A tremolo pedal installed into a guitar body

[thefishinmusician]

 I would love to put a on board tremelo unit into my masonite sandwitch baritone guitar....2 knobs and an off and on switch....People run away from me when I have a soldering gun in my hand...How hard would it be ?...Could someone out there build one ?...

[Jeremy Steele]

Check out the Danelectro Innuendo. It comes with built in tremolo (not to mention chorus, slapback echo, and ultra cheesy distortion).

[Tom Krebs]

I have mounted pedal effects inside guitars. It's a case by case situation. The main deal is finding/creating space for the board, battery, knobs and switch. After that it's solder time. I would use an iron rather than a gun. You can fry the circuit board with too much wattage/heat. With a Dano style hollow guitar; it should be easier than routing and drilling wire holes in a solid body. Tom

[thefishinmusician]

Plenty of space...This is not the problem....I don't know ( or want to know ) about the electronic side of things...It has been proven to me time after time in my 30 plus years of repair, that I don't get it...Years ago, I was an apprentice under a local guru....He told me I have a right brain/left brain problem with it...He tried several times to teach me...No good...And I believe electrical things know it's me with the soldering iron, and conspire against me...I was wiring my bilge pump in my boat this spring, and my landlord of 1 year came walking up to me...I turned around, holding the soldering iron...He turned on his heels and walked away, saying " I'm outa here "...It's that bad...P.S...miracles do happen.....The pump worked...

[Tim Mace]

I 'd rather see a pic of your ax.........hope I didn't change the subject.Are you a guitar bilger?
I bet I know less than you as far as electrawhatever!

[thefishinmusician]

Waiting for paint to dry....Soon...

[Rob Mercure]

Just to be sure you're asking for a "tremelo" - amplitude modulation, and not "vibrato" - frequency moduation as maufacturers totally confused the issue by mis labeling equipment (fer example the Fender "Vibro Champ" has a tremelo not vibrato). Now if it's a tremelo you want all you need is a variable frequency, variable amplitude sawtooth oscillator (usually) and an RC phase shift oscillator is typically used. This could that 2 -field effect transistors (or a single IC), two potentiometers, and about 1/2 dozen resistors and capacitors all low voltage. If you use a mini dpdt switch you can both turn the effect on/off and achieve mechanical effect bypass. A shielded metal box would be best with about 1/2 the volume of an Altoids container using a 9 volt battery. Does your guitar have a control cavity on the back with that much room available? While it may be easier to install a board directly and then shield it with copper foil I'd recommend a stand alone chassis and box for easy bypassing if the unit or battery fails.

Lemme know about these and I'll guide you to several circuits. If you can solder this is an easy project - even if your soldering isn't the quickest you can use transistor sockets as the FETS would be the most sensitive/expensive parts - if you buy surplus parts from a company such as All Electronis the entire cost would probably be only around $5 not counting shipping. If you need a box to put it in you could also buy a relay from them for another $5 and remove the "guts" only using the metal can. Like I say, fairly easy but built in effects unless carefully designed are harder to turn on/off on stage than those switched by a pedal.

Rob

[Mac Walker]

This Behringer stuff is so cheap if you screwed it up you might not feel bad:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dmi&fi...

Otherwise try Guitarfetish's modboards, little bit more expensive but maybe a bit smaller.

http://www.guitarfetish.com/MODboards_c_204.html

[Rob Mercure]

Mac,

Having had the "unfortunate pleasure" of doing warranty work for Behringer I'd go for you second suggestion. It would be a shame to have someone go to the trouble of doing the installation and then have it crap out just due to "Murphy" (the Honorable M. Murgatroid Murphy if that chief designer, engineer, chair of the board, and stockholder of Behringer unless they've totally changed hands since I did their warranty about 7 years ago - truly the absolutely worst of cheap consumer crap and an excellent lesson in "you get what you pay for"). Don't know anything about the guitarfetish products but they've got to be a better investment.

Rob

[Mac Walker]

I had decent luck repackaging their DD400 delay, added a bunch of footswitch-able features, along with some clock mangling for kicks. But you are correct, the Behringer stuff is a total crapshoot.

The other advantage of the GFS modboards is more flexibility in mounting of the pots. Probably a much faster installation as well...

[thefishinmusician]

Mac....Thanks ! This just may be the ticket !