“Better tech, modern features, and the rich warbling vibratos of the ’70s and ’80s”: Diamond revives its fan favorite Vibrato after nearly 20 years – and it’s been given some key upgrades
The re-release of Diamond's all-analog, true-pitch Vibrato finds the pedal reprised with modern features and a more pedalboard-friendly casing, with its circuitry built around the much-loved MN3007 bucket brigade chip.
But Diamond asserts this is no mere re-hash, with this “latest and greatest” version incorporating “decades-worth of end-user feedback, better tech, and modern features”.
Its enhanced components mean greater isolation for the audio path from the power and switching circuits, with the jacks now located on the top of the pedal and soft-touch true bypassing added.
Despite the changes, the MN3007 chip remains crucial in creating the “rich, organic, and warbling vibrato and chorus tones” synonymous with ‘70s and ‘80s guitar playing.
The result, Diamond says, is “a natural, liquid-like pitch modulation with a rounded vintage texture and mojo” that it claims digitized emulations cannot come close to.
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Its updated Compandor Circuit – borrowed from the Memory Land Jr. delay pedal – better controls the dynamics of the pedal, giving the vibrato a fresh feel, response, and clarity, while reducing its noise and distortion.
The Diamond Vibrato Is Back & Here To Stay! - YouTube
In practice, powering the pedal with 18VDC delivers a more luscious, head-headroom vibrato, while charging it with 9VDC will add more color and warble to its tones.
Controls comprise knobs for Level, Speed, Chorus, and Depth, with an additional Jazz switch for extra tone-shaping goodness.
The pedal also offers a momentary or latching speed doubler to ramp up the speed of its vibrato, as the name suggests, double-time.
The first 800 pedals sold will use original NOS Panasonic BBDs, with the pedal priced at $279 with preorders now open.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
