soundshine electronics

Vibrato-rich tremolo tones are one of the big hallmarks of the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival sound. For those seminal albums, bandleader John Fogerty likely achieved the mesmerizingly throbbing textures through the unique vibrato/tremolo circuit on his Kustom K200 amps or perhaps the onboard tremolo on his Fender amps—or possibly some combination of those. Either way, the material point is that those elusive tones can be quite impressively approximated with the Soundshine Electronics Magnum Swampus. However, the Magnum's wide sonic range and warm tonality also deliver tremolo sounds way beyond the confines of Creedence country.

Interactively Yours
The Magnum Swampus feels solid. And if Soundshine cut any corners in building the Magnum Swampus, they are hidden beyond the reach of daylight. Five Davies Daka-ware control knobs hint at the top-tier components used to build the unit, but you have to guess the origins of the components inside. Two tamper-evident seals make it very clear that your warranty will be voided if you decide to crack open the back. We didn’t peer inside the unit, but the pictures we’ve seen reveal a very clean analog circuit layout—particularly given the multi-functional nature of the pedal. On the outside, the Magnum Swampus sports an attractive olive green finish with psychedelically tinged silkscreened graphics. A bright blue LED is activated when you engage the pedal, and pulses at the modulation rate you dial in.

As this reviewer quickly discovered, you’re going to want to read the brief manual before digging into the Magnum Swampus. After a couple unsuccessful attempts to fire up the pedal with my standard, center-negative 9V power supplies, I discovered that the Magnum Swampus requires a center-positive, 18V power supply. Luckily, one ships with the pedal.

Along the top you’ll find controls for level, chorus, tremolo, vibrato, and rate. While a few of these are self-explanatory, a couple controls deserve extra attention. The pedal’s level control is quite subtle and designed to overcome the perceived signal drop that plagues most tremolo pedals, although it’s not an especially effective or powerful boost on its own. The chorus control works in conjunction with the vibrato knob by dialing in dry signal. (Chorus effects are, for all practical purposes, pitch-shifting vibrato stacked with dry signal. Adding more dry signal makes a pitch-shifted signal sound more “chorus-y.”)

Swamp to Space and Back
The Magnum Swampus has the ability to appeal to the most out-there sonic adventurers and vintage tone freaks. Just a few knob manipulations summoned everything from warm sounding choruses to vintage tremolo throb, and even a great-sounding rotary speaker effect.

But the real magic of the Magnum Swampus comes from blending effects, which is made easier by a shared and synched LFO. The most authentic Fogerty tones—at least to my ear—came from adding chorus to the vibrato and blending in tremolo as necessary. But these composite settings sound great in less conventional and more intense applications, too. I loved pushing the pitch-shifted, pulsing tones to seasick extremes.

I took the Magnum Swampus on a gig—along with a Warmoth Telecaster with Lollar vintage-style pickups, a JHS Panther Cub analog delay, a Nunomo Limbo Overdrive, and a class-A tube amp with Celestion V-Type speakers. The Magnum Swampus worked seamlessly with the other effects, even at extreme settings. In fact, I was able to approximate a mammoth-sounding synth line using the Magnum Swampus and the overdrive at deeply modulated settings. In every application the Magnum Swampus stayed present, musical, and defined in the mix. It’s also exceptionally free of noise.