Finally found a satisfying univibe

[MojoTrwall]

I don't get the crave for univibe.

I know everhything I need to know about it, having built two (a eqd depth and madbean harbinger, Vibe in a wah Shell for speed pot).

It nails perfectly the Hendrix tone with a germanium fuzz After it (I know some Say Hendrix used it post, but they forget that the distording JTM is itself comparable to the Fuzz and is an additionnal gain stage After the Vibe).

An harmonic tremolo can nail the Vibe sound, not the opposite for instance.

 

[MojoTrwall]

I must be nuts because I’m one of the few that likes the mxr univibe

It is phaser like but I’m not sure what a “real” univibe is supposed to sound like so maybe that helps

Univibe sounds like a phaser, because it is a phaser.

Just an optical one and not OTA.

 

[BorderRadio]

I don't get the crave for univibe.

I know everhything I need to know about it, having built two (a eqd depth and madbean harbinger, Vibe in a wah Shell for speed pot).

It nails perfectly the Hendrix tone with a germanium fuzz After it (I know some Say Hendrix used it post, but they forget that the distording JTM is itself comparable to the Fuzz and is an additionnal gain stage After the Vibe).

An harmonic tremolo can nail the Vibe sound, not the opposite for instance.

Univibe sounds like a phaser, because it is a phaser.

Just an optical one and not OTA.

I think it’s Hendrix, Trower, and Gilmour that are responsible for the lasting crave. +1 on the vibe sound pushing gain stage after.

A harmonic trem and certain phasers can approximate the Univibe, and for most people that’s enough. What I crave though, is the photocells/lamp ‘beat’, which is mostly unique to the Vibe.

All that said, I’ve owned the Micro Vibe twice, great pedal. The first one started acting up and I got rid of it. The second was replaced by a Mini Deja Vibe MKII. I definitely like the vibrato mode. Usually ignored but I find it very useable.

 

[mkdaws32]

I had the danelectro optical univibe a few years ago and I thought it was great. It got pushed off of my board by a Joyo tremolo and a Small Stone phaser. Turns out I just prefer straight up tremolo or phaser to the more complex univibe sound.

 

[trxx]

Voodoo Lab makes great pedals but they seem to get overlooked. I feel like if they had funky artwork on the pedals and charged an extra $50 - $75 they'd be the hot boutique pedal brand.

Understanding that it's totally subjective, I am a little curious about what you preferred about the micro vibe to the Deja Vibe. I have the Mini Dejavibe mkii and it's everything I would ever want in a univibe and is just a fantastic sounding pedal.

It seems that the MDV-3 (can't say about other Deja Vibe models) is excited in the low end (huge whomp) and with a sharp peak in the mids (I think it was 2K). I liked the excited frequencies at first, but after a while I wanted something flatter. Shortly after I got this pedal I heard a Micro Vibe demo but quickly forgot the name of it after having listened to so many univibe pedal demos. Anyway I preferred what I heard over the MDV-3. Later I went listening again to univibe pedals and ran onto that Micro Vibe demo again. To my ears the envelope of the modulation sounds more like what I want to hear (from Hendrix and Mike McCready) with that phasery liquid quality and without the excited low end and mid peak. When I found one and plugged it in I knew right away that it was what I was looking for. I'm not saying that the MDV-3 is a bad univibe pedal, and I loved that it was built into an expression housing and had more controls. But the core sound of the Micro Vibe is much more to my liking, getting much closer to the univibe sounds that made me want to get one in the first place. Things I will miss about the MDV-3: expression pedal, vibrato mode, volume control. Also, it would be nice to have a level control over the mid peak that the MDV-3 has for cutting through by a chosen amount. A noticeable amount of 'cut' does get lost through the Micro Vibe.

That said, it's all personal preference. Someone else may like the sound of the MDV-3 much more. And it definitely has a nicer feature set than the Micro Vibe.

 

[Lawdawg]

@trxx thanks for that detailed description. It's always a great feeling to plug a pedal in and know immediately that it's the one.

 

[Doctorx33]

I have one of these, it's really an excellent pedal.

I have several other vibes. BBE Soul Vibe, two or three Chicken Salads, Dano Cool Cat vibe, Shaky Jimi, and a cheapie Kokko Vibe, which sounds surprisingly good. They all sound good in their way.

 

[trxx]

For a cheapie pedal (I think it was ~$20) the Kokko Vibe is surprisingly fun and not far and away from the Micro Vibe (It looks like the price has doubled on that pedal though). Gotta love that the knob detents glow in the dark too. I'll post a sound clip later of the MIcro Vibe compared to the Kokko Vibe. To my ears, the envelope is less pronounced (rounder) than the Micro Vibe, and the Micro Vibe has more low end depth. Still worth buying at $40? Sure, but not as fun as a $20 peal. If someone wants a unvibe'ish pedal without spending much, it's not bad and will get in the ballpark with the above mentioned caveats.

The MDV-3 has a steeper envelope on the rise or fall (I forget which) than either of these. I should have posted clips of all three, but I have since sold the MDV-3 to someone here on the forum.

There is something about that digital line of Digitech pedals (Ventura, etc.) that my ears did not like the sound of after repeated listening. A sort of murky and undefined quality. It was subtle upon first hearing those pedals, but I heard it more easily after more listening.

 

[MojoTrwall]

I think it’s Hendrix, Trower, and Gilmour that are responsible for the lasting crave. +1 on the vibe sound pushing gain stage after.

A harmonic trem and certain phasers can approximate the Univibe, and for most people that’s enough. What I crave though, is the photocells/lamp ‘beat’, which is mostly unique to the Vibe.

All that said, I’ve owned the Micro Vibe twice, great pedal. The first one started acting up and I got rid of it. The second was replaced by a Mini Deja Vibe MKII. I definitely like the vibrato mode. Usually ignored but I find it very useable.

