Swindler Effects Red Mountain

The Red Mountain is a stereo harmonic tremolo pedal from Swindler Effects. It offers six selectable waveforms, five tap-tempo divisions, a ramp function on the tap-tempo footswitch, and a Stutter mode that turns that same footswitch into a momentary killswitch. Swindler Effects describes it as "one of the most versatile, feature-packed tremolo pedals ever produced," packing the most popular tremolo features into a small, affordable package¹.

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, reviewing it in October 2024, called it "a stereo harmonic tremolo" and noted it was long ahead of the curve on advanced features, though other pedals have since caught up². Both the original version and the V2 are now listed as unavailable on the Swindler Effects store³¹.

What it is and what it does

A tremolo pedal raises and lowers the volume of your signal in a repeating cycle, and the Red Mountain does this in stereo across two amps. A three-position phase inversion switch shapes how the two channels relate: in the middle, each amp pulses simultaneously as a standard tremolo; flipped to the left, subsequent pulses pan to different amps for a back-and-forth ping-pong effect in stereo; flipped to the right, harmonic mode is engaged¹.

Harmonic tremolo, the mode Guitar Pedal X highlighted in its review, splits the signal so that low and high frequencies fade in and out against each other rather than the whole signal dropping in volume at once, which gives a smoother, swirling character².

There are five selectable tap-tempo divisions and six different waveforms. The sixth waveform, called Stutter, turns the tap-tempo footswitch into a momentary killswitch for the signal¹.

The controls and footswitches

The upper row of knobs holds the core tremolo controls, and the two footswitches handle bypass and tempo¹⁵.

The middle red LED lights up to indicate whether the preset is active¹.

Tap tempo, ramp and the Stutter killswitch

Holding the tap-tempo footswitch activates a ramp function: the speed of the tremolo increases or decreases on each hold, depending on the ramping mode selected. Adjusting the Speed knob while holding the tap-tempo footswitch changes the speed of the ramp¹. On the original version, the ramp alternated between increasing and decreasing speed on each hold³.

Guitar Pedal X summarized the footswitch functions as "Tap | Hold - Ramp | Manual Stutter Footswitch," with ramp speed adjusted by press-holding the footswitch and turning the Speed control².

The Stutter waveform is the most unusual feature. Instead of a repeating wave, it gates the signal entirely, and the tap-tempo footswitch becomes a momentary killswitch you can tap rhythmically for choppy, on-off effects¹.

Presets, expression and MIDI

The Red Mountain contains one onboard, savable preset. Holding the bypass and tap-tempo footswitches simultaneously saves the active controls to it¹. Guitar Pedal X described the same operation: "Press both footswitches together to save Favourite Preset"².

The Speed and Depth parameters can be controlled by an external expression pedal plugged into the TRS jack¹. On the V2, that same TRS jack carries full MIDI control, and a separate MIDI manual is available for the pedal¹⁵.

Firmware history

Swindler Effects has released three firmware versions for the Red Mountain⁶:

• Version 1: Original stock firmware upon release⁶
• Version 2: Updated MIDI CC numbers to be compatible with more MIDI controllers on the market⁶
• Version 3: Added a momentary bypass configuration, and improved the Speed and Depth knobs with a fine-tuned effective range for better sweep and resolution⁶

V1 and V2 compared

The V2 update brought SMD circuit construction, which Swindler Effects describes as increasing reliability and consistency, along with full MIDI control through the TRS expression jack¹. According to the maker, some features were changed or updated in the V2, but the general sounds are the same as the original¹. The original was also offered in a Signature line of graphics³.

What reviewers said

Stefan Karlsson at Guitar Pedal X reviewed the Red Mountain in October 2024 after having it on his wishlist for a long time. He found it was ahead of other pedals on advanced features for some time, though the field has since caught up. On the sound, he wrote:

Stefan Karlsson, Guitar Pedal X, October 2024²

He paid $250 for the pedal from the Swindler Effects webstore, plus $38 for shipping to the UK, and it shipped within the 3 week production cycle target².

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