The man that filmed Uncle Doug before he started filming himself. This video is beyond value it is priceless. The tremolo is a complete wonder of engineering and short of the steam engine to drive it nothing will ever surpass its beauty and creativity. Above all of its visually stunning glamour it also creates a fantastic effect.

Thanks for your nice comments. David's theory is that the water is probably contaminated by copper ions and thus gains conductivity. The relatively high resistance of the water is beneficial for smooth peak-to-trough transitions, as opposed to the significantly reduced overall volume and "square-wave" effect you get with more conductive liquids, like the traditional Windex.

Thanks, Dan. To be honest, based on the amount of time and effort required to hand-build one, I would have to charge at least $1000 each.....just to make a few dollars an hour. However, if there were a way to mass produce them at a lower cost, retail sale might be a viable concept.

Love that home made tremolo unit. It's fantastic! W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee

Uncle Doug being Uncle Doug!

Doug sent me. Sounds great!

This reminds me of a projects I had many years ago...I couldn't afford a echo chamber...So I made one with a tape recorder lol, the delay on that thing was amazing..I love projects like yours good job 👏

You're right about that, SS. I think Rube Goldberg would definitely approve of my design.

GREAT! When you hit those strings, a big smile appeared on my face.

A whole new channel on which I can watch vintage Uncle Doug!

This is one of the single most impecable examples, of true human craftsmanship absolutely incredible,

Wow... That... I just don't have words that describe how cool that is. Just the way it looks!!!

Nice work. Easy to reverse engineer the liquid and the chamber from the readings on the Simpson 630 VOM. The resistance varies between 50kΩ and 500kΩ. This is perfect for parallel wiring on the guitar output jack.

Love Uncle Doug!! He's a dadgum genius. This is COOL!!!

Uncle Doug rules!

Thanks, Nancy. We will begin holding auditions for dancing girls at once. It's a little hot and crowded in the workshop/studio, but that might just add to the "ambiance".

I know I'm late to the party, but these are two of my favorite youtubers.

Doug! You should make some more of these! English customer right here

Cosmic David. I have been looking through your older videos and stumbled upon this gem. Thanks to you and Doug for sharing this ultra-cool example of beauty and engineering.

Realy great projects

Awesome built!

That's amazing. Total support!

Truly brilliant. Great sound and mesmeric. Perfect for the James Bond theme. Fill the tank with Martini. Shaken not stirred...

Very nice! Thanks!

I was supriced to meet Uncle Doug here. Another great Video!

Awesome craftsmanship Uncle Doug! Love it.

You were right. Loved this one too! I am extremely interested in building one of these! Thanks!

Nice build - both visually and tone-wise.

Awesome work Bro

Good old fashion mechanical magic. Lots of very cool stuff was created before the advancement of modern electronics.

hay that is uncle doug

Simply Amazing. Total Awesomeness. This made my lazy youtube day perfect. Want one.

Now that is one awesome tremolo. I saw something similar with making an optical tremolo, but nothing as cool at that. The amp was awesome too, and it looks damn good!

This was pretty awesome to see and hear!

I've been waiting for this "crossover" episode. Geebus! That is stunning.

Absolutely too cool. Looks like something Edison would have built with the exception that he may have had a small steam engine driving it😉

Man I really love it! I have a weakness for electro mechanic audio manipulation! Awesome!

great work

Gorgeous!!! Nice, nice work!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed your video and it was an eye opener.

No words. Thank you!

Beautiful ... Sound, Design, and Build

Absolutely Beautiful. Truly an awesomely built unit. It looks like the the base of it(the wood), was taken from a jewelry box, it's just that amazing.

Best trem i ever listened!

Always enjoy your informative videos friend.. 73, Glenn

I think the El Paso TubeAmps - aka Doug & David - may have beat out SXSW's Interactive Accelerator for innovation and humor. Who knew that a throbbing Electro-Mechanical Tremolo and a Dani-Sonic amplifier would be so interesting and entertaining. Watching the wheel spin and the copper canister bob, all the while hearing the wa-wa of the guitar, I couldn't help but think - this belongs in a David Lynch film. Add a girl grooving out on the hood of a car, and the moment is complete. Great video!

I love that amp so much :)

Very nice! thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Brian. If you do build one, don't forget the little fish in the tank (as noted in my diagram)......he is the key to a great tremolo effect :)))) If you'd like to see more videos like this, I have about 50 different ones posted on my companion channel. Just click on my icon to check them out.

Make some o these with Brass, woods, leather and some Victorian decor and "Steam Punk" Folk would buy these up! very cool design!

Awesome man!!!!

Very very good job. well done.Your a genius :) keep it up mate.

This is the kind of stuff I wanted to do in high school.

Sounds great, would be interesting to hear this with a Rhodes or something similar, vintage tine piano

Very cool!

Fantastic!!!

Absolutely love this!

A+ for creative approach to Tremolo. A bit surprised that even distilled water is so conductive, too. I could just imaging a Gretsch Tennessean plugged into that amp. Oh, so Angelo Badalamenti.

Excellent, absolutely excellent!,

Doug, amazing!..awesome rig.........uh...the trem and Dani-Sonic amp. (QM)

now that's vintage

That's a very neat device! On first glance, I thought it was part of a weather-station! I'd love to see this signal on a 'scope!. (5:13) I noticed from your tank, that even at very slow speeds, the resistance element will be 'swamped' with water all at once! Maybe tilt the resistance element up at an angle, where you'd get a gradient of resistance as the tank moves the element into and out of the water. This would probably make the tremelo more 'linear'.

very cool vibe

Simply Amazing creation !!! The sound is fantastic as well ! Excellent work and effort !

