Electro-Harmonix Pulsar Reissue

Takes some getting used to. Some small things that kind of got annoying, but once mastered, are very usefull!
-Shape (Wave form)
-Rate (Speed of trem)
-Depth (how much it affects your signal)
-Wave shape switch (a ascending and descending wave, and a sqaure, almost ""on-off" wave)

unfortunetely, the "manual" is, well, not a manual.

kinda ghey.

Now i don't know about all this true bypass. and hissing and noise thst people are talking about. it's an analog tremelo, deal with it.

When not dicking around with settings, i primarly have the wave at 12:00, a symetrical wave form, the speed always changes so i dont care (But anything past 12:00 is uselessly fast), and the depth at it's max. Now here's the thing about the Depth Conrol, anything past a little past 3:00, it's stops working correctly, doubling the rate and creating s#!*... i dont know why. whatever, i just found where it didn't start effing up and left it. then i put it on the square wave. re-creates the "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" intro. pointless right?

WRONG, this is why i bought this pedal, to create whacky awesome sounds. i can make feedback sound like a heart rate moniter. beat that. Coupled with my Whammy WH-4, i can make my audience ask the greatest question a guitar player could want; "How did he do that?" and "WTF!?!?"

and of course you can set it up to make great beautiful sounds that are generic tremelo sounds, blah, blah, blah. but i love how EHX takes there effects and makes them OUTRAGIOUS!

it's be a 10 if the depth control wasn't weird.

looks like a muff, plays like a muff, but it's a tremelo. don't think it'll be dying anytime in this millenium.

never dealt with them,

Great pedal for many uses. dont buy it if you suck at guitar, i guess...

This pedal has only 3 knobs so how hard can it be right? wrong
There are no numbers along the knobs, so ist very hard to get the exact sound a second time.
Also the knobs do very strange things that are not very logical.
There are a lot of settings on this pedal nobody wil ever use, because the have no use.
The rate knobs doesn't do anything before its turned halfway up.
The debth knob does very strange things if you turn it further than 3 quaters. The rate wil go up and the debth wil decrease. First I thought it was broke. I emailed elektro harmonix and the sayd it was normal.
And the manual?what manual? there is one peace of paper that congratulate you thx al lot

First, some people say that this pedal is versatile.
Well thats a bit true with all functions accept the depth knob, this knob doesn't do a lot it ruines the whole pedal.
You cannot get this pedal silent between the pulses, forget machine gun sounds or playing "how soon is now". Your stick with somewhat moderate tremelo sounds.

Second, dont buy this pedal because it has a shape knob this knob is fun for about an hour but after that you will never use it. Well ok maybe you will but you can do without trust me.

Third,
!!!THIS IS THE REASON WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER BUY THIS PEDAL!!!
People who think or say that this pedal is true bypass are wrong, very wrong.
This is why,
If you put it between your guitar and your amp it cuts 5 db( I don't know exatly how much but it's easy noticeable)of your sound. A lot of people don't notice it however because EVEN IF YOU PUT IT ON BYPASS "THIS WORST PEDAL EVER" ALSO CUTS 5 DB OF YOUR SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So you don't notice it before you put your guitar directly in the amp.
They do this ofcourse so when you play with it and you turn the pedal off(on bypass), your sound won't get louder. But don't mather this is something a pedal should never do.

Also this pedal ofcourse is very noisy all kinds off hissing noise comes from this pedal. Some people say that easy to overcome just buy a noisesuppressor.What?!?!?!!?!?!?! Buying another pedal because a this pedal sucks noway!!!

But I must admit this pedal has some nice sounds that got me hypnotized for a few houers unfortunatly it has so many design faults its no fun using this pedal.

I returned it the next day

In my opinion this pedal is already broke when it leaves the factory.
I only had it for a day so I don't know how long it will last.

The replyed on my email 2 days after. Thats ok

This by far the worst pedal I ever played on.
I didn't know that they still made products that seemed to have so much flaws in them.
Some people are happy with this pedal because its cheap. The TR-X Vintage Tremelo has even more functions than the PULSAR and has no design flaws.
People in favor of the Pulsar say that it is really vintage and it has a mind of its onw.
Vintage isn't always better in fact most of the time its not why you think people moved on? The should remake this pedal keeping the nice vintage sounds and remove all the flaws.
And I understand when its nice that your guitar has it's own carakter and your amp, but you don't need pedals that do weird things that you don't need.

Don't buy this pedal if your planning on having lots of sounds. Only buy this pedal if your absolutely sure you will never get those vintage sound out of any pedal. And you really need that one sound.

Pedal can, and will make wild and crazy sounds(in a good way)
VERY versatile...so versatile in fact, I suggest you find a fine-tip felt pen and mark settings you love, Because you may never find them again.
Manual explains ONLY control function.
-No unit augmentation-

THIS PEDAL IS GREAT!! So much variance in terms of sound.
Fantastic quality, virtually no volume ghange(on most usable settings)

Okay, everyone and their mothers have been griping that it's not true-bypass...have you stopped to look INSIDE the unit? Apparently not.
The EHX Pulsar IS IN FACT TRUE-BYPASS. And now the issue w/the disengagement clicking. There IS clicking when unit is off. the LED is powered by battery, wired to switch, ALOT of true-bypass pedals are wired this way with the LED. The problem lies in this particular pedal having an LED which flashes based on settings, and a battery powering whether unit is off or not.
This coupled w/an amplifier boosting the signal = TA-DA! creepy phantom oscillation. So battery or Adapter,
you will get a quaint controllable clicking

Possible Cures:
1) Use pedal AFTER pre-amp stage(so the noise isn't boosted)
2) Have this fantasic unit analyzed and re-wired by a $professional$ (whoops, I mean "professional")
3) Use a separate bypass/loop box
4) 2 words, 4 syllables: NOISE SUPPRESSOR
5) don't power unit(makes a fancy looking line coupler)
6) DEAL WITH IT (small price to pay for good trem)

Sounds GREAT ...and CHEAP!
Rating : 8.64694565730280...

depend on it.
box will live,
nuts will loosen,
paint will die.

gig w/out backup

???

