The best modulation pedals: tremolo, chorus, flange, phase & beyond
Modulation pedals play around with the pitch or tone of your guitar signal – or its volume, in the case of tremolo pedals. There are various types including phaser, flanger, chorus, vibe, rotary, ring modulator and the aforementioned tremolo, while multimode modulation pedals serve up a selection of effects.
Some guitarists layer on lashings of modulation, making these effects the star of their sound. Can you imagine Nirvana’s ‘Come As You Are’ without the chorus-drenched guitar? Would The Smiths’ ‘How Soon Is Now?’ sound half as iconic without Johnny Marr’s juddering tremolo?
Modulation can be subtle, too. Perhaps a touch of phaser or a sprinkling of vibe could take your sound somewhere fresh. Whether you’re a modulation maximalist or minimalist, the pedals featured below will broaden the spectrum of sounds you can summon at the press of a footswitch. Read on for our potted reviews of the best modulation pedals.
At a glance:
Our pick: Silvertone Twin Trem
Best multi-mode modulation pedal: Kernom Elipse
Best vintage-style chorus: Warm Audio CA-1 Chorus
Best boutique chorus: Mythos Pedals The Fates
Best boutique flanger: PRS Wind Through The Trees
Best entry-level modulation pedal: Walrus Audio Fundamental Phaser
Best modulation pedal for ambient: Walrus Audio Polychrome
best digital tremolo: Universal Audio UAFX Flow
Best affordable phaser: DOD Phasor 201
Best harmonic tremolo: Jam Pedals Harmonious Monk
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Our pick: Silvertone Twin Trem
Image: Press
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Put together Silvertone – recently revived manufacturer of classic, tremolo-equipped amps – with the boutique pedal makers at Jackson Audio, and you get one brilliantly authentic tremolo pedal: the Silvertone Twin Trem. Our reviewer thinks it might be the best model on the market.
There are two separate (but blendable) analogue tremolo circuits to play around with – ‘optical’ and ‘harmonic’ – each with its own speed and depth controls. Used separately, both circuits sound full, lush and expressive. Mixed to your taste, their combination of modulation and volume-based throb is something special. The LED status light glows in three colours to indicate which circuit(s) you’re using.
Need more? Read our Silvertone Twin Trem review.
Best multi-mode modulation pedal: Kernom Elipse
Kernom Elipse. Image: Richard Purvis
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A multi-fangled modulation lab for your pedalboard, the Kernom Elipse has a rich roster of effects including flanger, phaser, vibe, harmonic tremolo, rotary and chorus/vibrato – and importantly, you can set the selector dial to the funky spaces between certain effects pairings. These sounds can be thoroughly adjusted via depth, speed and wave shape controls, as well as a very interesting ‘Swirl’ parameter that adds some extra phasing, which morphs into low-gain overdrive after ‘5’ on the dial.
With so many parameters to tweak, keeping track of your favourite tones could be tricky. Thankfully, you can save a preset with a two-second hold of the dedicated footswitch, then easily switch between that sound and the current settings.
Need more? Read our Kernom Elipse review.
Best vintage-style chorus: Warm Audio CA-1 Chorus
Image: Press
If you crave the classic sounds (and enclosure styling) of the BOSS CE-1 Chorus Ensemble but don’t want to spend silly money on an antique original, then the Warm Audio WA-C1 shimmers invitingly in your direction. This near facsimile gives you CE-1 tone at a fair price.
All your favourite CE-1 sounds are here, from the lush and nostalgic to the crisply percussive. And unlike the original, the WA-C1 has separate depth and rate controls (rather than one intensity knob), so you have some extra tone-shaping capability at your fingertips.
The WA-C1 is much smaller than the original CE-1, so it won’t quite need its own postal code (much as its name might look like one).
Need more? Read our Warm Audio CA-1 Chorus review.
Best boutique chorus: Mythos Pedals The Fates
Mythos The Fates
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For a unique take on the much mythologised BOSS CE-1 chorus, go whither The Fates calls. This boutique clone repackages pleasing CE-1-like sounds with some innovative controls and features, including a JFET buffered input/bypass stage and a tweaked vibrato option that reins in the chorus’s warblier tendencies.
We reckon The Fates is at its best with the rate knob at noon and the depth set slightly higher, which brings out a beautiful responsiveness. The vibrato section is a great option to have, too, especially for tone minimalists who like their modulation to sit a little behind their guitar’s signal.
Need more? Read our Mythos Pedals The Fates review.
