Coppersound Loma Prieta

The CopperSound Loma Prieta is a tremolo pedal that puts two voices in one box: a harmonic tremolo akin to the tube-driven circuits found in vintage amplifiers, and, at the flip of a switch, a traditional-style tremolo. The switch between the two modes is indicated by a change in the color of the Tap LED¹. What sets it apart from most tremolo pedals is a Grit control, which adds overdrive in front of the tremolo circuit so the effect sits on a dirty foundation rather than a clean one¹.

CopperSound describes the pedal as "highly versatile and expressive," promising tremolo tones "from conventional to creative"¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer summed up the experience as "Many unexpected, unusual, and useable tremolo tones."²

What the Loma Prieta does

The pedal is primarily a harmonic tremolo. Harmonic tremolo, the vintage amplifier style the Loma Prieta is voiced after, modulates the bass and treble portions of the signal against each other rather than simply raising and lowering the whole volume, which gives a smoother, more phase-like sweep than a standard tremolo. A switch re-voices the circuit into a traditional-style tremolo, the familiar amplitude up-and-down pulse¹.

The Grit control is the other half of the character. It adds dirt to the front of the circuit, ranging from subtle crunch to full-on saturation, so the tremolo can ride on anything from a lightly broken-up tone to a saturated one¹. That makes the Loma Prieta a natural companion to overdrive pedals and distortion pedals on a board, since the dirt is built in rather than added by another pedal.

The overdriven tremolo concept is not a late addition. Premier Guitar reports that it dates back to CopperSound's earliest experiments with the effect, and that although a cleaner voice was considered, the design returned to a dirty tremolo².

The controls and footswitches

The control set breaks down as follows:

The sine setting gives the smoothest, most amp-like pulse; square produces a harder on/off chop; and the ramp-up and ramp-down triangle waves rise or fall through the cycle for a less symmetrical feel². Beyond the waveshapes, the pedal carries three onboard momentary effects, accessed through the right footswitch, which CopperSound lists alongside the four waveshapes and tap tempo¹.

Power and connections

The Loma Prieta runs on 9 to 12V, drawing 30mA at either voltage, and connects with standard 1/4" instrument cables on both input and output¹. The 30mA draw is modest enough that it fits comfortably on most isolated power supplies.

The EXP jack is the connectivity highlight. Plug in an expression pedal to sweep the rate, or a 1/4" TS external tap tempo controller to sync the pedal to other devices¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found the expression option worthwhile, calling it "yet another path to deviant tremoloisms"².

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar reviewed the pedal in August 2021 at a street price of $199². The reviewer's overall verdict on its tones was:

The same review noted the four-way waveform selector's sine, square, ramp-up, and ramp-down triangle waves, and highlighted the expression pedal option for controlling rate as another route to unusual sounds².

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