I A/B'd this big guy against some other items...

ZVEX Seek-trem : Great tone, but does too much of one thing (for me).
no variable waveform, seek-trem great for song parts, the sync-ing is as the french say "coule-asse". Beats EHX in size.

BOSS TR-2 tremolo : Awesome if you are looking for ye olde tremolo of amps long past. Wave knob goes from triangle to "square", noticable volume drop, Rate pales in comparison to Pulsar. The "square" was too soft-edged for my taste, prefer clarity of Pulsar. TR-2 kinda "tube-ish"

If you can overcome the noise issue, it's good stuff

Well what can I say its very tricky to get the right sound out of it, but if you like experimenting with the knobs then this is the pedal.

I cant complain it sounds like a tremolo. Many people have the problem of the noise it makes when its not engaged and the noise it makes when tweaking the knobs, I solved my problem by conecting the pedal to the efects loop on my amp, if I used it directly to the amp it created the nasty noise it produces.

Well I bought it a month ago. havent had a problem yet, it has a metal casing prety tough. I have a little concern with the input and output jacks they seem to grab the lines really hard so when pulling the line out im afraid I might brake it or something but if you hook it up to be steady with the rest of the pedals in your pedal board then no prob. !

Havent had to contact them yet.

I play alternative rock. I listen to very strange music jeje. Cant complain much about the pedal it gets the job done.

I'll tell you right off, this thing is a treasure to behold, but as with all treasures, you've gotta go digging for it. Maybe I'm just stupid, but I found this thing, at first, to be qutie a challenge to yank the sound I wanted out of. But only a couple of hours later, I found myself with the exact tremolo sound I had envisioned. The manual for this thing is a POS, but oh well, I managed without it. Take your time with this pedal and you shall be rewarded.

I use this with a Fender Princeton Chorus (original model, not the DSP reissue). This is my setup in order.

Gibson Les Paul Vintage Mahogany (fantastic guitar by the way) -> Dunlop Crybaby Classic -> MXR ZW-44 Wylde Overdrive -> Boss BF-3 Flanger -> Boss DD-6 Digital Delay -> Electro-Harmonix Pulsar Reissue -> Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor -> Amp

As you can see, I'm beginning to build up an arsenal, and I'm glad to have this thing at my disposal.

First off, let's get the no-no's out of the way.
-Do not turn the depth knob up to or very close to full. You will get the most completely crap sounds out of it with the buzzing and the everything.
-Be careful with putting distortion/overdrive/fuzz in front of this pedal. Without a good noise suppressor, you'll get a lot of echoing in the tremolo's quiet spots.
-This thing is quite noisy on some settings, but a little tweaking, a good noise suppressor, and you're golden.

If you tweak this pedal enough, you can get just about any tremolo sound you want. TRUST ME. You can get short choppy tremolo, or long, smooth tremolo, get it pulsing in time, have it drop off gradually. The cool things about this pedal are 1-The shape knob. I don't use it much personally (I keep it right in the dead center, the balanced shape setting), but it can help you tweak the tremolo in any way you imagine along with the other knobs. The waveform switch takes you between triangle-waveform (smooth sounding tremolo) and square-waveform (choppy sounding tremolo). I also like how the LED blinks in time with the tremolo, very cool feature.

I'd depend on this, but it's a little light. Seems quite durable, but I'm scared by its light weight, so I'll be careful with it.

Never dealt with 'em.

I play about every style under the sun (jazz, blues, funk, reggae, punk, ska, fusion, the list goes on...), but my heart lies firmly in old-school metal and good old-fashioned rock. Obviously, this pedal is used a lot less in metal, but hell, when I get my band up and going, I can think of plenty of metal-friendly uses for this baby! Rock, as you all know, has its share of tremolo in its more mellow moments, and this is the reason I bought this pedal, to get that cool "chopped-up haunting-sounding clean chord sequence" thing goin' on. BULLSEYE!!! I've played about 2 1/2 years, and I've listed all my gear already, no reason to do that again. What do I love about it? It's everything I want in a tremolo! The rate knob, although, seems to be a bit TOO versatile. I can't find a use for anything past 10:00 on it. After a point, it's going so fast, you can't tell the tremolo is even there! If this thing got stolen, someone would be getting their ass kicked MAJORLY. If it was lost, hell, I'd be saving up for another one. This thing has already helped me make some very cool song sections, and given me some ideas for songs in the future...my little box of inspiration. What do I wish it had...? Maybe a differently shaped 9V adapter so I don't have to use the ONE blue connection adapter thing that came with my Godlyke PA-9 Powerall Power Supply.

Fairly easy to use once you get an understanding of the pedal. One knob changes the shape of the wave, the other changes the speed. Also, there is a switch for going between square and triangle wave modes, and obviously a stomp switch.

Excellent. There is absolutely no sound coloration, no noise and no volume change from the original signal. This was actually a little surprising as most guitar pedals don't work quite right for bass (cutting off the low and such), but this one is perfect.

