Skitting like a stone
We're always looking for something new. That, "Woah, what was that? I've never heard that before," feeling. So commonly we scour the outlands of tradition and the cutting-edge of sound design to hit such epiphanies, but how often do we find innovation in the rearview?
From the City of Brotherly Love, Champion Leccy is a one-man mad science lab doing just that. Mashing together classic effect textures and inspiring newfound sounds in the messy aftermath, Champion Leccy has been breaking all the rules with over-the-counter ingredients – reverbs, vibratos, tremolos.
Today, we're talking about one of the brand's star players and most illuminating examples of the mind-bending results they fashion doing all the wrong things in all the right ways.
This is the Champion Leccy The Skitter V3 Reverb and Tremolo.
Shop the Champion Leccy Skitter V3
Committing to the Skit
Introducing the Champion Leccy The Skitter V3 Tremolo and Reverb
One of the name's longest-running effect models, the Skitter "reverbolo" has garnered a reputation all its own. A pedal in their lineup that really lets you in on the creative philosophy they're peddling, the brand's Skitter reverb and tremolo is classic Leccy. The Skitter establishes a fairly simple formula that, on paper, you'd believe would be solved before step one.
Tremolo and reverb – what's there to figure out? "My sixty-year-old tube amp has tremolo and reverb. You can't pull a fast one on me." Fair enough. True, at the jump, the Skitter's combination of reverb and tremolo leaves little about which to wonder. There's plenty of amp-style reverb and tremolo combo pedals. What's the big whoop?
It's in that distinction where the Skitter makes its move. You'd be right to start thinking about classic amp-style effect textures and their dedicated pedals. However, Champion Leccy approaches the iconic duo of effects in an entirely different fashion. The Skitter V3's tremolo and reverb are not meant to simulate the splash and undercurrent of your favorite tube amp. Instead, they're used to inspire outlandish musical detours by being pushed to their limit. Think you've heard everything you could out of reverb and tremolo? Think again. Let's talk about it.
Skitting the Night Away
Champion Leccy The Skitter V3 Tremolo and Reverb Design and Controls
The Skitter V3 loads in a powerful tremolo and luscious reverb under its hood. This combo introduces a textural palette that quickly turns wonky and twisted. A spacious reverb and deep tremolo summon expressive effect mixtures that color outside the lines and break out of the usual tones you expect out of either effect.
A primary, reverb-affected channel and a dry parallel channel present two avenues for noisy merrymaking. Routed to a lone dial, the Skitter V3's reverb balloons to billowing clouds quickly, leaning into splashier, spring-style flavors. If you're in the business of surfy, drippy, spring-sweetened reverbs, the Skitter V3 offers an authentically expressive reverb to drive your psychedelic-leaning rig.
On both channels, the Skitter V3 features a rhythmic tremolo. The primary channel's tremolo can be shaped to drastic, signal-shaping ends or zeroed out with a minimized Space control. In contrast, the parallel dry channel's tremolo can be turned on and off with its dedicated two-way switch. From here, the real fireworks of the pedal comes to life.
The Skitter V3's eight LFO waveforms present a choose-your-own-adventure of rhythmic tremolo. Traditional square waves and saw waves align with unpredictable random squares and slopes to send signals thoroughly off the deep end. These waveforms prove immensely impactful on the textures and playability the Skitter V3 is working with. Before long, the pedal's wonky tremolo shaping and cavernous reverbs show their stuff as the noisy, ambient, off-the-wall superpowers they truly are. Stick around.
Rock Down to Leccy Avenue
Champion Leccy The Skitter V3 Tremolo and Reverb Tones and Playability
As we alluded to, Champion Leccy's The Skitter V3 plays with traditional amp-style effects in completely off-book ways. The muscle behind the pedal quickly shows off the kinds of mind-bending sounds a conventionally everyday pair of effects can stir up when concocted to do so. Let's talk about some of the routes we can take and the some of the sounds we'll find along the way.
Splash in the PanConsidering the Skitter's washy, cavernous reverb, you'd be right to assume that surfy-style splashes are more than within its wheelhouse. Cranking up the reverb and introducing softer tremolo rhythms with a lessened Space control allow for a drippy, surfy reverb that splashes with character and authenticity. If you're a guitar-to-amp purist looking for a reverb unit with personality, consider taking a walk on the weird side with the Skitter V3.
Sunny Studio SlapThings can get washy and watery, of course, but reeling in the Skitter's reverb mix and focusing in on some of its more rhythm-shaping capabilities, a decent helping of reverb and a more prominent square or sawtooth-shaped LFO can introduce a springy, pseudo-slapback delay. The Skitter V3's capacity to use its powerful LFO tremolo shaping along with its sustaining reverbs to mold a sort of optical-illusion delay tone makes it a shapeshifting superstar.
Bubble, BubbleWith the organic character breathing throughout the Skitter V3, we can start moving toward the noisier sides of the effect. Digging deeper on more drastic LFO waveform movement starts cutting our washy reverb more deeply, resulting in greater collisions of tone. The Skitter V3 plays marvelously as a noisemaker where wonky tremolo rhythms sculpt signals to curious shapes. Drop in the secondary tremolo effect from the parallel dry signal and now you're cooking with gas.
Coiling and UncoilingThe Skitter V3 blooms into its purest form with all cylinders firing. With both channel's tremolos activated, a weirder waveform at play, and attention turned toward the pedal's Light and Kilter switches, the Skitter V3 moves and grooves in its realest truth. As a textural noisemaker full of personality, the Skitter V3's dual tremolos bonking off one another in phase or otherwise introduces plenty of opportunities to inject that classic Leccy lunacy into the equation. Strum a full chord and hear the Skitter work its magic with warped, wonky movement following all the way down. Fire up the Skitter V3 with calculation or let something higher take the wheel and hear Champion Leccy's iconic musical peculiarities do the talking.
Champion Leccy The Skitter V3 Tremolo Reverb Final Thoughts
The Champion Leccy Skitter V3 ups the game when it comes to highly musical tones only ever one switch flip away from being mad as a hatter. With more reserved mixes presenting modern representations of classic effect textures nice enough to meet your parents and more daring mixes making quick friends with the noise merchants and sonic experimenters of the world, the Skitter struts its stuff with a foot comfortably in either reality. While the Skitter V3 is more than likely to find its way into the hands of the dreamy indie offset-slingers of the world, it deserves recognition for the pure musical muscle it's got on tap. Are you a tremolo truther? A reverb realist? A noisemaker constantly barreling headfirst toward your next eureka? If Champion Leccy wasn't already on your watchlist, the Skitter V3 is more than an acceptable reason to add 'em now.
