Fav Univibe type pedal?

[darkhorse]

Just FYI on some more Vibe info:
JHS custom pedals offers a mod on the Micro Vibe for like $55, vastly improves the pedal, if you have one already it is well worth sending it off for the mod. They will also sell you a new mod'd pedal as well. This little pedal is a real photocell vibe circuit, only downside is, it has no vibrato mode option switch. Which is no big deal as most of us never use it anyway. So at any rate, JHS mods can really improve the depth and tone of the VL Micro Vibe. Might be to your advantage to have the mod if you have one rather than practically give it away in a trade-in "deal". It is a good pedal but I agree not intense enough with the pulse to really nail the Gilmour, Hendrix or Trower Vibe. Of course the tube Vibe will sound much better it is more than twice the bucks, it better.

I have had a lot of Vibes over the years. Always loved the effect ever since I heard Jimi on Machine Gun and my fav New Rising Sun, now that is the coolest Vibe song ever. Listen to that and tell me you do not love that sound. Trower of course used the effect to its fullest possibilities. Bridge of Sighs, please, the tones on that album are still unmatched today. Amazing what the Robin Trower band did back in the day with Jimmy Dewar singing, I still have all of it loaded in my IPOD like unit.

I once had an original Univibe back in the day when I hardly knew what I had gotten a hold of. Moody and hard to get a consistent tone is what I remember. Jimi had some kind of magic with it. (Jimi's chain was Amp, Univibe, Fuzz Face and Vox Wah, guitar)

Trower's tones were just anincredible wall of sound thick and pulsing. Last year I had the pleasure of introducing one of my nephews to some real guitar as he has just started playing. Trower blew his mind "he never heard a guitar do that before", I had to also drop some Malmsteen on him to show him some what I term rather impossible playing.

Anyway, back to Vibes. I recently had the T-Rex Viper Vibe and the Lovepedal Pickle Vibe these are not photocell circuits but have that sense of pulse warble the real vibes created. OK but not great, might satisfy the younger players just to cop the effect for a tune or two. Now the real photocell vibe is just much more organic, and natural, and it morphs into your playing and touch far better. If you really want the real deal go photocell circuit.

I am not totally sure of all the higher dollar pedals which ones have continued the photocell circuit design. Most do that I have seen as that is the basis of the real Vibe and what made it such a unique effect. Not quite a phaser, not quite a chorus or a rotary leslie but something unique and weird. Listen to New Rising Sun by Jimi and you can hear how the effect makes the technique of playing work, whereas without it, it just would not be the same song.

I would resume the Tube Vibe unit is a photocell circuit as it uses tubes and the tubes probably give it that extra touch of organic response as the tubes get hot. I have heard them, sweet tones, but too expensive for me as is the Roger Mayer which is probably the top-top shelf pedal in Vibes.

The VersaVibe is also cool, not sure if it is a photocell circuit, it seems to be. You are going to have to drop about $200 for a decent Vibe pedal if you want the real deal. The modified JHS - VL Micro Vibe is going to get about $200 with the mod either your pedal or theirs, the Tube unit is like $300 and the Versa-Vibe about $285 and a mention of the UberVibe by Retroman also about $300 and custom made for you, worth the wait as I have heard. I opted for the Fulltone Mini DejaVibe myself as it was just the easier one for me to get my hands on and I knew a lot about it. I am not a big fan of Fuller as a person or trying to get tech questions, I think he hates stupid guitar players more than me and has less patience. But he does make some great pedals. Shhhh, don't tell him I got the DejaVibe.

The best original sounding not too expensive photocell one I know of is Fulltone's DejaVibe, Fuller went to great extremes to recreate the original circuit and improve on the quality of components (also noiseless, bypass, etc) having his own photocells made. Be advised the adjustment on the pedal bottom is not there for just increasing the effect, it controls the intensity of the bulb which works on the sealed photocells. As I understand you can risk burning the bulb out, as Fuller explains it, it is a one time set up tweak to get the unit matched to specs. There would be an argument that in time you may need to slightly increase it but Fuller warns you better let someone adjust it to merely make the circuit work to specs. Mine is new so I am not going to risk screwing with it although the pedal is not intense enough for me. I find the trick is trying to run things into it or after it to enhance it anyone know some good ones???

I find the DejaVibe as much a moody effect as the original and not easy to get in your pedal chain finding the magic spot. Sure I could rig like Trower first in chain and set my rig to get just his tones or Jimi's but I need my rig to be really versatile and cover a wide range of tones. I also run a Radial Boost/Buffer pedal first in chain which serves to drive and condition my whole line so it is not practical for me to screw up the impedance drive that pedal provides also making everything sound better including the straight guitar tone.