Also, great in an effect loop as it can do everything from subtle vintage trem to crazy helicopter noises. My favorite sound is ebow >> env. filter >> big muff >> pulsar.

Bass >> GR-20 >> Synth Wah/Env. Filter >> Big Muff Pi >> Opto Stomp >> GEB-7 >> DD-6 >> Pulsar >> RC-20xl >> amp

I use a variety of basses as well as chapman stick and upright electric, this pedal works on all.

I don't use it as often as some of my other pedals, but it was my first (odd choice, I know) and has withstood the last couple years quite nicely.

I would go on a gig without a backup -- it's built like a tank and I don't use it as much as it deserves.

Dunno. Never had a problem.

I play pretty much everything, and if there's a weird way to do something, I'll give it a try. That said, it's also great for subtle usable-every-song sounds. I had a guitarist friend use it with

My only real problem is that it's a little too deep -- huge tweakability -- which occassionally leads to some distance between usable or desired sounds.

Not easy at all people... Needs a lot of time of searching and pulling knobs and switches to find out the way this things really works, especially because the triangle waveform and the square waveform behave in a totally different way.
But in the end of the day you'll probably be very happy to have all these features unveiled. From light background tremolo to pure square waves up to ring modulator this thing can do a lot of nice things.

Almost perfect as almost every EHX product. It doesn't affect the pitch or the master volume level when engaged or disengaged and it can reach from 60s vintage tremolo sounds to synth-like square waves and LFOs.
The best thing for me is the pure square.It sounds quite like the tremolos Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) uses on songs like "Lucky" and "My iron Lung". Putting shape at 12 o'clock and depth around 3 o'clock, you can use the speed knob to change the speed of the effect.The flashing led can help you find the right speed and if you put it's output through a long delay on the same millisecond rate...it's awesome!!!Just hold a chord or note and it will keep playing and playing...
Many people claim that it sounds too digital. Well I totally disagree. Some settings sound very synth-like and that's a very different thing, which I personally like!
I also used it on a friends rhodes stage piano and it was really cool. It somehow arpeggiates the keyboard's sound and if you try a little bit and synchronize it with beats and bass line it can kick ass for electronica, trip-hop and stuff like that.

Well it's an EHX pedal. Built like a tank with a stell chassis all over it, you have to try hard to break something on it.

I bought it from a friend who had it for 2 months and used it in 4-5 recordings and 2-3 live gigs. It didn't even had scratches on the surface and dust around the knobs. So I can't consider it as "used" but anyway...

Never had to deal with EHX support because all my stompboxes work fine.

Needs time to learn how to use it, and I mean a lot of time...but when you are done with the hard part, it's a real pleasure! Great sound quality, lots of fx capabilities from light tremolo to ring modulation...try it!

Three knobs and one Square / Sine wave switch. It seems to be quite easy but all the knobs react to each other. If you max the depth knob at some settings you get no modulation at all. I wanted a very harsh square wave that went from silence to full but I couldn't quite find it. It went from quiet to full volume, not silent.

For such a simple effect it's quite difficult - far too hard for most guitarists (who tend to be quite a simple bunch) to figure out in a hurry. All the great successes in the guitar world tend to be very simple (telecasters, boss pedals and so on).

I differ from most people here in that I use a guitar and various other instruments as a tone generator into various effects into a mixer, then the PA. I never use a guitar amp so I have no comments about noise in a standard guitar - amp set up.
This pedal is designed for guitar ie midrange frequencies. It has far less effect on samples outside that frequency range. I also wanted a harsh stuttering effect that went from silence to max. It doesn't quite mute the sound, which is odd because the huge range in the speed knob suggests an extreme pedal. I would have liked more depth in the "depth" knob. It's just too subtle.
I like the enormous range in the speed knob. It goes from slow throbs of 10 seconds or more to psuedo ring modulator sounds. Good stuff, although I'm not sure how useful this is for most people wanting to play "How Soon Is Now".

EH pedals are not boss pedals. But they are not quite plastic junk either. Some people break their pedals at once, some use them for years. It runs on batteries so there is no problems with a stupid wall wart running on 40v volts like some other EH pedals I could mention.

EH have been pretty good to me for service in the past, and I've had no bad experiences.

EH pedals are made by American hippies. This means you can get some unique sounds that you don't usually get with regular stompboxes but often you don't know what the hell they were thinking. But their pedals are pretty cheap compared to the boutique pedal rip offs. This is an odd Tremolo pedal and as such it's quite interesting.

Nonetheless I sold the pulsar immediately. It's too subtle and I couldn't get the sound I wanted and I didn't have time to tweak knobs all day to find it. As with all EH pedals it's huge and takes up a lot of space, but I was expecting that and would be willing to overlook it if it sounded good enough.

This pedal eats batteries. A new battery lasts about 15 minutes in the pulsar. This is probably due to the flashing LED that blinks in time with the speed. Good idea, but utterly flawed if it kills the battery life.
The AC socket is a different type to boss pedals, meaning that I would have to use another PSU from my multi tap to use it live. I use an awful lot of gear live and I simply do not have the strength to lift much more than I have now. This meant that I decided to use a sequencer to make interesting throbbing and stuttering sounds in the studio, and a Boss TR2 live. The TR2 is not nearly as interesting, but it does the job much better than the Pulsar. Good try EH, but it wasn't for me. Keep taking those drugs guys.

