Dunlop TS-1 Tremolo

Perhaps a little harder than your average tremolo to work, but still it only has 3 knobs. All of them function as would be expected, but the speed knob increases dramatically in the upper half of the the dial, which is where I usually have my dial set. The mono/stereo switch on the back of the pedal is labeled backwards which is mildly confusing, but otherwise it isn't too difficult.

I don't try to copy people intentionally, but this tremolo has a very classic sound. It covers both smooth and choppy effects pretty well especially when the intensity is turned up a bit.

The effect itself is pretty quiet, both in front of an amp and through its effect loop. Even in my long chain of effects (I've got 8 strung in a row) it is still quiet. It isn't true bypass, but then again I don't think any of my pedals are. But who cares? All the old guys whose tone we try to imitate didn't have true bypass and yet we drool over their tone.

I was looking for two things in a tremolo. 1) Is it transparent (does it sound like someone is riding my volume knob)? 2) Is there a volume increase or decrease? This pedal met both of my requirements being very transparent and not changing the perceived volume when I click it on or off.

Maybe I shouldn't give it a 10, but there is a reason this was the industry standard stomp box tremolo for years. I've compared it with units much more expensive and the difference in negligible. Why they stopped making this thing will always be a mystery.

I bought mine used. It came more beat up than I was expecting and yet it plays wonderfully. There is rust and all sorts of crap on the outside, but the inside is still clean. All the switches and knobs seem to be operating very cleanly. I'm guessing this pedal is at least 10 years old.

And what kind of question is would I use it without a backup? Of course I would I can't afford another. (I could barely afford this one). But even if I could I wouldn't see a need to have a backup.

Never dealt with them. Doubt they'd be much help with a pedal they don't make any more. If the rest of the reviews on here are indicative of their customer support I don't think its very good.

This pedal is a good match for any style that you could use a tremolo on. Personally I play a lot of classic rock influenced alternative whatever and it fits right in.

If it were stolen I would cry (because these things are getting expensive). Then I would go beat the crap out of whoever stole it and get my pedal back.

This pedal replaced a Line6 ToneCore Tap Tremolo which I bought mainly for the tap feature. There was no comparison between the two. The sound of the Dunlop makes it worth not having a tap. But if I could add something to this pedal to make it better it would be a tap.

The other guitarist in my band (who owns a Vox Tremolo pedal) started suggesting that I use the tremolo more now that I own this. In fact he offered to not use his so I could use mine. This pedal is an obvious improvement over my previous pedal.

I guess the only thing that might confuse some is the stereo/mono switch in the back and the stereo/mono footswitch.

If you are running stereo through it the rear button should be on stereo otherwise set it to mono. With the footswitch on mono both sides will have the same cyle, but if it is on stereo they will be inverted. In other words when the right side is up the left side is down and vice versa. This is cool if you are running to seperate amps or using it outboard in the studio.

There is nothing else like it. I'd give it an 8.5 using one amp just a great quite meat and potatos trem sound that is very amp like. With two amps it's amazing! If you have a rickenbacker try this: plug a stereo cable into the ric-o-sound output and run straight into this, you end up with seperate pickups going to each amp with an inverted tremolo that seems to spin in space. It just doesn't get much cooler than that.

I used it for 11 years without a hitch.

I don't know why dunlop discontinued this. It's the industry standard tremolo unit for god sake! I sold mine for $220 on ebay because they have become so hard to find, but now I want one. Guess I'll have to hit the pawn shops. I think the price has been driven up because a guy from the band 311 uses it alot. I have other tremolos and they sound awesome, but they can't do what this one does.

Very easy to use,has ample features for stomp box effect,Intensity, Shape,Speed.

Gibson Chet Country Gent-'64 jap re issue strat,both'80's Ts1- U/vibe-H/grail-H/rush-50w JCM800 combo.I really like this pedal for what it does on the job,not what it does in at home.I tried it at low vol and was reasonably happy with it, but live is where this baby shines. From swamp to lazy machine-gun no worries at all.The pedal had more warmth than any digital effect ive used, and completely shat on a vibratrem. I guess being an old fart I play a bit loud but Ive never been able to get a good tone out of digital $%^& with menus blah blah blah

built like a brick $%^&house

Been playing 25y all sorts,mainly rock blues prog some jazz,swinging more to jazz-blues+standards.Ive used all sorts of racks,floor systems,pre-amp-this into stereo that,through old musicman fender marshall boogie trying to find the best sound that isnt a pain in the arse to get right from venue to venue.(does anyone remember the ultimate practise/bedroom sound that turned to $%^& when put with a drummer-bass-pissed loud crowd-bad acoustics?)This pedal wont be a problem as its easily tuned to any situation.It sounds beautiful,is piss-easy to use and will stand real work enviroments easily.I guess it would be good to have some sort of expression pedal but shit, how many pedals can ya dance on?

