Teenage Mutant Ninja Jackrabbit

[László]

And the review pedal of the day is...

The Suhr Jackrabbit Tremolo pedal (see below for pic, it's the green pedal).

OK, I don't know how they did this, but then I just play 'em, I don't have to make 'em. This is an analog tremolo pedal that sounds amazing and has the added functionality of what some digital pedals have. It has tap tempo, strum tempo, and some functions can be remotely controlled if you have a big rig and tour the world, which of course I don't. So this review will discuss how the darn thing sounds for the most part.

As for tremolo, it does sine wave, square wave, triangle and two kinds of ramped waves. It can be used as a clean boost(!). It can be switched to modulate the signal in quarter notes, eighth notes, and dotted 8ths. In addition, you can control the rate, the volume, and depth. So just about everything one might need is covered.

In terms of construction, it's Suhr's beautifully machined, anodized aluminum enclosure, and the footswitch has a very nice, solid, yet easy feel. That slight pattern you see on the top surface of the pedal is machined in, by the way. First class all the way. It can be powered with a battery, or a power supply running between 9 and 18 volts. The pedal doesn't care. There's voltage overload protection, and it's protected even if you mistakenly insert the wrong type of power supply cable.

It's true bypass, and it's dead quiet. The switch doesn't make any sort of "thump" in the amp when it's engaged. I can't find a thing to criticize.

The tone is wonderful; it's crisp when you want that, it's subtle and soft when you want that, it does the "chopper" thing if you feel like playing Elevation or Won't Get Fooled Again, and basically it sounds superb. I tried it through the DG30 and it sounded like a fantastic match. Putting dirt pedals in front didn't overload it or freak it out. Even the BB preamp stacked into the Bogner Burnley to crank out some very high gain stuff didn't faze it. The pedal just happily took that level and did its thing nicely.

The "ramp up" and "ramp down" sawtooth waveforms sounded great, really vibey and interesting. I couldn't get the pedal to sound bad.

So it's another winner. Obligatory pic of pedal and board:

 

[aristotle]

Thanks for the review Les. Sounds like a great pedal. Do you find yourself using a trem pedal for your professional work, or did you just pick this thing up for fun?

 

[László]

Thanks for the review Les. Sounds like a great pedal. Do you find yourself using a trem pedal for your professional work, or did you just pick this thing up for fun?

I use tremolo and other modulation in my work, definitely. If I'm doing a heavier track, I'll often double one of the rhythm parts and add a layer of modulation of some kind to add depth and richness to a mix, though there are times I'll have it be an effect that's more or less featured. Also clients will sometimes ask for a vintage kind of vibe in a track.

For a good example of how to use the effect in places you might not expect, check out the rhythm chords in Zep's Immigrant Song .

I also like the way tremolo was a big part of the retro-modern backing tracks in Plant/Krauss' Raising Sand.

I use tremolo in some of the clean/delay Brit Pop type guitar tracks clients ask for. I can't imagine working without tremolo, but univibe and chorus get work in my studio a lot, too. Since most digital wonder boxes will allow only one mod effect at a time, and I'll do stuff like use tremolo along with a very light rotary effect, I having a dedicated tremolo pedal on the board is a good thing. What clients never seem to let me do is use a wah. Lord knows I've tried, but I haven't gotten away with a wah in a track in 15 years. "Take the wah-wah out, sounds like a porn track." I gave up finally, and don't even have a wah on my board right now.

I always used a Fulltone SupaTrem in the past, but when I heard this thing I about jumped out of my shoes, and had to check it out.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Does it do this?

 

[Boogie]

I would have thought that you'd add all modulation effects post recording. Very interesting!

In an expansion of Sergio's question, does it cover all of the major trem varieties pretty well? That's been my disappointment in the past, finding out that this cool built-in trem on this old Fender won't sound like x (where x = surf, Smiths, or any other stereotypical trem type). I've found my comfort in the Strymon Flint but really appreciate the Suhr stuff. Cool box and color, too!

 

[László]

Does it do this?

It does that.

In an expansion of Sergio's question, does it cover all of the major trem varieties pretty well?

I'm not sure I know about all the amplitude modulation trem varieties. It does the ones I'm familiar with. It doesn't do pitch modulation vibrato a la Magnatone. But that's not true tremolo, it's vibrato.

It does a lot more than my old Tremoverb did, or my old BF Twin. Or my SupaTrem. So...I guess the answer is...maybe.

 

[John Beef]

Any save points? With all that functionality, I would want to set up certain things for certain songs, then be able to call them up when I need them. That's one of the things I really dig about my Mobius.

 

[László]

Any save points? With all that functionality, I would want to set up certain things for certain songs, then be able to call them up when I need them. That's one of the things I really dig about my Mobius.

No, the Jackrabbit is an analog pedal. The Mobius is digital. Unless you have a digitally controlled analog device, which would require the Jackrabbit to be much larger and more expensive, with analog you turn knobs. Just the way it is.

But it sounds better for what it does, in my humble opinion (analog done well is usually my preference over digital). Obviously, it does fewer things, and that's the tradeoff.

For live use, of course, it wouldn't be as useful perhaps as the Mobius that has so many programs. But for recording, analog is a good choice. And since I record, and have plenty of time between songs, like...days...Boom!