I thought it was easy to use a few months back when I bought it. Rate determines rate, depth, depth, and shape a mystery. I was wrong. Dependent on the combinations of the knobs anything can control the rate. You do have to get to know the pedal and find out what it can do, not just turn the knobs and get what you expect. e.g. you need more depth on a square wave or if you're using distortion.
EHX brags that the knobs go past a standard tremolo's usable setting, but that's not really any sort of benefit. The Depth is useless before 12 o'clock, and the rate starts making dull robot noises after 12. The usable range is about 1/4 of the knob, so turning it ever so slightly will give you a vastly different speed, making it a challenge to remember that great setting you found the other day.

The manual is totally useless.

Fender Fat Strat -> Pulsar -> Traynor YCV40WR
You get noise sometimes, often it's inaudible. I'm not sure what's affecting it. You can tell, turn up the rate and the noise changes speed. I do wonder why they'd use a DPDT switch if they weren't going to True Bypass the blasted thing.

The sound is very bright, but the shape is rather variant. I can get a good subtle Death Cab sound to a really jagged Our Lady Peace.

Turn up the depth for distorted signal and for a good square wave sound. Square wave - 'Bang Bang' by Nancy Sinatra (from Kill Bill)

I don't expect it to short out on me; I bought it used and I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. It's very large, solid, and made of sheet metal, but I don't expect to be going after it with a hammer for any reason.

I play alt rock and it's suitable for my rig. It's just a tremolo, so it does its job, but there ought to be a bevy of interesting sounds you can get out of it.
I used to have an expensive multi-effects box, and I have to say the Pulsar outdoes it in Sound Quality, but certainly not in ease of use.
If it did become lost I'd probably try out some other models, maybe spend a bit more, but it was fairly cheap, attractive, and has its own unique sound. It's also an easy target with a big switch.
I do wish it had a Tone/Color knob and less range in the existing knobs. A few settings are interesting (the ring mod-ish tones others have mentioned) but utterly useless if not for a laugh.

Fairly straightforward layout. Offers much more scope to experiment with sounds than most trem pedals, although whether or not this is constitutes an advantage depends on the type of sounds you're after...

My setup is 88 USA Std Strat/Explorer/Steinberger > Yamaha OD > Powertran Black Hole Chorus-vibrato > EH Small Stone > Yamaha DDS 20M delay > Vibrochamp/Deluxe Reverb.

I bought the Pulsar for more choppy, modern trem sounds than the Fender trem sounds my amps offer, and to see whether I could dispense with the amps in certain circumstances. Overall, the Pulsar is a quiet, flexible unit. It does allow for modern/choppy/extreme trem sounds, and does approximate the classic Fender sound - however, after extensive A/B testing, I'd say that the Pulsar just can't equal the shape and quality of Fender's valve-driven trem sound.

For those wanting to use trem for the odd song/part I'd recommend it, especially for the price. For those wanting to nail the Fender sound, I'd have to advise they look elsewhere - Voodoo Labs, Demeter, for instance.

I've used EH stuff for many years and have never had any problems, although I wish they'd use a finish that would offer a bit more protection than the look-at-it-and-its-scratched finish they seem satisfied with

never dealt with them

Good quality, quiet, flexible unit and you can find them at reasonable prices if you hunt around. If only it could nail the Fender sound it'd be a 10.

Still, I'd recommend anyone after a trem pedal should try it out

Because of the scope for various shaped waves it take quite a while to get to grips with this pedal. For instance, if you want a perfect on/off square wave tremolo you have to set the dept know to 70% not 100% as you might think.

But at the end of the day, it is just a tremolo, so it is quite a doddle to use...

Good good sound quality. Whether it's a warm or harsh effect you're after, this pedal is great. No problems or noise.

But what's classy about this pedal is the variations in tones. There's loads of scope in changing the shape of the tremolo, so you can get lovely helicopter effects or even some ring modulation. I love sticking a big muff before it and letting your guitar feedback into the pedal, and then mess about with the tremolo speed.

Another smashing feature is the LED that flashes at the same speed as the pedal... Gimicky, but nice...

Battery life is the only downside. It's not bad, just not as good as other EHX pedals.

N/A

I really rate this as a super tremolo. Nice scope for sounds. All you need I think... Quite cheap as well... Only disappointment is the battery life.

"Easy" to use if you know how tremolo works. This pedal contains unique wave forms, missing the point for what I was looking for (like usable sounds). Knobs are waaaaaaaaaaay to sensative, if you hear a trem sound and would like to hear it on your guitar, good luck! The first half of the knob is rediculously slow trem speeds and before you know, you're in ring modulater land.

I can't remember the sound quality because I was so amazed at how I couldn't get close to the trem speed I wanted. Completely lost interest soon after. Try before you buy this one. I think EH products have a reputation for varying from one to the next.

Returned it.

Additional tremolo pedals I have tried include T-Rex Tremster (which is great for vintage tremolo sounds), Boss TS-2, Z. Vex Seek Trem (unique sequencing tremolo), and Lux FX Trem Lux. The Pulsar was easily the worst, considering I like the other ones. The Pulsar reissue that I recieved from musiciansfriend was sent straight back. Not as interesting of a pedal as it may appear. The speed knob being the biggest issue on this one.

