Electro Harmonix Stereo Pulsar

I went through many online videos to decide which tremolo pedal to go for and I am very satisfied with the purchase.

For what is essentially raising and lowering the volume, this unit can do it in an infinite number of ways. Running in mono into a guitar amp this unit can produce very smooth slow and fast tremolo effects, beautiful 50s / 60s jazz sounds.

Alternatively it can produce very harsh square wave oscillation effect sounds which would not sound out of place in a dance beat tune.

Then when you plug the stereo output, you get a really gorgeous rich stereo tremolo effect, where the panning can sound as smooth as butter.

There are probably many cheaper (and in many cases much more expensive) pedals for tremolo, but I think this is really good value for money. Sadly bigger than a 'standard' pedal (whatever a standard pedal is, but you get the idea), so fills up the pedal board quicker, but for the sound it provides, it 'pays for its space' on the pedal board very well.

Highly recommended

The Stereo Pulsar is great and instantly gives you the option of a few classic trem sounds. Your controls consist of a waveform choice (Square, Tri), a Pulsewidth control, Rate and Depth. Rate goes from near DC to what sounds like about 30 Hz, and the depth can go a little over 100% so that the signal begins to invert back on itself, leading to a swampy sound similar to the Harmonic Trem of some of the Fender Amps.

Cool things:

The Pulsewidth control - Lets you make your square wave into a Dark Side of the Moon esque pulse tremolo sound. You can turn your triangle into a saw or reverse saw for weird volume swell sounds.

Depth control - The overmodulation that comes from going past 3 o clock on the depth on a triangle wave setting is instant Bo Diddly territory. With a little dirt you've got a filthy electric blues/RnB sound.

Less than cool things:
Volume Drop - On higher depth settings the signal can seem a little quieter. A little extra volume available to make up for it would change the world for me.

Bunching - getting exactly the right rate is always messy, but I find it really tough on this pedal sometimes. The depth is tricky too, but I play into dirty amps a lot and I don't tend to use this in the FX loop so that's my own doing.


Overall it's really great. If you want more features, like Tap Tempo, then obviously the Super Pulsar is the way to go. But this is a really nice trem and I think most guitar and key players would be pretty happy with what they get with this unit.

I bought the XO Pulsar a few years ago and although I liked the features, sound and built quality of the pedal, I changed it a while ago to another tremolo.

The features and the sound of this pedal are well worth the money and I enjoyed playing the pedal every time i used it. But I found the Speed knob to be too sensitve for me. The usable range for me was between 9 and 10 o'clock, but even then a small change in range caused a massive speed difference.

I sold the pedal to a friend who is more into extreme kind of tremolos and he likes the pedal and plays it frequently.

The quality of the pedal is EHX standard and feels solid and reliable. I did not have any doubts to gig with it without a backup.

I've been using it for approximately 2 years now.
Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity to use it's stereo option on two different speakers, but using its mono output, I'm very satisfied.

The rate goes all the way from barely moving (I'd say 0.2 Hz) to rapid pulsing, which rather than tremolo sounds unusual, especially with the depth on maximum and square shape, that way it sounds "farty", and it sounds as if two frequencies are played at once. Nice for experimenting.

The depth is a confusing feature once you go past maximum, which is somewhere just over half of a turn of the knob. The only thing I wish here is that the knob would "slip" into the position for full depth, because it's sensitive and sometimes it's hard to set it to full depth and not go over. This is particularily hard if you want to change setting during a song or when using a low rate, but if you aren't in such a situation, it will again offer lots of experimental sounds you can not obtain with regular tremolos.

I bought this pedal with the intention of adding warm tremolo effects to my clean swells.
It does exactly this and is quite a suble pedal.
It doesn't cope with an overdriven sound very well which is a bit disapointing as the effect seems to get lost with a heavier tone.
Therefore I am quite limited to what I can use this for.
I would be more inclined to keep it as a permanent addition to my board but it really is limited to what you can do for quite a large size pedal.

However if you are after subtlety and warmth in clean tones then this could be a great addition to your board.

Don't expect it to change your life but it will enhance your swells slightly.