Easy to work with - 2 knobs, inputs and outputs. Stomp it on the on/off switch and magically it comes on. Stomp it again, and it's off. How do those boys do that at Jim Dunlop? Plug this thang into 2 amplifiers and you get a ping pong tremelo effect, kinda sorta like a leslie. Magic I say!

I uses 2 tube amps cause I plays da' blues and r&b and dig the stereo sound swirling back and forth. Kinda makes a man dizzy, dig? I don't try to get the sounds of my favorite artists; I just plug away at my own crappy sound and hope somebody likes it. This thing is a little noisey, but so is the rest of my rig - 2 old Silvertone tube amps that probably could use new tubes, a P90 Gibson 125, and a can o' beer. I don't know what the can o'beer does. It just appeared on my pedal board one night, so I plugged it in and got a real crackly sound from it. Seriously, everything I said is true ('cept for that there beer effect).

Can I depend on it? Does a lumberjack piss in the woods? Sure I depend on it. . . why not? I've stomped it, dropped it, spilled beer on it, and thrown it in a trap case with no problems. Sounds good as ever. I don't think I'll need a backup. If it quits, it quits. I'll just unplug it, plug my axe right into my amps and daisey chain 'em and keep on jammin'. It's not like if it blows or shorts out or something I'll stop playing and say, "Damn, man! Hey everybody, it's time to go home now. I don't have tremelo!" I like it, but it ain't the show - know what I mean?

Never dealt with the company. But hey, with a name like Jim Dunlop, they should be nice. That's a plain name, but they make some pretty damn good boxes from what I've seen. I don't care for a lot of boxes, they just confuse me. Besides, I'm too lazy to study up on all the latest stuff. I don't see how a man has time to actually play with all that new stuff out there to figure out. I'm sticking with reverb, this here TS-1, 2 amps dimed out, and a Telecaster. Takes 10 minutes to set up and I'm ready to gig.

I play blues, like I already said. Been playing since I can remember -about 47 years I guess. I lost count. As for other gear, there ain't none. 2 Silvertones, a Telecaster, and this here box. I like the little booger, but if it gets lost, I'll look for it in my spare time and if I don't find it, I'll still sleep that night and the sun will be up come morning.
Now if I lost my Tele and my amps, that's a different story. But oh well, it ain't gonna happen. On the other hand, if some fool tries to steal my axe and amps and I happen on him, there'll be hell to pay . . . right after I finish stomping HIS sorry ass and taking HIS wallet and whatever else HE have. Don't jack with a workin' man's gear folks. Period. By the way, been there and done that (the stompin' and taking the wallet thing from a thug). Wasn't pretty, not pretty at all. Mic stands make mean clubs. Mind I slept that night, sun rose the next day, I still had my Tele, my amps, and a unexpected tip from that nice man who tried to rob me. And to top that, no remorse. He went to jail don't you know. I ain't been back to that sleezy joint since.

Well, I thought this would be easy to get a good sound out of - and it is - to a certain degree. However, my Marshall Vibratrem [ ?45 Sterling ] was a lot easier - more or less straight out of the box. The problem with the TS1 is that the whole thing is TOO BIG - I wanted a greyhound, and ended up with a St Bernard!The knobs are those annoying chrome affairs, with a small dot on them. I've struggled in a live situation to alter the settings easily. That may be why I'm still unconvinced about it. I'm going to give it a 7 for this reason.

I'm not giving a rating for this, because I've used the pedal thrice - once in rehearsal with my rehearsal pedal board into cheap, very distorted amplification, and twice in a gig situation with my live set up: Strat with Texas Specials, Gibson SG, Pearl Octave, TS808 [Keeley], Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz, Red Witch Phaser, Boss V Wah, TS1, Danecho to Fender 75 with Leslie 16 cab. It does sound good, but I've found tweaking it on stage a real problem, and getting the right balance difficult. My Marshall Vibratrem was easier and had a truly acceptable sound for the money I paid for it, perhaps I expect more from a pedal that, although I got it cheap, is supposed to be in a different class. I'm not sure yet whether there is a tone or volume loss to an extent that I am unhappy with. The extreme speed setting is excellent however. So the jury's out at the mo.

It's big and heavy.I've had it 2 weeks. It looks sturdy enough

Don't know yet

I play blues rock.
I'm giving it a 9, but, as soon as my wages are in the bank I'm sourcing a Demeter Tremulator or a Fulltone Supa trem, because they get excellent reviews, and they are smaller and fit on my pedalboard. The Demeter looks really dinky and easy to use, and it's true bypass, plus has a slight boost, and the fulltone has the extra features. Sorry Dunlop, but your pedal is just too big!

