My New Microphone Top 11 Best Tremolo Pedals For Guitar & Bass

Tremolo is so simple in concept and so versatile in practice. A top-of-the-line tremolo pedal is an excellent addition to any guitarist’s or bassist’s pedalboard.

These level-modulating pedals can really add some interest to the guitar tone and sound great across most musical genres.

In this article, we’ll discuss the top 9 best tremolo pedals in the world. Of course, there are countless tremolo pedals on the market, and this list could be much longer.

These pedals are focused on tremolo. There are plenty of general modulation pedals on the market that offer tremolo, and many ring modulation effects offer tremolo as well (in their “low” setting).

Another thing worth mentioning is the subjective nature of these types of lists. These 9 pedals are my opinion of the top tremolos. I’d expect your list to be different, but I would hope there would be plenty of overlap.

Let’s discuss each pedal on this list and the reasons why they are the best.

Related My New Microphone articles:
• The Ultimate Effects Pedal/Stompbox Buyer’s Guide
• Top 11 Best Guitar/Bass Effects Pedal Brands To Know & Use

What Are Tremolo Pedals & How Do They Work?

Tremolo pedals are modulation pedals that produce the amplitude-varying tremolo effect.

Tremolo is an effect that causes variation in signal amplitude. It is similar to vibrato, except that it acts on amplitude/level rather than pitch.

Tremolo can really add interest to a sound, ranging from slow and wavey increases and decreases in volume to speedy in-and-out cuts in volume.

Because tremolo only really affects the signal’s amplitude at its input, it can be positioned anywhere in the signal chain. Some prefer it just after the utility pedals; others like it mixed in with the modulation effects, and some dig it right after reverb (which sounds incredible).

With that being said, let’s talk about some tremolo pedals!

For more in-depth articles on tremolo pedals, check out My New Microphone’s article What Are Tremolo Guitar Effects Pedals & How Do They Work?

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Source Audio Vertigo

First up is the physically and sonically flashy Source Audio Vertigo.

| My New Microphone — Source Audio Vertigo

The Source Audio Vertigo is part of the impressive One Series of Source Audio pedals. It’s a stereo tremolo with tons of functionality. It offers 3 distinct tremolo effects, selectable via the toggle switch:

Normal: based on the thumping “opto-trem” amplitude modulation found in vintage Blackface Fenders.
Harmonic: based on the Fender Super’s “Vibrato” effect from the early 60s, producing a vintage tremolo that offers alternating low and high-frequency boosts, creating a swinging phaser-ish effect.
Bias: based on early tube bias amplitude modulation.

Each of these modes can output in mono or stereo for wider tremolo effects. Note that the pedal also has a stereo input. Each mode has its own world of sonic possibilities with the other controls of the pedal:

Depth knob: controls the depth of the tremolo effect by affecting the amplitude of the LFO modulator.
Speed knob: controls the rate of the tremolo effect by affecting the frequency of the LFO modulator.
Shape knob: continuously morphs the LFO modulator waveform from square to sine or opto, to saw tooth.
Level knob: adjusts the overall output of the signal.

The internal memory of the Vertigo can hold up to 3 presets. Couple the pedal to Source Audio’s Neuro App to access more parameters and sounds along with up to 128 presets. Use MIDI to sync the pedal to a master clock (in a DAW or other MIDI device) and/or to control more parameters of the Vertigo on the fly.

In addition to MIDI, the One Series Vertigo is also compatible with expression pedals via its 3.5mm control input. The pedal also works with Source Audio’s proprietary Hot Hand 3 Universal Wireless Effects Controller. Wear the Hot Hand as a ring on your picking hand, and the pedal will use the motion of your hand to control different parameters.

The Source Audio Vertigo also features a universal bypass, allowing us to select either an analog buffered bypass or a relay-based true bypass, depending on what suits our situation best.

We’re kicking the list off with an excellent tremolo pedal. If versatility and sonic quality are important to you, then the Vertigo makes for a superb choice!

Source Audio

Source Audio is featured in My New Microphone’s Top 11 Best Guitar/Bass Effects Pedal Brands To Know & Use.

Boss TR-2 Tremolo

The Boss TR-2 Tremolo is a superb tremolo pedal for a superb manufacturer.

mnm 300x300 Boss TR 2 | My New Microphone — Boss TR-2 Tremolo

The Boss TR-2 is a relatively straightforward unit built into Boss’s legendary compact stompbox format. It provides guitarists (and other musicians) with awesome tremolo effects in an easy-to-use pedal.

