Hi, Webb and other gear freaks -

Have you ever checked out the DeArmond tremolo unit? There are several clips of it (and some new, home-made versions) on YouTube. I think the idea of shaking a vial of conductive fluid to achieve a tremolo effect is really great.

I love those electro-mechanical effects like that one, spring reverbs, oil-can echo units, tape loops, and other devices like that. They even smell good when the motors, tubes, and transformers get fully warmed up.


I was at a guitar show near Philadelphia last weekend, and picked up a kit to make a tremolo stomp box. It's solid-state, but no PC boards. Point-to-point on terminal strips, sort of like the Jack Webb.

I was wearing one of my "It Came From Nashville" T-shirts at the show. One vendor saw it and asked if I knew the Webb Wilder Credo. When I recited it, it got a chuckle from the other guys who were standing around. They got a bigger laugh when I turned around and showed them that it was printed on the back.

Cool! yep...Bo Diddley used one when they were the new thing. WW

My favorites are the Tel-Ray "oil-can" echo units. Under the Tel-Ray brand the original name of the units was "Adineko". They licensed the oil-can technology to several other manufacturers. Fender called it "Dimension IV", Gibson was the GA4-RE Reverb-Echo. I know Standel and Vox had versions of it as well.


But that DeArmond idea of shaking a vial of fluid to get a rhythmic change of resistance is really cool. Using a single-speed motor with a tapered shaft and a mechanical linkage to change the speed of the tremolo is great, too. I particularly like the home-made versions.