Marshall VT-1 VibraTrem

Pitch Vibrato and Tremolo in one unit...not that hard. I WANT TO CLEAR UP THE CONFUSION ABOUT THIS PEDAL SO PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW.

IF YOU READ ANY REVIEW READ THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This pedal got some really high scores and really low scores. So I brought one to see what the real deal was. By nature the pedal is suppose to be a some what a ?subtle? (not too subtle!!), ?vintage? sounding effect, I?m just stating that so you don?t buy it and give it a bad review. The reviews with the low scores complained of the effect being too subtle and of a trebly volume boost, and yes I have experienced both these problems. BUT, and a big BUT, that was when I used it with a BATTERY! Now, this was exaggerated when I used a weaker battery; BUT, and a big BUT, when I used a 9v power supply the effect sounded much, much, much, better AND NO TREBLE BOOST! So, I think that a battery can?t withstand the current draw this thing needs... Anyway, I just like to say that I think it is a great sounding effect! Thank-you for your time. ::jason::

I don't see it breaking any time soon.

All big companies care about is money. I would too if I had it.

I like it, but there are better ones out there...it's hard to find a pitch vibrato/tremolo in one unit at this price!!! I like it!!! Crack Whores and Jelly Beans.

Simple. Choose your effect and use the other knobs to change speed, depth and shape. Not real easy to get a good vibrato sound out of it though, hence the 8.

Tremolo. The other reviews harp on about the fact that it sounds digital blah blah blah. For those who don't have "fuck i am a pussy sensitive ears" or think that the audience is actually going to care or know better, forget about it!!! This thing is ANALOG. Besides, a tremolo simply turns the sound off, on, off in varying degrees depending on your settings. This pedal is also a STEREO pedal. All those "studiophiles" for want of a better term who think the only pedal to have is an expensive overpriced piece of crap that they only bought coz so and so has got one, check and see if your is - I doubt it. I only had one amp on hand to try this thing, so I can't comment any further on that. Tremolo = as good as any other trem that I have heard/tried.

Vibrato. Here's where this unit did not impress me. I guess the term vibrato is used to encompass a wide variety of wobbling, throbbing, shaking, sounds. I was after a mushy squashing wobble, and this thing is more of a pulsing thing. Not my cup of tea, but it might be yours. 5 out of 5 for the trem, 0 out of five for the vibrato, simply coz it is not what I was looking for.

I have the ed-1 compressor and I could use it to stop my car from rolling. Solid metal, good quality footswitch and input/output jacks. Never had a problem.

Never dealt with them.

I loved the tremolo, but as I was mainly after a vibrato I couldn't but this thing. I really wanted to because the tremolo would have been an added bonus, but the vibrato was just not what I was after. It didn't sound bad, it's just not the sound that I want. I tried the Danelectro chicken salad, and it is exactly what I am after. Here is a tip. Forget about brand name, price, who else uses it and what it looks like. Don't go looking for a pedal that nails that perfect univibe sound, or a perfect MXR phase 90 sound and be disappointed when it doesn't , then jump on Harmony Central and abuse the hell out of it and dismiss it as crap. if you want THAT sound, go and buy THAT bit of (probably more expensive) crap. Expand your horizons and never never never buy a pedal coz your favourite artist uses it on a record - the amount of compressors and EQ's and other shit that the signal goes through will probably change the sound.

ITS A PEDAL, it doesnt get any easier to use than this.

Very good, It sounds digital, but for an effect that oscilates the level or pitch of ur playing its bound to, if it didnt it wouldnt b a very good trem/vib unit now would it? great for radiohead and for spooky sounds. of course it doesnt sound as good as a professional effect but its not quite in that sort of price range.

I would bet my life on this thing, its metal case is hard as hell. its never given me as much as a hint of breaking. i have gig'd with this without a backup

never needed to deal with customer support with this baby. but i did ages ago fer an old practice amp i had and it got sorted out within a couple of days.

a great pedal, i would recomend going into ur local music shop and trying one. i play anything from indie to black metal and this pedal is soo usefull (works really well on plucked clean sections)

It is very easy to use, the recomendations in the manual are nice.
Has 4 knobs, vib/trem, speed, depth, triangle or square wave. Battery acces is kinda stupid, has a big screw you have to turn with a coin or something, it's not like DOD wich have a lid you just take apart. That's the only thing that I would have changed on this pedal.

