Little Pecker Trem

Instant Spacemen 3! Just add fuzz and wah.

This choppy little chap is a modern take on the original Vox Repeat Percussion effect - a pretty extreme 60s sawtooth tremolo. The magic bean in that circuit is getting scarce and pricey, but fortunately this circuit does exactly the same thing, and then some, with readily available parts.

Controls are pretty self explanatory. Volume, Rate and Depth. There's also a toggle switch to give you three different rate ranges so you can fine tune things nicely. The circuit is fronted by a FET buffer which will boost your signal level if you want to give it some.

We've added an internal trimmer so you can tweak the magic ingredients. The original VRP could suffer from quite pronounced ticking if it wasn't tuned just right. The trimmer in here let's you do just that. Find the balance of 'chop' to 'tick' you're happy with and box it up.

If you want the PCB without parts there's a link for that at the bottom of the page.

Partial kit: PCB, all board-mounted components, pots.

Full kit: As above, plus footswitch and appropriate daughterboard/components for your selected bypass type (see Downloads section for details of those), jack sockets, DC socket, battery snap, hook-up wire, LED.

Enclosure (pre-drilled) is available as an option with full kits, and can take a battery if desired with footswitch positioned 22mm higher, closer to the controls. Knobs are not included.

Inspired by: Hummingbird / Vox Repeat Percussion

Difficulty: Medium

PCB size: 50 x 33mm

Knobs required: 3

Enclosure: 1590B

Direct-Connect compatible (4-way)

If you want the kit pre-built you must add the enclosure option below and select your knobs in the Components section. Check Specials for powder-coated enclosure availability.

Download the INSTRUCTION PDF