page_title: Vibrato unit
section_title: Controls
hierarchical_section_title: Vibrato unit / Controls
caption_attribution_description: Vibrato/reverb channel of a en:Fender Vibrolux amplifier. The en:potentiometers, from left to right, read Volume, Treble, Bass, Reverb, Speed and Intensity. This is an original photo by Andrew Alder, taken on 5 October 2005.
context_page_description: A vibrato unit is an electronic effects unit used to add vibrato to the sound of an electric instrument, most often an electric guitar. Vibrato units may be individual stomp boxes or built into multi-effects units, but are traditionally built into guitar amplifiers. Vibrato units are particularly used in surf music.
  The name vibrato unit is contrary to normal usage of the term vibrato, and in that sense the unit is incorrectly named. The guitaring tradition of using the term "vibrato" to refer to a tremolo effect began in 1956 with Leo Fender's use of the term in naming the Fender Vibrolux. In all other contexts the effect produced by a traditional vibrato unit is known as tremolo rather than vibrato.
  A few guitar amplifiers do feature true pitch shifting vibrato, notably some models offered in the late 1950s and into the 60s by Magnatone and presently by Juke Amplification. Still other amplifier manufacturers describe the effect, in accordance with standard music terminology, as tremolo.
context_section_description: A vibrato unit normally has three controls:
  Speed controls the frequency of the variation, typically from a maximum (fully clockwise) of five to ten hertz to a minimum which may be as slow as one cycle taking several seconds.
  Depth or intensity controls the amplitude (volume) of the variation. The minimum depth (fully anticlockwise) is typically (but not always) zero, that is no effect on the sound at all; The maximum depth does not normally cut the sound off completely at the cycle minimum, but may reduce it by as much as 6 dB, virtually a cut off to the ear.
  An on/off control, traditionally a pull-on switch on the depth potentiometer, a foot switch, or both. The off position bypasses the unit. In the case of an amplifier mounted unit where both switches are supplied, the unit is bypassed if the pull-on switch is off, regardless of the pedal. If the pedal is not plugged in, the unit is turned on and off by the pull-on switch; If the pedal is plugged in, then it controls the unit when the pull-on switch is on.
caption: The vibrato/reverb channel of a Fender Vibrolux amplifier. 
   The potentiometers, from left to right, read Volume, Treble, Bass, Reverb, Speed and Intensity.
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