Liquid Tremolo With Glass Cleaner

One thing that I miss around here, and when I say here, I mean my little work area, is having fun nerding out on some projects. As a musician that likes to tinker, it allows me to combine interests, and that is super fun and immediately gratifying. For those of you that are just starting out, or thinking about starting out, it can be overwhelming understanding electronics. There is a lot to take in.. physics can be hard to digest, but with small bites, you can go a very long ways. That’s why I like working on music gear, because you see the theory, and you can apply it by actually playing and using it.

Today I wanted to talk about a fun project that is not very practical, but could be. The liquid tremolo! Basically a tremolo turning on/off a signal by a potentiometer. There are a lot of ways to do this. I’ve seen candle powered tremolos using a photoresistor. I’ve seen discs that spin that sets the rate of the light for a photoresistor. But.. this example was really interesting to me. Using liquid to conduct to ground.

Check it out:

Now, this was new to me. I figured since the liquid is conductive that at any point the signal touches the liquid it would send to ground. I didn’t realize it was based on the amount of liquid touching it. Love learning new things like this!

Liquid related to electronics, pedalboard, etc might not be the best option, but it could be quite cool and safe depending how it’s developed. Also the ability to change the rate (speed) would be good. I’m really curious where this can go with some steampunk builders out there. Could be super fun.

Let me know what you think by commenting below!