Seymour Duncan welcomes another addition to their expanding guitar effect pedal line, the Shapeshifter Stereo Tremolo.
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This pedal builds on the company’s original Shape Shifter, with more tone shaping features, stereo inputs/outputs and better visual monitoring, all packed inside a significantly smaller metal stompbox enclosure.
The Shapeshifter Stereo Tremolo is designed to be versatile, covering classic tremolo sounds to modern choppy tremolo and backward swell effects. To accomplish this, the pedal is equipped with LFO shape and wave controls, stereo phase control and a speed setting that can be controlled in three different ways.
The Wave and Shape knobs work together to let you tweak the tremolo effect behavior. They let you adjust every dimension of the LFO from wave symmetry to shape, allowing for a wide range of possible sounds. By adjusting the wave knob, you can blend from sine to triangle to square wave, and use the shape control to choose the parts of the wave that you want to emphasize. The Depth knob functions as expected, letting you set the depth of each tremolo to your liking.
When connected to stereo setup guitar rigs, the Phase knob will let you adjust the phase between the left and right output channels from 0.180 degrees. This works together with the other knobs to create effects that go beyond conventional tremolo. The company says, “Try cranking the Phase and squaring off the Wave and it sounds almost like a stereo delay, wild!”
Since the speed of the effect is crucial to the output tremolo sound, Seymour equipped this pedal with three different ways to control the speed parameter in real-time. The most basic of which is by simply rotating the speed knob, the same method used on other more conventional pedals. The second method is by utilizing the tap tempo footswitch, which comes with a LED rate indicator, allowing you to better visualize the timing and speed of the effect. Finally, the pedal has a “Ratio” option that will let you dial in speeds of up to 4x faster.
Check out the official video demo:
True to its name, the Shapeshifter pedal is capable of smoothly shifting between various styles of tremolo, even crossing over to what sounds like delay and reverb. Seymour Duncan concludes, “The Shape Shifter provides a natural, first-class sound that is rich, authentic and highly customizable. Wave, Shape, Depth, Speed and Tap Tempo controls allow you infinite ability to craft your own unique signature tremolo tones, while the Phase control lets you adjust between left and right output channels to find the ideal mix.”
Finally, like most modern pedals, the Shapeshifter Stereo features true-bypass switching. Each one is manufactured at the Seymour Duncan Factory in Santa Barbara, California and is currently retailing online for $230. For more information and the complete specifications of the pedal, visit Seymour Duncan.
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