Following the advice of Fuller and Trower I run the Vibe before any dirt pedals or overdrive. But you know I cannot say that is the best sound for me. A cleaner overdrive works but the more dirt the less I like the effect. For me running a phase or a vibe into gain really mutes and reduces the effect sweep and warble pulse.

I am thinking of putting it where I like my Phase unit, end of amp in chain, but not in the loop. Here I get the options of my overdrive or a higher gain pedal into the unit as well as running the pedal into my dirty or gained up amp channels to get that option as well.

I puzzle over where to place the unit. I tend to like cleaner more tonal Overdrives and that works well with the Vibe in front but the more I gain up the drive or dare kick on a uber gain for fun, the Vibe just does not sound right. Anyway, any suggestions you guys have with yours and the levels of overdrives you use would be interesting to hear. I currently use the RIVERA Blues Shaman and it has a real Klon like quality at lower gains which I tend to like more and sounds great with the front Vibe placement. But gain that puppy up and the Vibe loses its coolness.

[trippy]

anybody know what kind of pedal Audley Freed was using for the univibe thing on Cry of Love's "Diamonds and Debris"? That was a good one, whatever it was..

[peterbaide]

The lovepedal isn't a true "vibe", it's a phaser tweaked to sound like a vibe, and if you like it you like it

Good point. You can hear the phase is of different character. I like it.

[darkhorse]

Commenters have stated Audley Freed (BlackCrow's, Cry of Love, solo, Frampton and BlackCrow's w Jimmy Page) used a Fulltone Deja Vibe. I am not familar with that song so I have not heard it to determine the tone. He also uses a pedal or pedals from Prescription Electronics which make a really killer fuzz/octave that has a unique reverse envelope to the octavia, if you ran that through any sort of Phase it would be the weirdest unique tones. Cool box by the way, hard to control and manage but is more a Jimi in a box than anything I have heard.

They also make their own Vibe pedal which is a possibility he had one or both of them. So I would say commentors of his rig said he had been using an older Fulltone DejaVibe and there is a possibility it is a Prescription Electronics Vibe. Another very cool custom pedal Vibe running about $300 with a slight wait on build. Judging by the comments I suspect it is the Prescription Electronics Vibe.

Do check out Prescription Electronics they make some killer custom boutique pedals. The Fuzz/octaver and Vibe are indeed exceptional.

I would say the Prescription Electronics sounds better than the Fulltone and there are quite a few more rare and expensive vibes that sound better on a real tone freak level, but as well the DejaVibe sounds better than a lot of others as well. For about $200-250 it is a winner at that price range, go upwards to $300 and there are a lot of choices of really great Vibes.

All the higher dollar Vibes are using the photocell circuit as far as I know. Trower is a Vibe freak and he stays with the Fulltone. One would imagine he would have tried everyone to find the one that suited his tone. Satriani in his limited use of the pedal has a Fulltone Mini DejaVibe and the Roger Mayer high dollar unit. The Mayer unit is probably the top shelf unit being the most expensive. I would wager any of the high end custom units running around $300 are all great pedals. Preference would be a subtle flavor.

I dig the Fulltone Mini DejaVibe so far. I got mine for about $230 but it was on trade-in. I opted for the Mini as I do not care about having the foot speed control. Most of the high end expensive units are like the Mini Deja without a pedal control but a few have an add on pedal if you like that control. I sort of set mine and leave it so the Mini unit was cool for me.

As Mike Fuller rightly states his unit is the exact circuit of the original Univibe using his own custom made cells and sealed mirrored interior light box. He made the circuit quiet and true bypass and a far more consistent and good sounding unit than the original really moody, noisy, tone sucking no bypass, and in general unstable unit that it was. Just FYI, if you have seen John Mayer's rig lately, he has an original rare Univibe with foot pedal in a bypass loop off his rig.

The guy above is correct, the Lovepedal Pickle Vibe ($130) and the T-Rex Viper Vibe ($150) are not original photocell circuits they are tweaked phasers to mimic the Univibe's pulse sweep which is not a linear sweep like a normal phaser but has a huge notch that throws the sweep into almost a vibrato warble. It's what makes the Vibe unique, it is not quite a phaser, not quite a vibrato, not quite a chorus but something morphing all these qualities into a different tone. If you like modulation you will dig it.

The new tech (as I call them, do a decent mimic and for those who are not Vibe freaks (like me) they would do to provide a close tone for a song or two. I had them both, I finally managed to raise enough to get a real photocell Vibe. It makes a difference, the photocell original circuit as I reported is much more organic and natural and responds to your touch. The Lovepedal or T-Rex (which I consider the better of the two) are cool for anyone who has not played through a Vibe or is just experiencing the effect. They sound good and they do a good job of the tone but once you really get into the pedal or have played a more original Vibe you are going to like the photocell circuit better.