As we can see, the TR-2 is a mono pedal with a single input and output. It is designed with a buffered bypass but does little to alter the tone of the signal passing through it, whether it’s on or off.

The controls are simple on this pedal:

Rate knob: adjusts the rate of the tremolo.
Depth knob: adjusts the depth (amount of pitch-shift) of the tremolo.
Wave knob: control the waveform of the tremolo’s LFO modulator from triangle to square.

If you’re looking for an affordable, durable, easy-to-use tremolo pedal for your rig, look no further than the Boss TR-2!

Boss

Boss is featured in My New Microphone’s Top 11 Best Guitar/Bass Effects Pedal Brands To Know & Use.

Voodoo Lab Tremolo

Voodoo Lab doesn’t have too many pedals to their name, but the Voodoo Lab Tremolo has put them on the map as a manufacturer of great pedals.

Voodoo Lab’s Tremolo pedal is designed to emulate the smooth warmth of vintage tube amp tremolo. The pedal actually utilizes the same lamp and photocell design found in many popular vintage amps, using light to achieve the amplitude modulation effect.

This true bypass pedal is mono with a single input and output. The controls of the pedal are straightforward:

Intensity knob: controls the depth of the tremolo effect by adjusting the amplitude of the LFO.
Slope knob: varies the shape of the tremolo’s LFO waveform from smooth to choppy.
Speed knob: controls the rate of the tremolo effect by adjusting the frequency of the LFO.
Volume knob: adjusts the output level of the pedal.

The Voodoo Lab Tremolo offers us warm, mind-bending trem vibes in a compact and durable stompbox. It does an excellent job at reproducing vintage tremolo effects and gets itself a spot on the “best tremolo pedals” list.

Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter

The Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter is a fantastic choice for all your tremolo needs.

Seymour Duncan’s Shapeshifter is an impressive stereo tremolo pedal with true stereo inputs and outputs. This versatile unit can deliver the classic tremolo textures we come to expect along with more extreme effects like helicopter chops, piano stabs or backward swells.

Notice the Tap footswitch on the Shapeshifter. Yes, this tremolo pedal has tap tempo!

Flip the Ratio|Rate toggle switch to ratio; tap in the tempo to set the modulation speed between 0.5 pulses-per-second to over 15 pulses-per-second. Use the Speed knob to control the ratio of the tremolo effect. Flip the toggle to Rate and use the Speed knob to adjust the rate without tap.

Regardless of how we dial in the rate of the effect, the Shapeshifter’s illuminated Speed knob will flash to indicate the rate of the tremolo.

In addition to speed control, the Shapeshifter offers the following adjustable parameters:

Wave knob: changes the waveform of the tremolo effects from sine through triangle to square.
Shape knob: controls how evenly the signal rises and falls by morphing the selected wave.
Depth knob: sets the blend between your dry signal and the wet tremolo signal
Channel Phase mini-knob: adjusts the phase difference between the stereo outputs from 0º (in-phase) to 180º (out-of-phase).

The Shapeshifter from Seymour Duncan is incredibly versatile, sounds great, and is built to last. Try one out for yourself, and you surely will not be disappointed!

Keeley Electronics DynaTrem

Next up is the Keeley Electronics DynaTrem. This is perhaps the most interesting tremolo pedal on this list.

Keeley’s DynaTrem is an awesome responsive tremolo pedal that adjusts to the dynamics of the input signal. In other words, our playing controls the rate and depth of the effect. Play harder, and the pedal responds with faster and more intense tremolo. Play softer, and the pedal produces a more subtle effect.

Choose between 3 modes via the DynaTrem’s toggle switch:

Dynamic Rate mode: playing strength controls the rate.
Dynamic Depth mode: playing strength controls the depth.
Harmonic Tremolo + Reverb mode: a phaser-like harmonic trem with additional reverb (adjusted via the Shape control).

In the dynamic modes, the Shape control gives us access to 4 different waveforms: ramp up, sine, ramp down and square.

Since the DynaTrem was released, Keeley updated the pedal with a 4th mode, accessible by turning the Shape knob all the way down. This “hidden feature” is simply a standard triangle wave tremolo.

