What Next? 261Experiment 30: FuzzBAckground
Stomp-box origins (continued)
Harry DeArmond sold the first tremolo box, which he
named the Trem-Trol. It looked like an antique portable
radio, with two dials on the front and a carrying handle on
top. Perhaps in an effort to cut costs, DeArmond didn’t use
any electronic components. His steam-punkish Trem-Trol
contained a motor fitted with a tapered shaft, with a rubber
wheel pressing against it. The speed of the wheel varied
when you turned a knob to reposition the wheel up and
down the shaft. The wheel, in turn, cranked a little capsule
of “hydro-fluid,” in which two wires were immersed, carrying
the audio signal. As the capsule rocked to and fro, the fluid
sloshed from side to side, and the resistance between the
electrodes fluctuated. This modulated the audio output.
Today, Trem-Trols are an antique collectible. When industrial
designer Dan Formosa acquired one, he put pictures online
at http://www.danformosa.com/dearmond.html. And Johann
Burkard has posted an MP3 of his DeArmond Trem-Trol so
you can actually hear it: http://johannburkard.de/blog/music/
effects/DeArmond-Tremolo-Control-clip.html.
The idea of a mechanical source for electronic sound mods
didn’t end there. The original Hammond organs derived
their unique, rich sound from a set of toothed wheels
turned by a motor. Each wheel created a fluctuating induc-
tance in a sensor like the record head from a cassette player.
It’s easy to think of other possibilities for motor-driven
stomp boxes. Going back to tremolo: imagine a transpar-
ent disc masked with black paint, except for a circular stripe
that tapers at each end. While the disc rotates, if you shine
a bright LED through the transparent stripe toward a light-
dependent resistor, you would have the basis for a tremolo
device. You could even create never-before-heard tremolo
effects by swapping discs with different stripe patterns.
Figures 5-57 and 5-58 show the kind of thing I have in mind.
For a real fabrication challenge, how about an automatic
disc changer?
Today’s guitarists can choose from a smorgasbord of effects,
all of which can be home-built using plans available online.
For reference, try these special-interest books:- Analog Man’s Guide to Vintage Effects by Tom Hughes
(For Musicians Only Publishing, 2004). This is a guide to
every vintage stomp box and pedal you can imagine. - How to Modify Effect Pedals for Guitar and Bass by Brian
Wampler (Custom Books Publishing, 2007). This is an
extremely detailed guide for beginners with little or
no prior knowledge. Currently it is available only by
download, from sites such as http://www.openlibrary.
org, but you may be able to find the previous printed
edition from secondhand sellers, if you search for the
title and the author.
Of course, you can always take a shortcut by laying down a
couple hundred dollars for an off-the-shelf item such as a
Boss ME-20, which uses digital processing to emulate distor-
tion, metal, fuzz, chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo, delay,
reverb, and several more, all in one convenient multi-pedal
package. Purists, of course, will claim that it “doesn’t sound
the same,” but maybe that’s not the point. Some of us simply
can’t get no satisfaction until we build our own stomp box
and then tweak it, in search of a sound that doesn’t come
off-the-shelf and is wholly our own.
Figure 5-57. Although electromechanical audio devices are
obsolete now, some unexplored possibilities still exist. This
design could create various tremolo effects, if anyone had the
patience to build it.
Figure 5-58. Different stripe patterns could be used in conjunc-
tion with the imaginary electromechanical device in Figure
5-57 to create various tremolo effects.