for many years, perhaps even decades, the only amps that had true, genuine built-in vibrato were magnatone amps. you might be saying to yourself, “wait a minute, contemporary amps from other builders in the past had vibrato circuits!”. while it is true that certain amps had circuits labeled “vibrato,” it was untrue electronically.
tremolo circuits from the past have been labeled as “vibrato,” and while tremolo is a very pleasing effect, there are differences between it and vibrato. what is tremolo? tremolo, or amplitude modulation, is a cyclic, rhythmic change in volume. vibrato, or frequency modulation, is a cyclic, rhythmic change in pitch. although frequency analysis of the two waveforms produced by the two effects might appear similarly, the difference between the two is heard rather than seen.
yesterday effects celebrates magnatone vibrato with the new pitch bender, an electronic vibrato circuit. pitch bender is derived from the magnatone vibrato circuit, but transistors are used over tubes. two controls rule over the sound of pitch bender: intensity and rate. experience electronically true depth and dimension of vibrato with the pitch bender by yesterday effects.