I have multiple option to do it, but I'm not the greatest player ever, I'm gonna try a demo to challenge the thread.

 

[JuneauMike]

Yep, the Univibe has that "whomp" that makes a difference to my ears. It's kinda tricky to shop for one because there are quite a few pedals that call themselves a "univibe" or imply it but don't have the architecture that a univibe has. I went with EQD, but that one looks good too.

Congrats. May it be the last one you need (unlike dirt pedals, ugh).

 

[schmee]

I liked my Mini Deja Vibes. But I always end up selling them. Maybe I use too much intensity, I like the sound but when it cycles to low freq, it garbles which drives me nuts. It may be because i'm 80% a neck pickup player...

 

[mojek]

When I saw Frank Black & the Catholics back in 1999, both guitarists Rich Gilbert and Frank Black had Voodoo Labs vibes on their pedalboards.

Wau good info!! Please, do you know in which songs the used them?

 

[clydethecat]

Wau good info!! Please, do you know in which songs the used them?

The one I remember clearly is "Solid Gold".

 

[drmordo]

About 10 years back, I tried every Univibe-ish pedal I could get my hands on.

By far the best was the Microvibe.

 

[mojek]

About 10 years back, I tried every Univibe-ish pedal I could get my hands on.

By far the best was the Microvibe.

Please, what did you dislike(if you tried these) on RetroVibe(Jam Pedals) and The Depths(EQD)?
I’ve tried just these two and would like Depths sound (frequency range) with RV organic bulb phase sweep
Depths can be adjusted to be very deep(which i like), but RV has amazing bulb action.. Did you tried something with similar adjustment knobs like Depths, but with bulb instead of LED?
Many thanks

 

[trxx]

Yep, the Univibe has that "whomp" that makes a difference to my ears. It's kinda tricky to shop for one because there are quite a few pedals that call themselves a "univibe" or imply it but don't have the architecture that a univibe has. I went with EQD, but that one looks good too.

I think some of them are really modded phasers. I would put the sound of the Kokko Vibe in that category. With the speed low and depth high it sounds phasery, and it sounds more univibey at higher speed and lower depth. The 'whomp' is milder than the Micro Vibe. And the frequency range of the Kokko Vibe is more mid focused where the Micro Vibe is wider.

 

[BorderRadio]

Since EQD The Depths was mentioned, I will say that pedal was awesome. It does much more than a typical U-Vibe. I don't remember why I got rid of it, but I do remember that it's little photocell heartbeat was different than the Micro Vibe, and maybe it wasn't as 'chewy' as others. But what the hell are we talking about? Oh yes...the perfect Vibe

 

[Gris]

Almost too much tweakability.

 

[MojoTrwall]

I've done the record.

Usually i'm too shy to post record and comparison, and I never record myself therefore, I found the exercice really hard.

There's 2 variation of two time the thing on a intro riff called submachine gun (Because I don't have a JTM45 full stack on 12).

First run goes in the order : Modulation, Germanium Fuzz face I've put AC128 in it, and the fx return of my amp which is a Dr.B by FX amps, a fender type amp with a rotary for voicing BF/Tweed like a clean platform I use for funk usually.

Modulation are : Whetstone phaser (Bought from blackout effector, not my build, which is an OTA based phaser than can do stage 2 and stage 4, and has a setting for vibe which I'm using with 100% wet setting), a EQD depth clone based on pedal pcb which is an LDR based phaser (I do have a harbinger but not avaible, which is a incandescent lamp based, rather than LED based, and is overall better IMO), and a Cherry Pie tremolo, based on the Drolo (A belgian boutique) twin peaks tremolo, which is a mixed technology for a tremolo, the fitler effect is analog, and there's a separeted path for LFO and Tap tempo by an electric druid chip, I used it in the harmonic setting, and tried to match the wave form.

And I'm in my behringer soundcard with e609.

So the modulation is only pushing forward one gain stage.

The fuzz only sound : https://voca.ro/1hKGSqfL8l1O

And guess the modulation used :

https://vocaroo.com/16HFEq5JMmwS

https://vocaroo.com/19PyCc5qLR0Y

https://vocaroo.com/1berni3JYhuI

A second run, with a plexidrive clone based on the velvet fuzz without the fuzz stage (So there's a buffer before the plexidrive) acting therefore as a preamp due to the fact that i'm using return of the fx loop helping me to do the Marshall driven front.

The plexidrive is J201 based, they have advantage, but they introduce a lot of noise, so the record volume is not the same on both, I boosted the gain in audacity.

Since I did the took afterward, I tryed to keep a longer decay on the last note which might help identifying the good modulation.

Without modulation :

https://vocaroo.com/1g6pwQ7p4L0s

Modulation :

https://vocaroo.com/12OH2cvBdQNC

https://vocaroo.com/1kG4rCZ9wqvd

https://vocaroo.com/12ThMpYMwTxF

Observation :

Most of the differrences in my opinion were in pedals controls, rather than real feeling, I had basically the same feeling. I found it really hard to catch the thing with a mic in front of the speaker, kinda like the reason it's hard to catch the feel of a rotary speaker.

And sorry for playing mistake and not being perfectly in time each take !

 

[drmordo]

Please, what did you dislike(if you tried these) on RetroVibe(Jam Pedals) and The Depths(EQD)?
I’ve tried just these two and would like Depths sound (frequency range) with RV organic bulb phase sweep
Depths can be adjusted to be very deep(which i like), but RV has amazing bulb action.. Did you tried something with similar adjustment knobs like Depths, but with bulb instead of LED?
Many thanks

Sorry, I haven't tried either of those. I haven't shopped for a Univibe since I got the Microvibe more than a decade ago.