Stone Deaf Tremotron

The Stone Deaf Tremotron is a tremolo pedal that puts two analog tremolo circuits in one box, made in the UK by Stone Deaf. Each of its two tremolos has its own Depth, Rate and Wave Shape controls, so you can run two modulations at once, set them at different speeds, or sync them in time with each other using the same syncopations¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer described it as "bristling with features, including MIDI connectivity, brilliant digital and expression pedal control", all packed into a relatively compact enclosure².

Under the hood it is a digitally controlled dual-analog VCA design: at its heart are two waveform generators driven by a voltage control amplifier and a secondary LFO tremolo circuit². Guitar.com's review notes that, like all Stone Deaf pedals, it has a purely analog signal path, with digital control layered on top³. Premier Guitar's reviewer placed the voicing in context: "VCA tremolo is a little less contoured than, say, Fender optical or bias tremolo. But it's easy to regulate, especially with choppy, fast modulations"².

What the Tremotron does

A tremolo raises and lowers the volume of your signal in a repeating cycle, and the Tremotron gives you two of those cycles at once. Because each side has its own controls, the two can run at different speeds for a compound, lopsided pulse, or lock together in time with matching syncopations¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found this breadth was the point: "What's cool about Stone Deaf's Tremotron is how many of these tremolo variations it can cover"².

The wave shapes are where the two sides get their character. Guitar.com counted nine wave shapes plus six "half and half" settings³, and Delicious Audio's coverage adds that you can pick from sine, square, ramp and reverse shapes, or make your own¹. A MusicRadar NAMM 2016 demo with Stone Deaf's Tom showed the sine, square, ramp and reverse ramp shapes on the early unit⁴. A low-pass tone control and a level control work conventionally, moving between stops at either end of their ranges².

Controls, footswitches, presets and MIDI

The pedal carries two soft-relay footswitches. They work independently as bypass and tap-tempo switches, or can be pressed simultaneously to recall presets². Tap tempo and tap division were both shown in the MusicRadar demo⁴.

• Per tremolo: Depth, Rate and Wave Shape controls for each of the two tremolos¹
• Global: Low-pass tone control and level control²
• Modulation layering: Press a control knob down and move the controls to add modulation, with LED colors indicating the modulation amount¹
• Presets: Four main presets in the pedal, accessed by pressing both footswitches at once³
• MIDI: A five-pin MIDI input saves and recalls up to 128 presets using any MIDI device, including a DAW, keyboard or control looper¹³

Expression control comes through a regular expression pedal connected to the input, which can be assigned to the Depth, Rate and Shape of each tremolo, independently or separately¹. Guitar.com's review highlights the option of changing multiple parameters simultaneously with an expression pedal³.

History and versions

Stone Deaf showed the Tremotron at NAMM in January 2016, alongside the Syncopy analog delay, both built around expression, tap tempo and MIDI preset control⁴. In the MusicRadar demo, Stone Deaf's Tom noted the unit on display was the first prototype, and that the next prototype would have the wave shapes printed on the enclosure as well⁴.

Guitar.com reviewed the finished pedal in May 2017, describing it as a "digitally controlled dual-analogue VCA tremolo pedal, made in UK" measuring 131x86x61mm, priced at £249.99³. A later Guitar.com listing carried a UK price of £208 and noted the original review date of May 2017⁵. Premier Guitar's 2021 review gave a $269 street price in US dollars².

What reviewers said

Guitar.com's Richard Purvis found the digital control layer opened up the pedal's possibilities, writing that "the addition of digital control has opened up all sorts of possibilities"³. Premier Guitar's 2021 review summed up its strengths as a "functional dual-tremolo design" among its pros².

A MusicRadar demo from NAMM 2016, presented with Stone Deaf's Tom, walks through the two tremolos, the wave shapes, tap tempo and tap division on the first prototype⁴:

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