This true bypass dynamic tremolo pedal offers us something exciting and responsive. Set correctly, the DynaTrem can unlock a whole new world of expression that is unobtainable via standard tremolo units. This makes the DynaTrem, in my opinion, one of the best tremolo pedals out there!

Keeley Electronics

Keeley Electronics is featured in My New Microphone’s Top 11 Best Boutique Guitar/Bass Pedal Brands To Know & Use.

EarthQuaker Devices Hummingbird

EarthQuaker is known for its out-of-the-box thinking, but they certainly have some rock-solid standard effects units. The EarthQuaker Devices Hummingbird is a great example of one of these beautifully simple effects units.

The Hummingbird is a straightforward sawtooth tremolo pedal with excellent sounds and a surprisingly versatile effect. Whether we’ve after a classic “50’s style” shimmering tremolo, a synthy delay-like chopping trem or anything in between, the Hummingbird will gladly oblige.

Flip the toggle switch to choose from the Slow, Mid-Tempo or Fast modes. Adjust the Depth, Rate and Level knobs to dial in your preferred tremolo effect. The Fast mode can even get us into ring modulation territory!

The Hummingbird has an awesome boost circuit, controlled by the Level knob. We can even turn the Depth control all the way down and use the pedal as a clean JFET boost if we want to.

Use the 1/4-inch expression jack to connect an external expression pedal and control the rate of the tremolo remotely.

Like many of EarthQuaker’s pedals, this pedal features the company’s proprietary Flexi-Switch footswitch that allows for both latching and momentary use without having to toggle between different modes.

The Hummingbird has gone through a few different versions at this point. They’re all solid tremolo pedals. Check any one of them out, and you’ll be in for a treat!

EarthQuaker Devices

EarthQuaker Devices is featured in My New Microphone’s Top 11 Best Guitar/Bass Effects Pedal Brands To Know & Use.

Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pulsar

The Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pulsar is a classic tremolo pedal that I couldn’t leave out.

mnm 300x300 Electro | My New Microphone — Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pulsar

The EHX Stereo Pulsar produces a beautiful vintage stereo tremolo effect that adds warmth and rhythmic energy to our playing.

The pedal sounds fantastic, and it’s durable, affordable and straightforward. The unit has a mono input, stereo output, 3 knobs and 1 toggle switch.

The toggle changes the modulation waveform between a triangle or square. The Shape control allows us to control transitions from negative to positive saw tooth (in triangle mode) or adjust pulse width (in square mode).

Adjust the depth and the rate of the tremolo with the Depth and Rate knobs and have yourself an awesome tremolo effect. Dial in a classic setting or opt for something new with this easy-to-use pedal.

Sometimes the best effects come in the simplest packages. This is certainly the case with the Electro-Harmonix Stereo Pulsar.

Electro-Harmonix

Electro-Harmonix is featured in My New Microphone’s Top 11 Best Guitar/Bass Effects Pedal Brands To Know & Use.

Diamond Tremolo TRM-1

The Diamond Tremolo TRM-1 is a wonderful tremolo unit complete with tap tempo.

Diamond’s Tremolo pedal has a 100% analog signal path based around an optoisolator, just like vintage tube amplifiers of the 60s. The pedal combines this signal path with a digital microprocessor to allow for awesome features.

These features include the always handy tap tempo complete with a TapView blinking indicator, ratio controls (3/4, 6/8, 2/4 and 4/4), and a double-speed mode. We can also select the waveform of the trem from ‘sharkfin’ (sawtooth), sine, square waves and ‘chop’.

Set the Diamond Tremolo to Chaotic mode for random speeds with any waveform.

This true bypass pedal has the typical Speed, Depth, and Volume controls via knobs on the front face.

Diamond’s Tremolo pedal is manufactured with the utmost quality. It’s a durable stompbox that offers versatile and pleasing tremolo effects. For that, it makes the cut as one of the best tremolo pedals ever!

ZVex Effects Sonar Vexter

Last up is the ZVex Effects Sonar Vexter: the top budget pick in terms of tremolo pedals.

The ZVex Sonar is yet another excellent tremolo pedal with some special features.

It can produce beautiful standard tremolo all the way to choppy “helicopter” effects. The pedal can also vary the speed of the trem automatically over time and turn the tremolo on and off automatically within a given time period/cycle. Use these effects separately or together to get unique tremolo effects out of the Sonar.

