Rocktron Big Surf

Extremely easy to use. A power switch would be nice, but I have it plugged into a Furman rackrider, so it's no biggie.

Deep, triangular wave tremolo. I plugged it into my Tube Works 9100 combo alongside my vintage Traynor all-tube amp with tremolo and adjusted the depth and mix until they matched. The only knob I need to adjust it the rate. It has a compressor that's not much good. I use a Guyatone Flip TC-X tube compressor (not in the effects loop...in front of everything as a stomp box). But I leave the compressor on with the knob turned all the way down because the Hush noise gate and enhancer would great!

Tremolo is critical to my sound, and I'm very picky about it. The Big Surf does a great job. I'll knock off a point because the compressor, while it does engage the Hush and enhancer, doesn't provide much compression.

No problems at all, no reservations about gigging with it.

Never dealt with them. They are visible and accessible online, so I expect you could contact them if necessary.

I play a variety of styles. Blues, classic rock (Love, Tom Petty, Lou Reed), soul and funk. This triangular wave tremolo gives me exactly what I need for a vintage, analog tremolo effect. If you absolutely have to have a square wave (REM, What's the Frequency Kenneth?) then you might want to consider a Boss pedal, Rocktron Surf stompbox (did I mention that the Big Surf is rackmounted?), or the Guyatone Flip VT-X tube tremolo.

This tremolo unit if very easy to get a great sound out of. The manual is very straight forward, but then again if you need a manual to tell you have to set-up a tremolo then do you really know what sound your after? Enough sarcasm, the manual does inform you as to the connections on the back and the type of footswitches to be used to turn on/off the tremolo and compression.

Excellent sounding unit, with the HUSH built in and the compression you can really have a quite smooth sounding tremolo. I didn't notice a volume drop when the tremolo is kicked in like I do on my Peavey Valverb. This unit is designed for -10db circuits such as the input of an amp. I have this in my home studio and will use it as needed. I do also have 2 Peavey Valverbs one at home and the other in my gigrig. For recording at home I prefer to use the Big Surf for tremolo. I do also have a Voodoo Labs Tremolo - both 2 and 4 knob units, Diaz Tremodillo, and a Fender Twin Reverb original silver face and this unit does have the clearest tone, it does have the splash you get from the reverb being mixed as in the Twin or the Valverb.

Seeing that I have only had this unit for a couple of weeks it may be premature to rate reliability. This unit is built in a stought steel case and the unit only weighs about 6 pounds. I have a number of other Rocktron products and have never had any reliability issues.

I have had many phone calls and e-mails to and from Rocktron and they have typically responded in the same day for e-mails and call back with in a day. Jim Chowning has been great to deal with. They have been very helpful with manuals for older used stuff that I have bought. Plus they offer their manuals on their website for the free, try asking Roland for a free manual.

I play rock and blues mostly but have ventured into jazz. I have been playing since 1976 and I own an insane amount of gear (27 guitars, 12 combo amps, 10 heads and over 16 preamps and 12 power amps). Based on my extensive collection of gear I can highyl recommend this unit. If it was stolen I would search out another Big Surf. It does seem to have everything the Surf tremolo pedal has but being rack mounted, but this seems to have a clear tone than the pedal (Which I own).