Best boutique flanger: PRS Wind Through The Trees
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Spacey and more than a little eighties, this dual analogue flanger doesn’t sound all that much like the lilting susurrus of wind through leaves and branches. That’s not to say we don’t love it.
The Wind Through The Trees launched in 2023 as one of the first three pedals ever made by PRS. It’s a debut befitting of the legendary guitar brand, with a distinctive dual-flanger configuration that runs your signal through two individually adjustable flangers to create a smorgasbord of swirling, interweaving, clashing experimental sounds. The ‘added highs’ control provides an easy fix for when your effect settings have flanged your guitar’s higher frequencies into oblivion.
Need more? Read our PRS Wind Through The Trees review.
Best entry-level modulation pedal: Walrus Audio Fundamental Phaser
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We’ve got a lot of love for Walrus Audio’s ‘Fundamental’ line of great-sounding affordable pedals. The Fundamental Phaser is the series’ take on modulation, and while it doesn’t push any sonic boundaries, it’s a solid option if you’re looking for a selection of, erm, fundamental phaser sounds.
Rate, depth and feedback are controlled via slider, while a three-way switch chooses between light, medium and heavy phasing. The Heavy setting takes the effect to Van Halenesque extremes, while our reviewer found that the Light mode’s gentle wobble paired perfectly with a clean input and jazzy chords.
Need more? Read our Walrus Audio Fundamental Phaser review.
Best modulation pedal for ambient: Walrus Audio Polychrome
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This far-out analogue flanger from Walrus Audio offers a kaleidoscope of parameters to play around with. It’s a toolkit for ambient experimentation, often sounding worlds apart from your average flanger.
The ‘Sweep’ control adjusts the flanged frequency range, while the ‘d-f-v’ knob switches between dry, flanger and vibrato modes. You’ve also got some more familiar rate and depth controls to set the flanging waveform, plus extra options courtesy of the ‘Shape’ and ‘Voice’ switches, which respectively offer alternate waveform options and notched flanging with reduced low-end.
Some of that may come across as over-complicated, but using the Polychrome is a simple joy for any guitarist who enjoys experimenting with their sound.
Need more? Read our Walrus Audio Polychrome review.
best digital tremolo: Universal Audio UAFX Flow
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Compact, straightforward and equipped with a tasteful selection of retro sounds, the UAFX Flow is up there with the very best digital tremolo pedals. It faithfully emulates the sort of classic tremolo sounds you might hear emanating from a vintage tube amp, with three options – ‘Dharma’, ‘’65’ and ‘Square’ – serving up tremolo in brown-panel-style, 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb-like and choppy, square-wave varieties.
All three settings sound authentic, organic and distinctive, and there’s plenty of scope to tweak them using the depth, speed and volume controls. You also have a (slightly convoluted) tap tempo at your disposal, so you can match the tremolo to a live rhythm on the hoof.
Need more? Read our Universal Audio UAFX Flow review.
Best affordable phaser: DOD Phasor 201
Phasor 201
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This beautifully simple analogue phaser has just one control, for the phasing speed. As anyone who’s plugged into a DOD Phasor since their 1970s origins can tell you, it sounds rich, warm, soupy, decidedly vintage – and pleasingly subtle, thanks in part to its two-stage phasing design.
It may not give you many (or even multiple) options to tweak your sound, but what the Phasor 201 does offer is a classic, staple modulation effect in an affordable and quite lovely package. If you want to add phasing to your pedalboard at minimal cost and without adding much complexity, look no further.
Need more? Read our DOD Phasor 201 review.
Best harmonic tremolo: Jam Pedals Harmonious Monk
Image: Jam Pedals
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A trem-lover’s trem pedal, the Harmonious Monk has both amplitude tremolo (the standard, volume-based effect) and harmonic tremolo, which is far less widely used and far, far more psychedelic.
There are a bunch of reasons why the Harmonious Monk ranks as one of our very favourite modulation pedals. Its harmonic mode is a thing of beauty, adding an irresistible deep throb to chords and melodies, while the amplitude tremolo mode offers everything from subtle, rounded waveforms to black-panel-style choppiness.
Unsurprisingly, given that it was made by JAM Pedals (assisted by the ‘That Pedal Show’ team), the Harmonious Monk’s superb sounds are delivered through a very well-made pedal with an eye-catching enclosure. The second footswitch for instant tremolo speed doubling is a handy touch.
Need more? Read our Jam Pedals Harmonious Monk review.
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That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.
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