Product: Artec SE-VTM Vintage Tremolo
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
01/19/2009
at
02:18pm
by
Tam
Ease of Use
:
2
Sound Quality
:
1
Using it with an original G&L S-500D. The sound quality is shocking, even for ??38. A rhythmic and very loud chuff-chuff with every note played. I would rate it unusable even in the least demanding live context
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Wouldn't use it, period.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't contacte dthem. I have used an Artec pickup which was, well, OK.
Overall Rating
:
1
Looking for a clean, jangly, Thompsonesque electric sound. Behind the vicious noise, the actual effect is fine. But that's just not enough. There's a design fault and quality control was absent at the manufacturing stage. There's a demo video on YouTube where the noise is evident but far, far quieter than in the one I have. Don't be fooled!
Product: Artec SE-VTM Vintage Tremolo
Price Paid: GBP 27
Submitted
11/21/2008
at
07:19am
by
Tomasti
Ease of Use
:
10
Simple 3 pot tremolo pedal with Speed, Level and Depth controls. Very simple to manipulate slow to fast vibrato sounds. The level control seems a bit pointless. Volume is about the same as the dry signal around 15:00 and gives a slight boost to it on max (17:00). The pedal comes in a padded card box with a manual-come-sales brochure. This document lists all the pedals that Artec make along with some suggested pre-sets.
Sound Quality
:
5
Im using a Squire Silver Series Strat into a Laney LC30-2. I dont really have a pedal board, just the Vintage Tremolo and a Berhinger pedal tuner, I use the amp for overdrive.
Noise. After studying the booklet that came with it says something along the lines of 'when not playing the pedal is switched to Zero-Width mode by the Low-Level sensor and you can play without LFO noise'. This is entirely true, but when you are playing the pedal makes a 'chuffing' noise like a steam train after each sweep! Im not overly bothered about it at this price, but if your amp is quite loud then your going to hear it and its not really acceptable.
Aside from the noise, the actual tremolo effect itself is very nice. Very vintage and I suppose classic amp-like. It does what I want anyway. I dont think the low speed sounds are as good as other pedals Ive heard, but past 13:00 (speed) it sounds excellent.
No power supply noise, not tried with a battery yet and no noise when switching off/on.
Reliability
:
7
Its built OK. The materials used are good. Its got a steel case, metal foot switch and vintage control knobs on top. The battery compartment lid is the weak spot as its plastic, but it is on the underside so it should be safe from harm.
I think it will be ok to gig without a backup. True bypass means it will still pass the dry signal even if it blows up!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Not tried to contact. Artec are based in Korea and are contactable by email or telephone, these details are listed on the back of the little book it ships with.
Overall Rating
:
6
I play Indie/pop and use tremolo on some songs that we play in the band I'm in. If it were stolen I would get a different pedal, because of the sound quality issue, probably a BOSS or an EH Pulsar. For the price I paid its not too bad an it is perfectly usable live as you probably wont notice the noise, however you couldn't record with it due to this so its not ideal.
