Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Just finished my Tremolo build. Everything works as it should, except there is a bit of distortion. I play clean in bypass mode. The volume is about half, equal to the bypass, and the speed and depth set a little less than half. With the pedal on, there is minor distortion especially on the low end. Is this common with this pedal?

Common, no, but it has happened from time to time where a hot input signal will in fact cause the trem to get a little distorted. If you're getting a lot of distortion, or getting distortion from vintage single coils or something, especially with no dirt pedals in front of the trem - I'd say there's something wrong with the build.

What's feeding the trem when it's distorting on you?

I have it as my last pedal in the chain. Even with all the pedals off (in bypass) there is minor distortion. I have pulled it out of the chain and played my humbuckers directly to pedal and amp, still the minor distortion. I'm not talking about very much, but was expecting that I could get a very clean trem tone when I play clean into it. Other than that, everything works very well. All pots work throughout their range etc.

I think yours may be one of the exceptional cases where the output of your pickups is too hot for the trem. Let me look a little further into this. I'm pretty sure either increasing the value of an existing resistor, or adding one to the input, then compensating for the reduction in volume with the volume knob, will take care of you.

Thank you tonedeaf..............

I have access to plenty of volume so to reduce the minimal distortion would be great.