I love it ! I want one!

Amazing! thanks...

You can ad a depth control adding a pot in series with the electrode. That way you can ground the signal totally (stock) or leave a variable resistance to ground. Great Work!

curious and interesting; thanks

You met Uncle Doug?!?! That's like meeting Kuato in a Martian subterranean bunker!

amazing.

So this is AM tremulant verses FM tremulant like that of a Leslie speaker. Don Leslie's use of the term "Tremolo" was with his Vibratone 30 in 1941.

SWEET!!

I would buy one of those How much that is the coolest pedal ever

Doesn't get much more analog than that!

nice!

If this were a physics project you would get an "A". Well done!

Cool stuff man, I love DIY homebrew guitar effects and amp stuff like this...a year ago electronics was a complete mystery to me....and today it still is - but I certainly know alot more then I did a year ago and have learned sooo much from my basic builds and mods.....thanks to guys like you who take the time to share and explain your builds thank you so much I know you guys aint making much if anything at it so thank you so much for teaching newbies.... One question...in this design would it be feasable to replace the copper water tank with say a mercury switch? I have a few old ones I have salvaged from old electronic junk and Im trying to come up with ideas to incorporate them into effects...I just know there must be a cool way to wire them into a circuit ....any ideas??? thanks again!!! (another great part about this hobby its relatively cheap compared to most other hobbies especially since you can harvast components from old electronic junk)

Thats really neat. Would it be possible for you to do a video on how you made it, what parts you used etc.

wow, this is so inspiring! Did you make the copper tank yourself?

Gotta love that the depth of the tremolo will vary slightly due to the un-predictable nature of the fluid. So for minimal attenuation, use pure distilled water. I wonder how drastic the sound would be if you used something like mercury.

AWESOME upload, this helps me a lot. I'm curious how increasing the viscosity of the filling would affect the sound. Anyone know on this? I'm hoping to build one. I'm kinda obsessed with the sound Pops Staples got on his early recordings. I want that sound!!!

this was Benjamin Franklin's favorite guitar pedal

Watery sounding tremolo

Doug, what kind of motor did you use for this project and what was the rpm rating for it. I am looking for parts to try and build one and was thinking about a turntable motor as they have speed controls but I think the rpm would be too slow...eg 33 1/3 and 45 rpm. Thanks again

Anybody know what the issue would be if on the DeArmond, the tremolo doesn't kick in until the increase knob is turned 3/4 of the way?

genius

Beautiful but perhaps a little crazy!

Hello! Really like the electromechanical tremolo... and like the comparison with the tube, 12ax7 in another video... This is a passive effect right? i.e. no amplification stage? Any chance it might be possible to combine the two since the electromechanical tremolo might use a preamp anyway ?

I've built several amps that my lovely wife has covered. I would like to build one similar to this style. Can you do a video on how to cover a amp with such tight spaces.

Live connected to the body? No form of current control?

Has anyone ever tried the oil that is in a oil can delay for the fluid because wouldn’t water get bad

Put an electrode at both ends of the tank and make it stereo 😉

I thought, at least theoretically, that distilled water wouldn't really short a signal. Does it get ionized by the copper or how does that work?

Was that the Twin Peaks theme song you were playing at first? If not, it's pretty close.

great remake all im gonna say is you need to add a glass lid or something thick to protect it for the years to come so it lasts.i like the new design also & the fact its a lot smaller but when i heard the original i noticed how clear & full bodied it was & how long it repeats.are you gonna sell some of these proto types cause i would be tempted.me i just got a 1967 deluxe black face fender with tremolo he added tube reverb to it which is alright but the tremolo is going murky at times.i know what the problem is & its an easy fix a part needs replacing.but one thing i noticed is many of these old school great amps had blue ajax caps another tech that has disappeared with the dutch maker.i see they make orange caps or red caps now but they are no way near as good.so what ive noticed is many buy a fender remake amp & send the whole amp tray to get rewired by hand.some of the rewire jobs use loads of caps 20 or more orange caps but every time i look inside a remake amp i cringe at the cost cutting savings even the tubes they stick in these expensive amp,s are rubbish.but me im a guitarist so im always looking at what effects & amps they used also what mics.but all this old tech cant be recreated by digital tech sacd you can keep digital vinyl you can keep i play old analogue records i live for this experience & i wont let any greedy label tell me anything is better than that because its not & musical history is clearly being abused.because every digital vinyl reissue ive heard has loads of the original recordings missing not to mention been compressed to death.i mean i play young people records & they are shocked at the sonic spread & the bass output.but if you built a tape echo unit i would probably buy it & i believe many guitarists would as well.ive heard a few like the binatone units & roland units.but i honestly believe one day analogue will rise up again & i know 4 people who are recording now & we all use analogue tech because its KING baby lol.but the best guitar amp ive heard is a 1960 bassman amp yeah it was for a bass but it was a great guitar amp.that was the amp marshall cloned which hendrix then used so fender built it first & better in my humble opinion.but ive heard 2 & one didnt have the same magic as the other one even though it was from 1959 great post most enjoyable its great learning about yesterdays creations that should still be made today but properly peace...

sounds great, but i thought that distilled water had little to no conductivity

Two KZfaq gurus, AF & RF together in 1 vid. Does Uncle Doug make vids at 2am too?

ElPaso TubeAmps Скажите пожалуйста, нет ли возможности указать размеры деталей? Очень интересный проект! Впервые узнал о таком тремолло!! Моё уважение вам!

can you make a video on how to build one of these for the guy that knows very little about electronics

based on a dearmond 601