This pedal has two switches, the usual on/off and one that swtiches between the mono and stereo effects. Two outputs (mono or stereo), a push in/out selector for mono or stereo, and three knobs: intensity, shape, and speed. The intensity knob determines how much of your signal is affected, the speed knob adjusts the speed of the tremolo, and the shape alters the shape of the sound wave...you can go from a smooth sine-wave shape all the way to a square wave and everything in between. The sine gives you a smoother effect, while the square wave adds a little delay where the waveform plateaus. By spending some time fiddling with the knobs, I was able to go from volume swells to shimmery trem. One other cool thing is that the effect LED flashes in time to the effect, so it was fairly easy for me to sync it to whatever song I was writing/playing.

I think this pedal sounds pretty damn good...certainly better than any built-in amp trem I've heard. My main axe right now is an Epiphone 335 Dot with Bigsby through Vox amps (AC30 or Pathfinder). I've found this effect to sound good....it gets a little muddy when too much distortion is added. However, the nice thing is I've been able to get that Johnny Marr sound from The Smiths "How Soon Is Now" all the way to Graham Coxon's queasy-sounding wobble on Blur's "Oily Water"

I've only had this for 6 months, but so far, no problem. The other Dunlop stuff I have has lasted a while, so I'm not anticipating this to be any different.

N/A

I play music that's a cross between Hendrix/Cream/Who/Zeppelin and Beatles/Blur/Suede. I tend to use this pedal for the more trippy, textured parts I lay down when I'm recording, although with the speed turned all the way up, you can get some pretty nasty soloing sounds. I've been playing for 15 years and this is by far the best trem effect I've heard. I'd replace it instantly if it were lost or stolen, as it is a mainstay of my pedalboard. It's not an effect or sound for everybody, but if you're looking for trem, get this pedal.

Others before me have pretty much covered the features. 3 knobs, 2 switches...easy to dial in what you need

Well I hear a lot of people down on this pedal because the tremolo doesn't have a "wobble" to it...the wave shape, whether rounded, or squared off is too symmetrical. I can understand that, I have an old Fender Twin Reverb, as well as an old Supro, and Silvertone all with nice tube trems (The Supro is positively spooky...out-swamps the Fender circuit), but I still can dig the the mono sound of this pedal...but here's the thing, run this baby in stereo mode with two amps!!! I swear to god if you play with the amps, and the pedal settings you get an extremely close Leslie sound. Think of that grinding growling guitar in "No Matter What" by Badfinger. All that's missing I suppose is the slight doppler pitch shift you get from the spinning horns on the top of the Leslie...also works good with 2 amps for making electronic keys sound more "Rhodes" like. 1 point off for lake of mono "wobble"

No problems after 4, or 5 years

Don't know...never had the need to deal with tech. support

Like I said...probably other (Diaz?) pedals better for emulating vintage amp trem, but in the stereo mode 2 thumbs up!

Simple, effective. I have a Rhodes into the box, the box into the "main ins (stereo)" on my Roland JC 120. Got the Suitcase rhodes "vibrato" and if i want, a mean wurly tremelo.

A tad noisy, but what can you expect. Not as good as built in tremolo, but better than almost any other pedal.

Bring extra batteries, this baby likes a fresh 9V every other set if you use it the whole gig. Rugged box, literally a "stomp" box.

I havent dealt with Dunlop, but word is if the pedal breaks, its a $50 bench fee, so you might ask a friend who knows a thing or two about electronics to take a peek before you send it to Dunlop.

I only purchased this unit for use with my Rhodes set-up. The Roland JC-120 amp has seperate R and L amps, so for re-creating the suitcase "vibrato" effect, this pedal really does the trick. Additionally, you can get a wurlitzer-mono tremolo sound. I also find the pedal acts somewhat as a preamp for the rhodes, which is totally passive.

Pretty easy - best if you have 2 amps to take advantage of it's features, but one will suffice! slightly harder to use than a mono pedal but we need our stereo pan right?? I ma giving it a 10 because it is easy as it gets for a panning pedal.

Love that vintage Fender amp tremolo? Me too! This is the ticket my man! It really recreates that perfect throbbing tremolo very well. Think Vibrolux-ish. It has stereo outputs and can pan between two sources for a cool and very effective stereo panning effect!

no problems at all in 6 months. rock solid like the univibe!

don't know, like I said. it's a rock. and it rocks

Get's a nine over all. It's a beautifull sounding pedal with all that shimmer you would expect from a trem pedal. It's very vintage sounding.

I will give a nine, only because I think it should work like the univibe too, with an expression pedal for more control over the speed.

Even though no other tremolo pedals have the sounds or the features of the TS-1, The expression pedal would make it great!

I will give a nine although in it's genre it deserves a 10.

Intensity, Shape, and Speed - what other controls would you want or need?

I can't think of any reason to not give a 10 for sound. Very excellent sounding tremolo pedal. No volume or tone suction problems for me. I say ignore those reviewers who complain. Maybe they had sucky gear and tried to blame the pedal?

Very strong build.

Respond quickly to e-mails, personal and friendly and helpful.

Best tremolo pedal unless you spend way more money. Buy it. I will be purchasing more pedals from this company.