and wait for the first volume drop, let alone the swell that would eventually come after. From there, it goes all the way to a trem so fast that what happens doesnt even really sound like trem. this pedal has all the features you need for a tremolo; triangle and square wave, speed, depth yada yada yada. Just be adviced that you'll need to tinker with the control for a while before you really get the feel for adjusting it.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.This has to be one of my most used pedals on my pedalboard, which includes a Digidelay, MXR Bluebox (a fun little fuzz), a Danelectro slapback reverb, and a Russian EH Big Muff. I've had it on in my setup for at least two years, and it's been serving me true since I got it out of the box. Electro Harmonix puts out some really great stuff out there, and this is definitely to be recognized. It's a really great tremolo pedal, and its quirks make it that much cooler.
This has the features you'd expect and want out of a tremolo, plus a few neat querks that, in my opinion, are quite cool. You have the signal depth, wave shape, and rate controls, as well as a sawtooth wave/square wave switch. You also have the option of stereo outputs, which is nice for recording purposes. I only have one complaint with the controls, and that is that they are touchy. I have found that in situations where you want the pulse to be just right with the tempo, it can be hard to get it spot on. And if you do a lot of giging and moving around, the controls may be in a different position than where you left them. Now, with that said, you can get some really cool sounds out of this thing. It may be a tremolo pedal, but keep this in mind: it's from Electro Harmonix. They aren't satisfied with "standard." The coolest thing I've found is in the "Depth" control; at about 1 o'clock, it's maxed out when it comes to the standard tremolo effect. Now, if you push it past that, it takes your signal and, in a way, "doubles" it. If you increase the "Rate" control, the pitch of your signal becomes distorted, similar to the way a ring modulator does. Although not entirely usable in a live or studio setting, it can be fun for experimental crowd to play with.
I'd say this is up to code with other EH pedals: this thing is meant to be stomped on. The construction is very sturdy, can definitely take a beating. The input/output jacks are solid and clean, the LED is plenty bright (it also "pulses" in correspondence to the wave form and rate), the controls in general are clean and without dirty spots. They definitely did a great job with the construction. As for the sound quality, the signal is clean when the "Rate" control is set at lower settings. It gets just a little gritty as you speed it up and increase the depth, but I find it sounds nice that way.
For what you're getting out of this awesome unit, the price is practically a steal. The can get many uses for many different guitarists, and it is a very solid pedal.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.Overall I don't see how you could go wrong with this pedal. It'll do classic tremolo sounds and it'll do crazy tremolo sounds if you want it to. It's built well and pretty affordable. My only complaint would be like others have said: The rate knob is very sensative. A 1/8 inch of turn will change your rate greatly. Hard to adjust on stage, but mark your spots with a sharpy and you'll be fine. It's the price you have to pay for getting the "out of the box" extra sounds you usually get with EH pedals. I read this in other reviews and still bought the pedal anyway. I don't see it being a big problem for me. If you're considering this pedal, buy it!
I don't know if you could have more features on a Tremolo pedal. It does all the things a normal trem pedal should and like most things Electro Harmonix, it does more. You can change the wave shape and you can change the shape of the waveform. Turning the rate and/or depth knobs past about 2:00 will give you some crazy sounds you won't get from other trem pedals. It's also priced pretty cheap and sounds great. I haven't used it in stereo, but it's good to know that it's available.
I haven't had it for long, but I've got other EH pedals that i've had for years and they're still going strong. This one should be the same. Built like a tank.
Price some other good Tremolos and you'll find this one is pretty cheap. The other trem I was looking at is the Fulltone Supa-trem. And it costs more!
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.Hard to review this one. I was excited to buy it, but feel let down. The sensitivity of the adjustments is extreme. Once you find a sound it is almost impossible to get it back. Not useful for me.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.Do you see the price of this thing? If you don't already have a tremelo type pedal you should buy this today. I've never been a pedal guy and always prefer to plug straight into the amp. I have a few select pedals that I use on occassion but this one will always be in my signal chain. As musicians we all get in a rut sometimes and need to think about our instruments in a different way. This pedal has allowed me to think beyond just riffage and more about long sustains and musical textures. It has to be the cheapest pedal I have every purchased but the build and sound quality are excellent. The pulsar is a ton of fun and can crank out standard tremelo to space alien invader sounds.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.The Pulsar is yes a tremolo pedal and creates a great choppy pulse-like. I bought it specifically for that "How Soon is Now" sound. But, thats only one sound... I started experimenting with it and found you can also get standard shimmering modulation sounds and psychedelic sounds. You can also turn the depth down to get a more produced guitar sound. I also liked the ease of use which is common with electro-harmonix pedals.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.EHX is a benevolent dictator.
As others have noted, this pedal is more than a standard tremolo. The LFO modulating the VCA goes well into audio range resulting in amplitude modulation. If you want ring mod-ish sounds as well as standard tremolo, you can't go wrong with this pedal. I think the only thing EHX could've done to improve this pedal is to provide an input for an expression pedal so you could tune the LFO with your foot.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.I own mostly boss pedals, but latley, I've wanted to get off of boss pedals and introduce varitey into my pedalboard, and thats what I did. This pedal is alot better than the boss TR-2 tremelo, it is cheaper in price and has alot more ways to adjust the effect. The only problem is now, I don't think theres really any use for the effect. None of the songs I write require tremelo and any songs I cover don't requier tremelo. This is a great pedal but I don't see a lot of use for it.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
.For such a low price it really does deliver. I don't think there is another stereo tremolo with a controllable waveform LFO out there in this price range.
After about 1~2 oclock on the depth you get a nice inverting signal that nails that Johnny Marr HSIN sound.
The depth is kinda hard to dial in as there is a very small range on the sweep of the control that actually does anything. It's not there is something wrong with it, that's just the nature of the design.
The shape control is nice but there is a perceived change in tempo due to the pulse width modulation, again it's just part of how it works, nothing wrong with it.
The speed control, wow, it goes from ridiculously slow to ring mod/sample reducer rates. Which is nice other than it kind of leaves the most usable range on about 1/4 of the entire rotation of the control. It's nice to have that much range, but if you're looking to dial it in to match a tempo you're gonna have a hard time.
Electro-Harmonix XO Stereo Pulsar Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedal
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