Electro-Harmonix Downsizes Its Pulsar Tremolo to Nano

March 9, 2022 · 6 sources

Electro-Harmonix announced the Nano Pulsar, a compact version of its Pulsar variable shape tremolo, adding the pedal to its Nano range of small-format effects. The new pedal is a space-saving tremolo/panner that can function in mono or stereo, and it shrinks the company's stereo tremolo while adding a Volume knob over the larger version¹².

The pedal's core is its Shape Control, which delivers a selection of tremolo-modulating waveforms including falling and rising sawtooth, narrow and wide pulse width, and triangle and square waves¹⁴.

Other features announced with the pedal:

• Mono/Left and Right output jacks for stereo panning across two amplifiers, with the Shape waveforms reversed out of the Right output⁴
• Buffered bypass, with the pedal powering up in bypass mode⁴³
• An analog circuit, drawing 30mA at 9VDC on a center-negative plug⁴
• Power from a 9 Volt battery or an optional 9 Volt power supply such as EHX's 9.6VDC-200mA adapter¹

The pedal carried a US list price of $99.00 and was available now at announcement¹. Electro-Harmonix positioned it as the do-it-all pedal for tremolo and panning duties⁴.

The Nano Pulsar descends from the Pulsar, Stereo Pulsar and Super Pulsar line, with the fundamental core of the Pulsar unchanged, and it is the smallest housing yet while sacrificing no modifiers or stereo functionality⁵². Reviewers who later covered the pedal noted what it adds and what it leaves out: GuitarPlayer's reviewer found "a wide range of inspiring tremolo and pan effects in a small, affordable package" but observed that it "begs for a tap tempo option," with no presets either⁵. Guitar World's Trevor Curwen found it does the job of its larger sibling with a tidy build, small size and small price, though some players might want tap and harmonic tremolo modes².

In Premier Guitar's demo, John Bollinger highlighted the Volume control's flexibility and the stereo setup: "this thing is panning between two amps is a huge sound and actually give you kind of kind of some natural chorusing"⁶. The demo runs through the waveform choices and shows the pedal running across two amplifiers.

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