I use a Fender Strat and a Fender M-80 combo amp.
This effect is absolutely weak, and in order to listen to it you have to really have a good ear.
The tremolo is ok, but in the triangle wave mode is a bit harder to notice. The vibrato is the weakest I have ever heard, the thing is that it really sounds nice but it's so fucking weak it's frustrating.
You will notice that the pedal gives you result only in certain, very limited ranges of the knobs. Well it's just shit, don't buy it. use the money to buy cables, strings or shit like that. Oh! one last thing, when you step on it, the volume boosts to the roof!.

Well all the knobs came off after a year of use, but it never died on me. It is reliable, solid,

Never dealt w/ them

This is a beatiful pedal, but I wish that Marshall would have been more careful designing it because it has so many flaws it's sad. All I can say is don't buy this without trying it first, maybe you'll like it, and most probably you won't.

Another Follow-up to my previous two posts.
This pedal died on me after a month!!!!
This was the second one I had and they both died very quickly.
I liked the sound for a cheap pedal (39.99 new) but it dies very quickly. Junk! Junk! Junk! Junk!
so much for my previous good rating.

Absolute Junk!! I had two of them and they both died very quickly!!!

Why bother-
I called them with questions, they were relatively helpful.

Sounded good for cheap-but absolute junk!
Avoid at all costs! Marshall pedals are unreliable!!
Junk!-Junk!-Junk!

This is a Follow-up to my original post. I really like this pedal as an accent and I think that it's swell and decay sound quite natural-I am writing because I got curious about the pedal (having read some more comments below) and wanted to know if it was indeed analog or digital-To me, it did NOT have that digital "white noise" that some pedals display and it really goes to show that you cannot tust most of these reviews on Harmony-Central to give you an honest evaluation. I contacted Marshall and they assured me that both this and the Supervibe Chorus are ANALOG pedals. No big surprise really to me, but those who have stated "this pedal sounds digital as hell" obviously don't know the difference either. We tend to associate "digital" with an excessive high frequency presence, and "analog" with a more "midrange-y" or "warm" sound. But let's not throw these words around like they mean something they don't. There are reviews on the "Supervibe" column that also state "you can get a psuedo-analog sound out of this chorus". Guess what? it is ANALOG!! You are getting a psuedo-digital sound out of it! Just because a pedal has a treble boost, doesn't mean it's Digital. I won't put the Vibratrem up there with my VooDoo Lab Trem, but it holds it's own against any competitivly priced trem pedal and it's NOT DIGITAL, it doesn't sound digital, and it doesn't respond like a digital pedal. I LIKE some digital pedals!! You cannot take my Akai Headrush digital delay away-I wouldn't trade it for an analog delay. On the VT-1 The Vibrato function being added to the trem is a BONUS and makes this pedal a must have if you have 70.00 or less to spend on a trem-in fact, at 40.00 on Musician's Friend Closeout-This is a must have anyway!

This isn't that hard to use if you are familliar with the settings on most Tremolo Pedals, but it only really has a few good sounds trapped inside anyway...

First let me state that I got this pedal at an incredible bargain ($40.00 NEW) as they are now discontinued. I tried one before and it died after 48 hours(just like the other reviewers said!) But when I stumbled on the bargain, I had to have another. I consider myself a pretty good authority on Tremolo pedals-I have owned/used the prized Boss PN-2(too mechanical and noisy), The Boss TR-2 (much more natural, compact, but a bit noisy), The Dunlop TVP-1 (The mother of all versatility and it sounds great too!) and finally my favorite, my Tremolo of Choice- The VooDoo Lab (4 knob version) which is warm, soft, musical, and absolutely the best I've heard. The Vibratrem was another animal-It is kind of mechanical in a way, but still musical. There is a sligt volume boost and treble boost when engaged, which can be a good thing-but it is definitely not "transparent" in that sense.It is a stereo pedal, which I think is an awesome feature-so that gives it an edge up. It is relatively quiet and it gives you TWO effects for the price of one. The Tremolo is pretty basic, and the knobs have a limited range of settings, but I like to use the Vibrato mode sometimes. Overall, it cannot compare to my beloved VooDoo Lab Tremolo, but at 40.00 it can't be beat. I can now have two seperate Trem settings on my pedalboard at once or set the vibrato for a leslie sound. Overall, not a high quality pedal, but for price and sheer versatility-I'd take this over the Boss.

Construction seems very solid-If it weren't for the fact that I had one die on me....I would guess it was indestructible! But alas, the cheap electronics show through.....

Never Tried, but not hopeful......