[nedorama]

The new Tech 21 is pretty good as a leslie clone - don't know how well it nails the Univibe thing, but worth checking out. I tried it last week at my local guy and the ramp up/ramp down are cool.

[fretless]

I used a Fulltones mini dejavibe on this
SoundClick artist: Fretless Jamz - page with MP3 music downloads

and the pink jam

SoundClick artist: Fretless Jamz - page with MP3 music downloads

[darkhorse]

I had an original so long ago, a moody noisy, unpredictable tone sucker it was. Fullers clone and improved components and bypass improved it a lot, the DejaVibe inspired all these other pedals to redo the Vibe. The DejaVibe is so much like the original I do not think you could tell the tone apart but the Fulltone has more headroom and better consistent tone because it is a 1960 to 2000 tech improvement on noise and consistent components. Fuller has his own photocells made, he got anal on copying that circuit and improving the quality but keeping the tone (hence his vintage modern option switch more older sounding photocells), I do not think it is a steroid boost myself, in fact I think is is rather mild and more organic sounding, one reason I like it. I actually tweaked my intensity pot up just a little to get a little more out of it as it was so mild. It tends to come alive on where you put it and with what. The DejaVibe gets too cool into a JCM like, darker near breakup channel. I am not a fan of the into OD thing, I can see it working on milder ODs but just cannot get the sound I like into a OD pedal, now into a slightly dirty tube channel..

One thing I can say about the Fulltone is it started the Vibe resurrection and Trower uses it. One would imagine the Vibe God would have tried them all although I am sure there are newer ones he has not heard of.

I would have to agree on the Roger Mayer is not only the most expensive but probably top of the shelf. It costs like 2x of others but I am not sure it is 2x the pedal.

I think the DejaVibe is a great mid price range real photocell winner, once you go to $300 you have a lot of choices. The Prescription Electronics is cool and the tubes in that Effectrode make it really interesting tech, I would love to see how the tubes respond to input. The Mayer unit is like $500, I just cannot afford it.

So many of them sound great, hard to note a crappy one. Once you play with one you tend to dig the tone. I have other modulations but nothing is like the Vibe. It is not quite a chorus, not quite a phase, and not quite a rotary effect just something different and too cool. "Hey Baby, where you comin' from...."

[Muser]

Yamaha RA 200.

they keep falling off your pedal-board though.

[GeorgeHayduke]

Originally Posted by GeorgeHayduke

I tried the Fulltone 2 vibe. I thought it sounded very hifi (nice) but it didn't quite have enough bite and depth imo. The effect was a bit too superficial even at max. intensity. Anyone else agree?
I'll probably pick up the Roger Mayer Voodoo today, it seems to have a heftier character?

So, I thought I'd return to tell.

I first got a Captain Coconut 2 with the Foxrox vibe. I like it a lot, but I picked up a Roger Mayer Vodoo Vibe Jr. last week and it's quite different.

The Mayer has extreme fidelity, it's really an impressively clean pedal. On the other hand, it boosts the signal slightly (I'm using it in true bypass mode) going from my Tele to my 18 watt Marshall-clone.

It is easier to set than the Foxrox, and the controls are perfect, it's really very easy to set, as opposed to it's bigger sibling The Voodoo Vibe +. Honestly, I preferred the Jr. because of the controls.

While the Foxrox does an evil dirty throb, I think I'll be using the Voodoo mostly, because of the amazing clarity and nice controls which allow setting a great classic and deep vibe sound, quickly. Also, the Coconut-vibe can sound a little dull at times (lacks top end) though I heard that it is designed to be used at loud levels where piercing highs are not wanted.

[ivansc]

I read and read and tried stuff out till I eventually bought a Moen Shaky Jimi last year.
Crap name and a truly Yewgly shade of purple, but it does several rather nice effects, including a really throbby Univibe.

[Igotsoul4u]

Voodoo labs Microvibe should be the least expensive but great sounding option. Dejavibe sounds great als but is twice as much money

[souldeep]

Originally Posted by 357mag

I've only used the Dunlop Univibe. Sounds pretty good.

yes ...i have it for more than 12 years and im quite happy with Dunlop Univibe...

[darkhorse]

Something that has helped my tones a lot was the addition of a new Wampler Ego Compressor, man what a great unit. Adds a lot to Hendrixy cleaner Univibe tones and everything in the realm of tone. Made me love the compressor again. The Wampler is amazingly transparently cool compressor. The blend control allows you to mix in the straight tone, really nice feature. I continue to love the Fulltone DejaVibe. Nice pedal. Might be better ones but as a an actual redo of the old circuit hard to imagine a better vintage tone.