So Spaceman seems to be somewhat hot on the reissues trail this year - with all of this years releases being iterations of former classics - the Rumblefuzz II, Spacerocket II, then Sputnik IIb, and now Voyager II.
And the Voyager II looks to be the least changed to the naked eye - all the controls seem to be the same - we just have the former Frequency legend relabelled as ’Speed’, and the former ’Freq / Fade’ control has had its values flipped to ’Fade / Freq’. And of course the onboard Overdrive circuit now has its own Bypass footswitch - so the that Overdrive and Tremolo can be launched independently!
Everything else appears near enough identical, while no doubt there have been some further nips and tucks also on the internal circuit - while this is yet another Through-Hole Components Release (vs Standard Series) - where it features all those full size rarefied components.
This post is somewhat a little moot - as by the time I got to this - all of those Voyagers on offer on this occasion had been sold. While knowing Spaceman - there will be further batches of further colourways soon enough no doubt. It wouldn’t have mattered much to me anyway - as December budgets are all assigned to Christmas, apart from a tiny contingency fund - which I already used on the Beetronics Whoctahell II Babee edition.
The essence of the Voyager is a Dynamic, Envelope Controlled Optical tremolo which can dynamically adjust Tremolo Speed and Intensity based on your level of pick attack. And all that is underpinned by a very pleasant sounding Overdrive circuit!
I generally favour Harmonic Tremolos - like Spaceman’s own Delta II - but I do like these dynamic envelope follower tremolo types also - so this remains a viable wishlist target for me - I still need to process how much I want this one - and I did indeed pass on this the first time around (Voyager I)!
Voyager II Controls - TREMOLO } Speed, Waveform : Square / Triangle, Strength (Intensity), Envelope (Sensitivity), Effect : Fade / Freq (Speed), Tremolo Footswitch; OVERDRIVE } Level, Gain, Bypass Footswitch.
This is a really cool Tremolo pedal for sure, which you will at some stage be able to buy again for $399 on the Spaceman Effects Webstore!
For the original ’Voyager I’ the price tag went as high as $499 for the shiny copper edition!