The Sonar also has tap tempo functionality that allows for cycles as slow as 4 seconds per cycle. It also features a clean circuit (Clean) and a cross-over distortion circuit (Machine) selectable via a toggle switch.

The pedal is built in a durable, compact unit. In order to achieve tremendous functionality, many of the controls have dual functionality. Without getting into all the details, let’s have a look at the Sonar controls to get a better idea of how the pedal works:

Volume: adjusts the output volume. Further adjustments for gain control are possible inside the pedal.
Speed: manual control of the tempo.
- Alt = Attack: controls how quickly audio reaches peak volume of tremolo.
Duty: controls the duration of peak audio, the “on” portion
of tremolo.
- Alt = Release: controls how quickly audio ramps down from
  peak.
Delta: controls the rate of change when the unit is in “Arrow
Up/Down Mode”.
- Alt = Depth: Controls minimum volume of the quiet portion of
  tremolo.
Tap Tempo: calculates tempo by taking the last two user
taps.
- Alt = shift key: to access hidden waveshaping functions
Clean / Machine toggle switch: switches between clean and cross-over distortion.
Tap Tempo toggle switch: Allows the user to set the tempo to 2x or 4x the original tap rate.
Arrow Up /Down: controls the up or down direction of
auto parameter change and also selects which parameters
are being changed.

ZVex Effects

ZVex Effects is featured in My New Microphone’s Top 11 Best Boutique Guitar/Bass Pedal Brands To Know & Use.

Former Top Tremolo Pedal Picks

Here are pedals that used to be on this list and the reasons they are no longer.

Stone Deaf Tremotron (Discontinued)

The Stone Deaf Tremotron (discontinued) was a wicked tremolo pedal with cool artwork. It was featured in this article from 2020 (original publishing year) to 2022.

The Stone Deaf Tremotron has a digital brain and an all-analog signal path to give us the best of both worlds when it comes to functionality and sonic purity. This dual analog tremolo offers two independent amplitude modulation circuits, allowing for interesting rhythmic possibilities.

To access the secondary tremolo, press each of the rotary encoders and adjust them to the value you want. The 3 rotary controls are:

Depth: controls the intensity of the tremolo effect.
Rate: controls the speed of the tremolo effect.
Shape: adjusts the continuously variable LFO wave from sine, square, ramp, reverse ramp and more.

The pedal also features Tone and Level master controls.

Set the rate with greater control via the tap tempo footswitch and adjust the tap divisions with the small button. With tap tempo, we can easily sync up the two tremolo circuits to maintain a consistent polyrhythm.

The Tremotron has 4 assignable presets in its internal memory and MIDI compatibility. Expand the amount of accessible preset via MIDI connectivity and use MIDI to control other parameters with ease.

Alternatively, we can input an expression pedal and assign it to affect Rate, Depth and/or Shape controls for more control.

From rhythmic possibilities and analog sound to presets and tap tempo, the Stone Deaf Tremotron offers one of the most excellent tremolo effects.

Wampler Latitude Deluxe V2 (Discontinued)

The Wampler Latitude Deluxe V2 (discontinued) is a beast of a tremolo pedal, fully deserving of a spot on this list. It was featured in this article from 2020 (original publishing year) to 2021.

Wampler’s Latitude Deluxe V2 is another highly functional tremolo pedal. Just looking at the pedal is intimidating. It’s got an all-analog signal path with digital processing to achieve its great functionality. Let’s discuss what it can do.

This pedal offers tap tempo with subdivisions (quarter, eighth, dotted eighth and triplets).

We can also choose between 3 different waveforms for our amplitude modulation: bell, peak and square.

Speed: controls the speed of the tremolo effect.
Space: allows more or less space between the volume bursts.
Depth: controls how much of the tremolo effect you hear.
Attack: changes the attack of the tremolo waveform.
Volume: adjusts the output volume.

All in all, the Wampler Latitude is a fantastic tremolo pedal and is fully deserving of a spot on this list.

Choosing the right effects pedals for your applications and budget can be a challenging task. For this reason, I’ve created My New Microphone’s Comprehensive Effects Pedal Buyer’s Guide. Check it out for help in determining your next pedal/stompbox purchase.

Top 9 Best Tremolo Pedals For Guitar & Bass Of 2024

The Top 9 Best Tremolo Pedals Are:

What Are Tremolo Pedals & How Do They Work?