Lots of options means it's not the easiest pedal to use. Lots of good sounds in this though. I like how the pedal can get very extreme, from helicopter sounds, to very subtle like a regular trem pedal. There is a toggle switch that goes between square and triangle wave forms and then depending on where the toggle is set, there is a knob that adjusts the timing of the trem on either side of the center of the throb. To get a standard trem sound I use triangle toggle, with it set in the middle. Putting the knob on either side can get an almost 'backwards' sounding effect. There are tons of sounds in there. Inspired me to play with the pedal, and I think that is always the sing of a good pedal

I think the pedal sounds great. I play a fender strat into a deluxe reverb and I play surf - influenced indie something. The pedal is true bypass. I tested this by taking out the battery and removing all sources of power and the guitar signal was still present, true bypass, yes indeed. Doesn't suck tone or drop volume when engaged. Can sound warm or sci-fi-ish. Put this before a nice delay and watch out. There is a rate led that shows the tempos which comes in handy. Batteries seems to last a long time. Not noisy in my experience. I tried out the line 6 mm4 (nice trems, but that's about it - not worth 249), the line 6 tonecore trem (it broke at the store), the t-rex tremster (nice trem, but at 200 bucks simply not versatile enough) and the pulsar one hands down and it was only 89 bucks.

Seems well-built. I've never had a problem with Electro-harmonix's stuff. I've owned many of their cool pedals, and I'm a big fan. But it didn's come in a wooden box, that was a bit disappointiong.

don't know

Overall, a very nice true bypass, trem pedal with a ton of options, from traditional to far out spacey. I like that. I also like the fact that it runs on batteries and that the input/output jacks are at the top of the pedal, why aren't all pedals built this way, do guitar pedal makers actually play out? It's a damn cool affordable pedal. Keep it up EHX!

Not the easiest to be honest. However, with quite a bit of fiddling you will possibly get what you hoped for.

Using a Gibson 335 & a Fender Jaguar throuh a Fender blues junior. The pedal didn't suck the life out of it when the pedal was switched off, which was good. I found the sound when switched on however was quite light and not as strong as I hoped.

This item had a faulty LED on it when I took delivery of it. I will be sending it back for a full refund and NOT a replacement unit.
The construction of this pedal is pathetic. It creaks and groans when you gently squeeze it in your hands. I would fear stomping on it incase your foot went through the cheap-thin sheet metal and you ended up wearing it as a novelty shoe!
Extremely 'clunky' footswitch which if I kept this pedal would be bust in no time.

I have emailed the store I bought it from (not the manufacturer) and am yet to receive a reply.

I think the sound is something I could have worked with which is why I have given the ease of use and sound quality categories middle of the road reviews. You will however need patience.

My main thing is the overall poor build quality of this pedal. I expected so much more from E-H.

I would suspect there are much better tremolo pedals out there than this one.

to ANON!!!!
first thing: shape knob in sine mode,
if the shape knob is turned all the way counterclockwise it will produce a 'rise' tremolo effect which IS NOT fender type of trem. if you want 'classical tremolo' square or sine you should leave the shape in the middle (12 o'clock).

second thing: you cannot turn the depth all the way down because then there's no effect, even around 12 o'clock it's too damn subtle.


Third thing: Pulsar is never going to sound like old trem units because it does not use optical sensors. pulsar rather sounds digital, but it's not digital. anyway, if you want to catch a very close sound to fender tremolos you should try Voodoo Lab Tremolo or Rocktron Pulse Trem, they both use photocells inside. Fender uses tube.

forth thing:
I have tried 4 different pulsars in 3 stores with several amps each and all of the pedals had the same problem: if put in front of the amp it will have the static sounds in it, and you can control the rate of static with rate knob on pulsar. this happens only when trem effect is off. thus the pedal is not true bypass.

Pulsar in my opinion is the worst waste of money you can have and I'd rate everything with a 1. but I did before so I don't need to rate it again.

i wonder if the people giving the negative reviews have the same pedal that i do. no matter what kind of music you play, you're gonna hear rave reviews about a certain pedal, try it out yourself, and be disappointed because it doesn't suit your personal style. (look at tubescreamer reviews. it's both the best pedal ever AND the most overrated one.)

well, let's get this straight: the EH PULSAR is a good pedal. whether it suits your style is a different question. it's a bit tricky so you have to spend more than a minute to find the sweet sounds that are there. and, yes, most likely they are there. whether it's a soft traditional trem or choppy pysch, you'll find em with a bit of patience.

let me put it this way. fendery tremolo is possible to approximate, but since a turn of one knob puts you way out into space-trem, you have to put your settings within a certain, rather limited range. going outside taht range puts you outside of traditional trem territiory. to get fender-like sounds you set it at triangle wave (with the shape knob turned counterclockwise), rate all the way over at between 9-10 o'clock and the depth WAY down. if you set it there and nudge, say, the depth knob, you go way out past fender territory. what this means is that electro-harmonix has packed a lot into this pedal. the rate goes so fast that it becomes a chirpy ring mod sound or so slow that it's not usable. the depth makes the trem disappear, make a subtle appearance, or create polyrhythms. so, for sound freaks like me, it's a pandora's box.

no, it doesn;t sound exactly like a fender but if you fiddle around it'll sound as much like it as most other pedals out there.

no boost, just pure sweet trem-o-riffic magic.
take any pedal you have in your chain, look up reviews for it and read about an awful hiss--or maybe a ghost signal--that you know isn't there with your pedal. i never ever never got hiss or ghosts with mine and have used it with 3 different amps as well as direct recording.
as stated below, sometimes your other gear just interferes with a new addition. don't ask ME why. i just PLAY pedals, i don't MAKES 'em.

Can you depend on it?
yes, i can. i really can.

no, i'm not from EH and there are many pedals they make that i don;t like. but this is a good 'un (and also the only one i have of theirs). so there!

the PULSAR is the most flexible non-boutique trem pedal in the world!! long live the PULSAR!
(well, i haven't tried out that line 6 thingy but it's expensive--not to mention from line 6.)
compared to the others, it has way more range and flexibility. it doesn't SOUND better cuz it shouldn't sound like anything. it's just offers more diversity for the same price. nice!

