Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter Tremolo

The Shape Shifter gets absolutely no love. It's very difficult to find information on it, and no one seems to have them. Seems like a limited run from a pedal maker that doesn't have a reputation that attracts weirdos. If you want to make inventive pedals, start an off-brand (call it something unusual and give it some ugly graphics--no one wants to buy out-of-the-ordinary pedals from Seymour Duncan or Boss).

This is a tap-tempo tremolo pedal with a surprising amount of tweakability. A quick rundown: "depth" is self-explanatory, as I've only encountered a couple trem pedals without this parameter. The "Shape" control is great, as you can dial in an almost percussive sequencer like effect by pushing the shape toward allowing only the attack of the note. Not a subtle effect, but a very cool one.

"Wave" is, again, a pretty standard trem inclusion, but this one does go a little beyond the TR-2's use of only two waveforms (triangle and square). The Shape Shifter throws a sine form into the mix, and it approximates a more "amp-like" effect.

Lastly, there's the "Rate" control, which can be switched from either a "ratio" that responds to the tempo you tap into the pedal, or to a more standard logarithmic pot-type effect. The ratio thing is very cool, and what sets this pedal apart, as you can pretty easily tap in quarter notes, position the knob over the 4:1 ration graphic, and see your signal get chopped with a hard square-wave trem to the tempo of a live drummer.

The only problem (and a well documented one) with tap-tempo trem pedals is that they have one inherent difference from tap-tempo delays. A delay lets a note echo, but the note decays. A trem--while the note decays naturally, as we don't usually have infinite sustain--is locked into a pattern. In other words, a trem has a consistently graphable pattern of modulation. It works like a click track; delays will respond to your playing. For this reason, I tend to use it as a hard square-wave chop, as, when the effect is more obvious, it is easier for live drummers to play with. Sort of like playing to a sequencer.

All in all, a cool pedal, and one that I don't use a ton live. It has its moments...but I don't deploy it with subtlety, so I use it sparingly. A couple cool tricks--putting this before the Microsynth can trigger it so that it does really fast filter sweeps. I can play one note, let it ring, and have the trem chop my signal as it goes into the synth like a whole bunch of staccato notes. Also, after slow filter sweeps is a great place for a hard chopped signal, as it really does the whole "electronica/percussive sampled sound" thing.