Marshall VT-1 VibraTrem

Bought at Dawson's in St. Helens, Merseyside for a little over 40 pounds about 3 or 4 years back.

Got the VT mainly for the trem. effect but really like the pedal because it 'sweetens up' my amp sound. Was last night playing a Fender Telecoustic through a Roland keyboard amp & the vibe mode on a low setting very much rounded out and gave a bit of much needed flavour or character. Hard to define but it just improves the character of what you play. Can use the vibe setting for those bluesy licks a la Clapton or B.B King.

I read grouses about the tone switches being fiddly. In reply, I would say just find a setting you like and keep to it. Don't mess with things on stage - you got enough things to think about as it is. Thing is with switches, it is so tempting to play with them. Stop it now. Put stickers on the pedal so you know where your best sound effect is.
Small grouse: tremolo is a great effect but you wouldn't use it in a lot of songs
(unless you're Chris Isaak).

Very well made unit with v.usable sounds for not a lot of money.

This pedal keeps up Marshall's good name, I think. I do own other Marshall pedals, however and I do use them a bit more because the Trem sound is a bit specialist.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this pedal from Allans music in Sydney for $119, and have now had it for ohh, 2 months.
I generally wanted a nice vibrato pedal that would suit most kinds of music as i don't really have any specific style, although i DO tend to stick mainly to solo work.

This pedal certainly has an excellent array of vibrato and tremolo effects. I compared it to my friend boss vibrato pedal, and i could barely tell the difference. For the price it's great quality. The sound has excellent tone, and doesn't come out all muddy like some crappy pedals in this price range sometimes do.
This pedal is basically good for any style of music, i've used it for everything from blues to rock to christmas songs, and it really gives a kick to all of them. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Well, it's a great pedal, but if i had to bitch about something. it's gotta be the knobs. They've all got a shiny chrome finish, which is very stylish, but when i'm playing on stage it's very difficult to see what position the knobs are at because of the light reflecting, but it's no big deal as i doubt many people are gonne bend down to adjust knobs in d middle of a performance any ways.

EXCELLENT... Perhaps the most solid line of pedals out there. All marshall pedals are built to withstand a nuclear blast i tells ya.

A great pedal for the price i paid, especially when compared to a boss tremolo which doest even offer as many effect types.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

The Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem is a tremolo and vibrato pedal designed for use with electric guitar.  The pedal has standard 1/4 inch connections and can be powered by either a nine volt battery or power supply.  This isn't rackable - it is a foot pedal.

UTILIZATION

I've never had an issue using the Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem, as everything is quite easy to understand.  The pedal only has a few simple parameters in the form of knobs including those for mode (vibrato or tremolo), speed, depth, and shape (either sine or square wave).  Other than these parameters, there isn't anything else that you really need to know about controlling the pedal.  Even those without any experience with tremolo or vibrato pedals should be able to catch on quickly, so I don't believe a manual is needed.


SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality of the Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem isn't anything to write home about, but will get the job done.  Perhaps it is because I'm used to using vibrato and tremolo from vintage Fender amps, but the sound quality of the pedal just doesn't stick out for me all that much.  Don't get me wrong, it will do its job and you are able to get a good variety of different tones, I'm just not a huge fan of the overall tone quality that the pedal has to offer.  I have used the pedal with a Fender Strat and a Marshall JCM 800 head, so you would think that they would be compatible together well.  I don't mean to bash the VT-1 too much as I think it will work well for those looking for some simple vibrato/tremolo, but I'm just not all that impressed with its overall sound quality.


OVERALL OPINION

Where the Marshall VT-1 Vibratrem may lack in overall tone, it definitely makes up in price.  This is about as cheap as you can get a halfway decent sounding tremolo pedal, although I do think that the Boss tremolo pedal sounds a lot better and is a similar price.  If you're in the market for some tremolo and don't have the benefit of having it built into your amp, I'd recommend trying out the Marshall VT-1, but definitely also try out some other tremolo/vibrato pedals like the Boss TR-2, PN-2, MXR M-159, and Voodoo Lab Tremolo, as they are in a similar price range and in my opinion are superior sounding pedals.