Just got a vibrato pedal - now what?

[AlexCarlson]

I put a couple of the cheapo Dano pedals on my xmas wishlist as sort of a lark, not expecting anything to come of it. Well, lo and behold, Santa brought me the Chicken Salad vibrato box. So...now what? I play country/rockabilly, so my effect experience pretty well begins and ends with spring reverb and slap echo (okay, I make judicious use of tremolo, and I've got a Rt66 on the board, too), so I'm new to this modulation malarkey.

What kind of cool stuff can I do with the vibe pedal? Hendrixy sweeps and swells aren't exactly in my near future, at least with the current band I play with, but I'm open to all sort of stuff.

Lay it on me!

 

[smoss469]

I've never owned a Vibrato pedal before, but I have heard good things about the Dano actually being a good one. I'd start with some subtle settings on it, add it to some existing songs you like and see what it does to the sound. Sometimes a subtle effect here and there really opens up the bridge of a song!

 

[1955]

You can set the speed for pretty high and turn the mix down and simulate the organ / leslie sound. Sounds good with 6 chords with the tone rolled back on the guitar ala D. Gatton. Or maybe cop the magnatone-type vibrato on ballads. If you get the speed and mix right they work great with some reverb for more of a mid-60's ballad thing. But it's not the kind of thing I have used for more than a song or two. Tremelo is much more useful because the pitch-bending can be easily abused and make you seasick and sound out-of-tune.

 

[AlexCarlson]

After playing with it some, I can see it adding a little bit of subtle 'movement' to the tone, which is much the same way I use tremolo. I've always been a little obsessed with trying to get an organ-ish sound to chord comping, so it sounds like I may be able to do something like that with vibe. Something kinda Charlie Hunter-ish...or does he use chorus?

Thanks for reminding me Gatton used it - I'll have to go back and remind myself how he employed it.

 

[bloodbeard]

FYI, the Dano Chicken Salad is a univibe pedal and not a vibrato pedal. Univibe was meant to emulate a rotating speaker but didn't end up sounding much like one. It's got its own thing going on though: pitch vibrato + volume modulation + phase shifting. It's sort of watery sounding. A vibrato pedal is simply pitch vibrato. Essentially a chorus pedal with the dry signal removed.

They are similar but different enough to be considered different effects.

Examples:

Univibe


Vibrato




The chicken salad is a good pedal. You'll have a lot of fun hours messing around with it.

 

[Guitarmang6730]

A good cheap vibrato is the behringer uv300 ultra vibrato it is a boss vb-2 clone which is only costs $23 opposed to $350-$500 that vb-2's go for now.

 

[Thighbanez]

You can do this....

 

[Agitator]

As bloodbeard points out, it's not really "vibrato", even though it says that on the pedal. It's a univibe-type pedal, which is really a kind of phaser.

You might try it on some Waylon Jennings songs, but he used a completely different kind of phaser so it probably won't sound too close to the original. Might sound cool, though.

Otherwise, outside of the classic Hendrix/Trower univibe sounds, I use that sort of thing to "fatten up" slow songs where I might be picking arpeggios, or just playing slow chords and letting them ring out. So you might try it for that.

In terms of fast country/rockabilly, nothing really jumps out at me, but try turning up the speed & intensity and throwing it on for a solo or two. It might sound goofy/cool.

Have fun, and let us know what happens.

 

[artdecade]

Three old guys rocking the shed out with Marshall stacks, Genz Benz cabs, and a Jimi poster... Thats awesome!

 

[AlexCarlson]

Good info here, thanks fellers!

 

[AlexCarlson]

Playing around with the pedal today, I noticed something a bit odd. When I increase the speed to the pedal's max, it seems to go to (for lack of a better way to describe it) 'infinity,' and the signal doesn't sound effected at all. Like it goes back to just a solid tone.

Is that characteristic of this pedal (I realize it's a cheapo with its own limitations), or is something amiss?

 

[Agitator]

Playing around with the pedal today, I noticed something a bit odd. When I increase the speed to the pedal's max, it seems to go to (for lack of a better way to describe it) 'infinity,' and the signal doesn't sound effected at all. Like it goes back to just a solid tone.

Is that characteristic of this pedal (I realize it's a cheapo with its own limitations), or is something amiss?

I had one that did that. I don't know if that's normal.