1950's tube effect pedal

[shzmm]

Hello,
I just got this pedal off Ebay. It was advertised as the world's first volume pedal with tubes! It certainly "controls" the volume but I'm stumped as to what exactly it is meant to do. There are two foot activated rocker controls, two pots on the outside, and a trim pot accessible from the outside. I have included a schematic, the make is Beleton VLP 2. There is no information on the company on the web that I have found.
It uses two tubes, an EF89 (not EF86) and an ECC82. I get a signal from the EF89, but at the ECC82 there is nothing.
Any ideas on what this thing could be? And sorry for the bad schematic drawing!

[pdf64]

Probably a tremolo, with the ecc82 as oscillator. But the signal from the oscillator just gets mixed with the main signal at the ef89 grid, hence heavy low cut on output of ef89, as there's nothing to cancel or otherwise get rid of the low frequency signal.

[shzmm]

Now I see, thanks for that!
Any idea why the transformer is there? Maybe the lower impedance won't load the grid as much?
Either way it doesn't work yet. I get a very fast oscillation but not very broad and nothing that I can actually hear.

[Brad1]

It's hard-wired for 230V?

Interesting critter, that one.

Brad1

[shzmm]

yes it's hard wired as you say. The trouble for me is deciding whether or not to restore it or make something new out of it. It's such an unusual design.
Also the rocker pots are a small value at 50k and 25k
Any ideas on what to make of it are certainly most welcome!

[Ronsonic]

Cool, old and funky, probably deserves to be restored. If you just want to build something get a dunlop wah shell.

[J M Fahey]

Yes, most certainly it is an add-on tremolo, probably meant more for organs or accordions than for guitars.
Its very uniqueness and coolness demands that you restore it.
It looks VERY Italian, and late '60s to me.
Post everything you read on that Tesla filter capacitor.
The transformer is needed for the tremolo oscillator; look at all those .5 and 1uF capacitors to ground, they ensure that you only get a very low frequency modulation signal.
That series 5000 pF capacitor on the output signal line is not enough to filter out intrusive low frequency.