Very hard to find a tremolo sound, forget the "good and warm tremolo" sounds. It's so cold I can cool down my car's engine with it. But then my engine would sound sterile because of the pedal.

Pulsar works stupidly if you push it a little hard, like picking up hard, or using a booster before the pedal. The signal breaks up in a very ugly way. If you're using a tele or strat with vintage pickups you may not be able to push it that much, but if you're using a high output pickup, this turns into a nightmare. I use custom ESP, all maple with SD JB in bridge and JB Jr. in the neck. The Pedal is useless for my playing styles.

I play a lot of funk and this is not my pedal, not for anyone who plays with a sharp attack. It's not for softer players either because it's not soothing, pulsar's the coldest tremolo pedal I ever touched.
Horrible product electro harmonix. It's a very bad idea after making so many great pedals.

3 knobs and 1 2-way switch. it's pretty much like regular tremolos except SHAPE knob which makes this thing unique as I know. shape functions differently according to the wabe switch. in 'tri' mode it rises and drops the volume according to the chozen shape. in 'square' it defines how long the signal will be. it's hard to explain, but take a close look at the graphics on the pedal and you'll have an idea.
I can say it's easy to use because almost all the settings sound nice and even unusual which is very exciting.
it's hard to get the 'MAX' point in the depth which traditionally shoul make a total boost-cut. it goes over the limit (EH tradition) so finding that spot will not be so easy.

I just want to respond to Anon because of "i just want to respond to unky donald's comments below on the sound quality."

what u. donald is saying is completely true!!! THANK YOU U. DONALD.

pulsar is a good (not great) idea for a tremolo pedal.
HOWEVER, it is NOT TRUE BYPASS!!!!!!!!!!

WOW! IT"S NOT TRUE BYPASS. all of you people of this planet are dreaming. I'm a cursed person about these stuff because I'm extremely picky.

1st. thing is you put a tremolo effect wherever you like, I mean before or after preamp, dist, effect, delay... whatever you like and works is GOOD! this is the only RULE we all know in the world of effects.
so, let's say I hate how trem sounds after dist. it just simply lowers and highers the volume, sounds unnatural to me somehow. but it's me.
however, I loke trem before dist. A-HA! now it sounds amaizng. trem in a moderate setting will cut and boost the signal to dist causing a low gain-high gain effect! please try it once.
by doing this you'll get this effect: if you hit the notes you won't hear the trem until the sound starts to fade!!!
portishead anyone??? using trem before amp so the mind blowing awe!

does pulsar do this? YES! BUT!!!!!!!!! if you disengage the effect you will hear an enormous parasite like noise!
I can tell you how to reduce the noise and that is to turn your RATE all the way down.... sounds ridiculous, ha?
turn the rate all the way up and enjoy that noice in a louder faster and stronger way.
let me share one more thing with you all beautiful people.

I have used the pedal to get the noise! put the rate at max, depth at zero. turn the pedal on, no noise. turn it off to have the noise. it's a very nice flavour IMHO. but this is definitely not the purpose of the pedal, right?

so, you have the idea now. if you use pulsar after preamp-dist stages it should sound fine.

I also noticed a very slight treble boost or hiss when the unit is one. no biggie.

now the most important part!

SOUND QUALITY IS BAD, because it sounds so damn sharp. too edgy, very digital like. I know it's analoque but it's not soft or round at all!
so, in square it chops perfectly but cannot do any milder more buttery trem trick.

oh, and the 2 way switch isn't a good idea because there are so many delightful sounds right there between these two positions which you can never have with pulsar!

I gave it a 2 just because of the noise issue that I could add to my dist sound :D
otherwise it's a 1, or even a minus 10

built liek the other EH pedals. I guess I would be able to use it for years. be careful about the paint job, scratcing is so easy.

but again, I would never use this so it will last forever and ever.

no idea, but EH has a bad reputation about this.

well, if a fender twin reverb amp (that is magix) or a Voodoo Lab Tremolo never existed, I would think 'tremolo ain't good'.

this is my opinion but if you want some crazy tremolo-like THING go for pulsar. you can even get close to some ring mod tones!!!
but if you want a traditional, nice and soft trem, go for a Voodoo Lab or a Boss PN-2 (not TR-2, that's horrible)...

A bit more to it than your average trem pedal, but still easy to use. You just have more control over the sound e.h. sine vs square wave (and a knob to adjust the 'squareness'

Excellent. No tone sucking when on or off, no change in level (a real plus), qiuet in operation. Modulation only, it doesn't affect the tone, which is exactly what you want. It is capable of all the usual trem sounds, but is felxible enough to allow some extreme settings not possible on other trems.
It sounds great with guitar, but I actually bought it for Fender Rhodes piano.

Built like the proverbial. It's also huge, which is not really a bad thing unless you already have a crowded pedal board. I would definitely use it without a backup.

Never had to deal with them, so can't comment.

