Flexible and rich with liquid-to-choppy textures, this analog tremolo is addictive fun and a potent tone-shaper.
Abundant textures of analog trem’ you can really get lost in. Intuitive. Rich modulations.
Costs just enough to sting.
$279
JAM Pedals Harmonious Monk mk.2
jampedals.com
The second iteration of JAM’s Harmonious Monk, a tremolo pedal designed with Dan and Mick from That Pedal Show, has a way of making hours disappear. It’s super fun, full of sounds you can swim or drown in, and, after a short time, quite intuitive to use. I’d be surprised to encounter a gigging musician that couldn’t cover 90 percent of their tremolo needs with the mk.2. For most, I suspect, the mk.2 will cover every need and then some.
My own tremolo predilections span on-off, stop-motion, Spacemen 3 throbs and liquid, subdued, wallflower modulations. The mk.2 covers both of those extremes. Its capacity for fine tuning via the pedal’s depth, speed, level, and mix knobs; square, sine, and reverse wave shapes; and amplitude- and harmonic-style trem’—plus a tap tempo switch—lend the mk. 2 a painterly, intuitive functionality. Exploration of the expansive range of modulation sounds here can be a pretty meditative exercise. But you can just as easily use it surgically, without disappearing down a rabbit hole.
There are cool new features on the mk.2. “Tap” and “ramp,” in one button, is probably the coolest of them. It enables you to set and switch between extreme speeds as well as set the rate of the ramp. It’s a crazy-cool way to build dramatic mood shifts and even whole riffs. Even the grumpiest stompbox skeptic would have fun with the mk.2. The fact that it’s so completely practical, too, is pure cream on top.
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