A pedal that helps you explore the possibilities of mixing phasing and tremolo.
Pros
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It does the conventional and the esoteric.
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Plenty of scope for experimenting.
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Compact, pedalboard-friendly format.
Cons
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No battery operation.
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Phaser a little workmanlike.
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New York-based Pigtronix has been around since 2004, but was acquired in 2020 by Bond Audio, giving access to design resources as well as international distribution. This seems to have resulted in an uptick in pedal releases, including a trio of space-themed offerings announced back in January 2021 – the Constellator analogue delay, Space Rip synth pedal, and the Moon Pool tremolo/phaser.
Whether you call these pedals micro or mini, the space-saving format offers offset input and output jacks, and power from a standard nine-volt DC supply rather than a battery. Substantially built, each pedal packs in plenty of control action (four knobs and up to three buttons/switches) into a small footprint without it feeling cluttered or fiddly.
The Moon Pool tremolo/phaser and Constellator analogue delay are capable of the esoteric but can also deliver more conventional sounds, while the Space Rip synth pedal is most definitely ‘out-there’.
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
Harking back to the first Pigtronix pedal, the Envelope Phaser, the Moon Pool is an analogue phase shifter and tremolo that can manipulate the effect via your playing dynamics. A three-way toggle switch allows you to use the two effects individually or combined.
Each effect has a Speed control, but Depth is set globally via a single knob, and each also has its own three-way switch to set how it responds to dynamics – either no response or an increase or decrease of speed with harder playing, with another knob setting the overall sensitivity.
We preferred the bias tremolo’s rounded throbby pulse to the phaser’s more workmanlike nature, but their combined texture yields a range of ethereal modulations, some with rhythms that play off each other. Plus, the envelope action will give you an expressive layer to exploit for even more unusual effects.
Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.