Great for guitar and also for Rhodes (mono output only though, so no L to R ping-pong). I agree with comments that the manual is almost non-existent and the lack of info regarding a suitable power supply is pretty rubbish considering there is no labelling on the pedal itself as to which kind/polarity to use. However, common sense lets you work it out. The socket itself is metal, meaning the 'shield' part of the connector is connected to the case of the pedal. In this situation, it can only be a 'tip positive, shield negative' supply, otherwise the positive voltage would be going to the case! Still, EH should make this clear - they have a reputation for doing this because they want you to buy an EH PSU, which is no more special than one you can get anywhere for less. This minor niggle aside, it's a great pedal. Extra control, no volume boost/drop, no tone sucking. These points alone put it above every other trem I tested.

i just want to respond to unky donald's comments below on the sound quality. the one thing i love about the pulsar is that it's silent. i've played a single coiled yamaha and a 70s electra with high-output humbuckers and i've never had a problem with noise.
i realize that u.d. suspects a problem with the unit itself but i wonder if it's a problem with a combination of gear. for example, i read somewhere just before i got the pulsar that a trem should go at the beginning of the pedal chain, which didn't make sense but i tried it. and i got the same ghost that u.d. mentions. i then put it after my o.d. + distortion units and presto--no sound whatsoever. and i've played through it deafeningly loud. so if there is a sound problem, the solution might be changing the pedal sequence, putting the unit in a loop, etc.

i'll mention once again (my review was the first one down there) that i love the fact that the pulsar does not boost the signal--no treble boost or mids-boost (which also sounds like a volume boost), etc. i have another trem in my chain (dod's vibrothang which also does vibrato and a nice leslie) but the oulsar is a keeper because of its versatility and bypass qualities.

Easy to get a good sound, lots of different types of tremolo available.
Takes awhile to understand the different wave forms, but easy once you work them out.
The manual, however, is crap. Just a loose piece of paper and with minimal instructions!
I give it an 6 for ease of use because it has more features than most tremolo's (not a bad thing!) which complicates matters. Also, to get a really slow, throb, you have to take the rate up, and then bring it down, which is counter intuitive. I haven't taken any point of for the crap manual because it has no effect on the unit itself.

Sounds really good, very crisp and clear, doesn't colour the tone when turned off. I do wonder if it drops the volume just a little bit, but Im not sure.

I havent had it long so I dunno, but it comes in a great big metal case, with sturdy input jacks, so I reckon its pretty good.

Like I said, the manual is crap, doesn't even tell you whether the AC is pin negative or positive! Haven't contacted the company though.

I play bluesy, jazzy rock. This pedal is great for it. I play it though a CORT Source (like an es-345) - hotcake- big muff - Pular - Tube AMP.
If it were stolen I would try the wiggler, simply because it have the vibrato option, but if I was in a hurry or whatever, I wouldn't hesistate to get another one.
The one thing that would be great in a trem wouyld be a tap-tempo/rate. That would be REALLY something.

Very easy to use. Three knobs and a toggle between triangle and square waves. "Manual" is a half-sheet 2-sided photocopy, but you won't need it if you let your ears do their job.

OK, so I bought this on-line. Caveat emptor.

Everything mentioned below is accurate. It's amazing how this raises the expectaion level for what you want from a trem pedal. What's left out of the comments below is when the unit is disengaged. No tone sucking, so that's a plus, right?

BUT: Let's say you have a set of Kinman hum-cancelling pickups going into an awsome hi-fi Class A Top Hat Club Royale. You have delicacy and nuance of tone at your fingertips, and the amp has a reputation for being pedal friendly. So you get done tweaking some quick, truly happenin' sounds from your new E-H Pulsar (which hasn't been out of its wooden box more than a minute) and you press the button to disengage the unit 'coz you gotta know what this thing does when it's off.

No tone sucking (cool) ... but wait: what's that? RF? nope.

The ghosts of the knobs' settings come crackling through like the static caused by distant lightning strikes heard on an AM radio. Or like "Switched on Bach" plays in "the space between the notes" of your guitar. You can actually hear some Moog-esque/R2D2 sounds come through your amp when you twist the knobs: dooooweeEEEEEEEEoooo brpchrp clkclkclkclkclkclkclkclkclk rrrrrrrEEEEeeeeeeewww. But, that's not what the pedal was made for. No, your guitar tone is not altered, but that crackling's gotta go!

(Didn't bother with dirty amp settings: if you know it's there, it's gonna bug ya.)

What cheeses me at myself is that I bought it based on VG's June04 glowing review (of a major advertiser's product >>doh!<<) : "Hey, I'm in the market for a trem pedal, so why not?" TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!

I couldn't put it back into its box and ship it "home" soon enough. I won't know. Seems heftier than the E-H pedals of yore

I couldn't put it back into its box and ship it "home" soon enough. I won't know.

Back in the day, I had the Small Clone, Small Stone, Switch Blade, Memory Man, Electric Mistress, Big Muff Pi, the fuzz that plugged straight into the guitar, the "synth": I know E-H. While the Pulsar is an excellent idea, it would be worth the extra money to add the filtering required to prevent the unit's signal bleed WITHOUT sacrificing the guitar tone.

The pulsar is very easy to use, the knob/switch is marked with graphics of the wave shape. The rate control and the depth control are very simple too. I love that the LED pulses to the rhythm of the tremolo, very handy in live situations. The Pulsar gets a 9 for ease of use simply because it's so freaking big. EH has got ego issues I think, because the pedal case is mostly hollow. Oh well.

The sound quality in my opinion is great. The tremolo doesn't alter my tone at all, it is virtually noiseless, and all the variations of wave shape and intensity are usable. In fact, as another reviewer mentioned, you can get tones that border on ring modulator. I love the stuttery sounds that the extremes of the wave shape knob make. Very rhythmic. All and all, the best tremolo I've ever played.

Seems strong and reliable to me. I don't a backup, so I don't have a choice.

Don't know.