Having played so many tremolo pedals, I can say that this is not "one of the best", but I actually do like it for some applications-it's like those cheesy little effects you find and just can't part with because nothing else quite makes that sound. I'm keeping the Vibratrem-it's a stereo vibrato, a decent although somewhat mechanical tremolo- and it will live in peace side by side with my unsurpassed VooDoo Lab Tremolo as a psudeo-univibe.

How can a pedal be hard to use. The only complaint I have is that it's a little difficult to see your settings when standing over the pedal. When I play, I don't look at the pedal soooo, who cares!

After reading these reviews, I took this pedal to my Guitar center and compared the vibrato with a 67 Quad Reverb. IT SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL! All those who think it doesn't should make this comparsion. It did not sound "digital" in any way. Run through the effects loop of my Fender Deluxe there is virtually no noise when I engage the pedal. Besides a slight increase in volume, I really don't see tone changes everyone describes.

Plugged in, this pedal is no problem. I'm not sure I trust the battery power.

Who knows?

I have been playing for 30 years and I do know tone when I hear it.

It's an easy to use stomp box. It's a little smaller than the Boss pedals so I can use it in my favourite setup with the Boss BCB 6.
The controls are not my favorite, they are too small and it's almost impossible to see where it's at. But you can feel and you can hear the different settings. Once OK, you keep it that way.
The settings are flexible enough to get a good tone.

This is what it's at. I have the opportunity to own a ton of pedals. I do also have the sought after Boss VB-1 and PN-2. Compared to these it's good enough. I don't like the VB-1, I'll sell it now. The VT-1 has a very good vibratosound, much more useful than the VB-1. All the Boss tremelo's do have a certain amount of noise but the VT-1 is little bit more quiet, the Marshall is not that versatile in the tremelo mode, but it's good enough. Yes, you can pan the tremelo and the vibrato.
This I like the most. Used with a Fender de Ville 4 X 10" and a Ploytone minibrute 15" you get a thick fantastic sound.
My guitars are from Gretsch to LP's and all Fenders. With the strats you get that SRV sound.
In combination with my Boss CS-3, SD-1 and DD-5 it has pulled out the PN-2 out of the board.
I play all kinds of music, from Jazz to Jazzrock to ultimate Stratsounding Cray and Vaughan to chilling Isaac and uncle Neil sounds and not to forget Roy Buchanan and Steve Winwood (my all time heroe on guitar, hear how he beats Clapton in Blind Faith)

These Marshall pedals are made of Stainless Steel. I cannot imagine it will break.

In a way, I'm not a Marshall fan. I have 3 Marshall amps, a bluesbreaker, a SL mkI and a 8080. Only the Valvestate never let me down. But I think this pedal won't need any after sales support.

Guitar playing is like having sex. You all have your favorite's that you'll never let go, until the moment you get a better offer. Well, in a way I do own the whole whorehouse. I don't have to choose for buying, I pick up the stomp box I like from the container with about 60 brothers and sisters. The same with guitars and amplifiers. (Rivera, Mesa Boogie, TB30 a.s.o.)
So I can compare it to it's originals. As I said already, the tremelo mode is good enough for country riffs, but the Boss PN-2 sounds better, and above that, the vintage Twin sounds even better, but it's useful.
The vibrato mode is the cream of this pedal. It beats the VB-1 on the sound.
The only trouble I found was the switch, it can be noisy sometimes. I think that's the other side of the hard bypass.
If it's lost or stolen I'll will certainly try to get another one.
I'm not a professional player, although I play quite a few hours a day. I'm normally not playing covers, I have my own songs. I perform about twice a week, most of the time on jamsessions. Then I play with the cheapest pawnshop junk you can get, (Vester Tele and a Spirit 30 Solid State amp: total costs: $ 51,-). I don't think my comrades have any notion that I own a ton of stuff. So I won't use it on these sessions. But for my studio recordings and rare own perfomances I'll certainly use it.
I get in a way inspired by this pedal. That's the best compliment for a pedal.

Easy to use. Knobs are sensitive, small adjustments do the job. Solid chassis.

Using tele/Di Marzios-blues driver-VT1-noise gate-Marshall VS 102R. Contrary to several other reviews here I found the sounds agreeable. Slight boost to the signal chain when switched in. Best way to get pseudo-sine wave trem is with relatively sharp wave setting and fairly shallow depth. Good variety of sounds. I don't use the vibrato at all.

Very satisfactory pedal and pretty good value in blues/light rock. Hope it lasts longer than some reviewed here.