Electro-Harmonix Pulsar (original)

Electro-Harmonix introduced the original Pulsar around 1979, and according to GuitarPlayer's reviewer it was one of the first tremolo pedal effects¹. A tremolo pedal varies the volume of the signal at a set rate, producing the pulsing, shivering swell heard on countless recordings, and the Pulsar put that effect in a stompbox at a time when few such pedals existed.

The Pulsar line over the years

The original Pulsar did not stay in one form. As GuitarPlayer's reviewer tells it, "the pedal went from a small housing to a larger one, then returned to a smaller, more robust package with a stereo option adding panning"¹. That history left players with several related pedals:

• The original Pulsar, which Electro-Harmonix issued first in a small housing, then in a larger one, and later returned to a smaller, more robust package¹
• The Stereo Pulsar, the stereo option that added panning¹
• The Super Pulsar
• The Nano Pulsar

What the original means for players today

For a player tracing the family tree of tremolo pedals, the original Pulsar matters as an early entry in the line: as Electro-Harmonix describes it, the pedal went from a small housing to a larger one, then returned to a smaller, more robust package with a stereo option adding panning¹. The later Pulsars carry the name forward, but the original established both the name and the effect.

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