I do everything from Vintage Rock to Modern shimmery spacey music and this trem pulls off all of it. Very usable. I've been playing for about 5 years, and this trem is the most bang for the buck I've found.

Fairly easy to use (duh - it's a trem!), but not quite as straight forward as most tremolo pedals. But then again, it is more versatile. It has the usual speed and depth pots, but has a switch to change between triangle and square (chop) wave, with a third pot to adjust the wave shape further. This is great because it can do all the usual tremolo effects plus some extreme settings that can't be done on other trems. I have to knock some points off for a major frustration though that probably applies to all the new EH pedals -the 'manual' is a tiny piece of paper. There's little information generally and no info on what power supply to use. It uses a non-standard power connector (1/8" jack socket), but there's no info on whether this should be tip-positive or tip-negative. This is not good enough EH. This caused me to damage one by using the wrong polarity power, but the shop replaced it because they had told me the wrong info about power - so even the dealer didn't know! There is no protection circuit either. This pedal actually requires a positive-tip, negative shield jack power supply - you don't need to buy the EH one - that's a myth. As long as it is 9V and can supply more than 100mA, it will be fine. No information about how the pedal uses power either - does it drain the battery with a jack connected to the IN jack? Does inserting a power jack disconnect the battery? Does the on/off switch double as a power switch? Who knows - EH didn't bother to tell us.

This pedal sounds great with guitar but I actually bought it for use with a Fender Rhodes piano - sounds great. (Fender Rhodes 73 Stage Mark 1 > Morley wah > Fender Deluxe 90 amp). It has a true bypass stomp switch, so no tone sucking when off. There is virtually no difference in basic instrument tone (or, crucially, volume) between on and off - which beats pretty much every other trem I've used hands down. Most other trems boost or cut the signal when switched on, which is a pain you can do without. Not on this puppy. There is virtually no noise either, although a little bit of pulsating swoosh is expected with any trem, but this is only barely noticable and only when not playing, so it makes no odds. Another plus is the fact that stomping on and off causes no amp click whatsoever (in my setup anyway). The range (and I'm not just talking speed) of trem sounds this thing can knock out is great, turning what is essentially a very simple amplitude modulation effect into a much more creative tool. Everything from smooth and subtle amp-style trems to pulsating chops at brain haemorrhage speed. The speed range is so broad that the highest setting actually causes the sound to double in a kind of ring-modulator type way. EH really have done a great job with this pedal.

As long as you don't get caught out with the power supply problem, this thing should last forever - it's built like a tank. All the controls feel nice and sturdy too. I've only had it a few days so time will tell. I'd happily use it without a backup.

Never dealt with customer support at EH, but when it came to advising me on the right power jack to use, the dealer didn't know...er...jack! EH support lines are probably tied up with people trying to find out power supply details or people that have royally shanked the pedal by connecting the wrong type. For Pete's sake, include a proper manual EH! It wouldn't take much effort to make one and there's plenty of room for it in the huge, pointless wooden bird box the pedal comes in!

Overall, this is the best and most versatile tremolo I've ever used, and I've tested many. If it were lost, I'd definitely get another one. If it were stolen I'd make it my mission to find the git that stole it and beat him on the head with it until either the pedal or his head caved in - I'm pretty sure which would give first - the pedal is built like a brick sh*t house. It's so versatile (for a trem) and it didn't break the bank either. I wish it had a diagram/label next to the power socket (tip positive, sleeve negative), or just a standard centre-negative power connector like the majority of the pedal-making world! A minor issue is that this pedal is LARGE! This doesn't bother me much, but it might irritate those that have a crowded pedal board already. It would also benefit from a proper manual instead of the crappy flyer currently provided. Pedal worthy of an overall 10, but frustration caused by rubbish product information. If you need a good tremolo that gives you a highly adjustable effect without sacrificing your basic sound, this is it!

Very easey to use! In about 3 seconds you have a great sound!!!!!!!!!

I'm giving this a strait out 10 because mike and the boys have done homework here! E-H is back and with a vengence. Thery're making AFFORDABLE-GREAT SOUNDING_TRUE BYPASS PEDALS!! Ok fuzzy how about this one?? I bought this pedal just to try out and thinking it would end up on ebay--Boy was I wrong!!! This pedal has everythin I wanted in a trem and the main thing was an unusualy fast rate! As the man stated below he thinks it's a take off of the prescription thro! Wrong! I had the throb. It sucked! The trem is slow/ I had the tremulator and found it was fast and week! Volume drop. I'v had the colorsound trem- too slow- I had the vooddoo lab 4 knob good but not as near as good as the pulsar!!!!!!!! this pedal has no drop in volume and goes from very buttery to very chopey! This pedal goes form slow to wobulator fast (I also have the lovetone wobulator which this pedal sounds like but is less expensive)!!!! This pedal will end up on radio heads pedal board. I just can't beleive how great this trem is for $89! I has a 3 dpt switch for real true bypass with led!!!!!!!!! I like this version better than my original pulsar! I love this pedal! The only gripe I have is that I wish it was the size of a small stone for more pedal board realestate! Buy this pedal you won't be sorry!!!!!!

I own over 200 E-H pedals! They are easey to fix and the new ones E-H will look out for ya. I Can't beleive how they still treat customers 1 on 1 and very polite!!!!!! E-H is coming up with new pedals that have $$$ boutiqe pedal makers sh-tting in their pants!

Every time I call they seem to go out of the way to help ma and I remember and appreciate that!!!!!!!!I have so many damn E-H pedal they should name one after me! The fuzzycarter!!!!!!!