Hendrix "Vibe" sound?

The Mojovibe has been my favorite so far, and I have tried the Deja-Vibe, and the Microvibe, to name a few..

 

For Hendrix I like the Dunlop...believe it or not.

Bob

 

Megavibe, hands down, no question IMO. I've owned the sweetsound mojovibe & ultravibe, fulltone dejavibe, foxrox provibe, and dunlop univibe.

 

I've had a Mini Deja and a Mojo. The Deja did Hendrix extremely well, but I liked the Mojo better. It's a thicker, more intense vibe. But then again I prefer Gilmour's vibe sounds...

 

MO, Bob Sweet's the man. The Big Black UltraVibe ended that particular search forever. His little purple Mojos are just as good.

At one time I did have a first generation VL Microvibe (no LED, weird/funky mini-phone jack adaptor input) which I thought sounded much better than current incarnation. When I discovered how the switches (that pop like a shotgun blast for no additional charge) were attached to the circuit boards, I hastily dumped all my VoodooLab product. Yikes! Each and every one's a horribly disfiguring accident just waiting to happen..

Believe it or what(?) those teeny-weeny Danelectro Chick'n Solid's work very very good for 20 buck. Circuit contains a nano-bulb/photo cell configuration, just like the rill thing. One & only drawback; battery works for 5 (no kidding!) minutes only. I timed it...

Just for laffs, I picked up the DigiTech JHE Artist Series pedal and it does a surprisingly credible digital of Jimi's whole stage rig minus the radio stations. All you need's a strat and a curly cable....

 

The KR Megavibe & Sweetsound Ultravibe are Fighting for the Spot on my Pedalboard

 

Best clips for the Megavibe are at the site
http://www.krmusicalproducts.com/index.htm

 

The BEST vibe I've played is the ultra-vibe. I haven't tried the mojo yet but would imagine it's gotta be pretty close to the same

The problem with buying a most vibes is they start change your original guitar sound shrill (the dunlop does this) or there is just not enough effect (the fulltone) ... whereas the sweetsound keeps your original tone well and gives more than enough effect. It's warm and watery

A good cheap alternative is the Eddie Van Halen phase 90. It's obviously a phaser... but set the speed control knob to about 1:30 and put it after your gain pedals or in the efx loop of an amp and it does a pretty decent leslie imitation. The cool thing is almost every major guitar store has one so it's easy to demo before putting out the cash. I found that it didn't turn my guitar shrill (like the regular phase 90 reissues) and there is plenty of effect... too much in fact... make sure to use that script button. It's not true bypass, but I didn't notice it in my signal chain.

Just my two cents

 

drolling, the original Voodoo Lab MicroVibe did not have switches mounted to the circuit board. I have all of the original series, 2 knob tremolo, 2 microvibe, overdrive, proctavia, bosstone, analog chorus. Now the Analog Chorus was introduced almost a year after the other pedals were released. All of these pedals have footswitches that were wired to the board and the switch does not contact the board at all. For production effeciency they went to the board mounted switches, about the same time is when the 4 knob tremolo and the superfuzz came out, then the Sparkle Drive.




TheGrooveking

 

HEY! WOW!! That Microvibe was the only one that I had from the first series- and I only discovered the board mounted switch when I busted my Superfuzz & took it apart. Thanks for setting me straight, GrooveKing.

Nice collection, BTW. I had quite a few of those VLs, myself, but my favorite was always the vibe, which really shot me over the moon at the time. I'd been dreaming of having that sound under my toes for decades, working my way up the food chain from a script logo Phase 90 thru' various variable comb filter flangers, etc. It's a kind of gear desert up here and I was at the mercy of the local music stores back then.

Traded them all in for next to nothing, of course. If I still had that vibe, I'd send it to you for the museum. Got piles of overdrives, fuzzes, etc, but it never occured to me to collect Univibes. Have you ever hooked a few up together?

 

Sub $300 seems to be the standard price for a *new* vibe pedal.

As far as the Mega and the Mojo: the biggest difference is the amount of phase in the signal. The mojo is very thick... and to be honest, I think it is too thick for Hendrix stuff. It seems to have more focus on mids and lower end while the mega has some more top end shifting. Put it to you this way: the mojovibe always reminded me of the tone in "Who's That Lady" during the solo. It's a really thick tone. The Mega NAILS the Hendrix Woodstock tone. If you put a fuzz pedal into it and crank things, and hold a bend, it will start with the fundamental note, and then oscillate into this higher pitched howling-semi-feedback ghost note. Listen to Jimi play the National Anthem at Woodstock. After the first few notes he lets it ring out into a tiny bit of oscillating feedback. Well, it's not really feedback... it's the univibe. I can get that same howling high end tone with the Mega at very moderate levels. First time you hear it, the hair will stand up on the back of your neck.

 

Exodus..I agree and disagree with you.

If the Mojo is too thick sounding, that's what the "intensity" control is for. With that control you can dial in the BOG sound or the Woodstock sound. But if the unit doesn't have the extra thickness there is no way to add it later.

The "Who's that Lady" sound is maestro phazer, totally different sounding unit. Way too "bumble bee" sounding for a vibe.

The oscillating feedback is just that, only with the vibe on it fades in and out according to the frequencies boosted as it sweeps. That is one of my favorite sounds produced by Hendrix and if the Mojo wouldn't do it, I wouldn't be happy. I was shooting for that sound. Trower live uses that sound also, very effective if you're a "vibe" fan. I use that sound with my band at the end of "Too Rolling Stoned" just letting the note take off and I fade it out as it is swept with the Mojo.

 

Hey Bob, great to hear from you!

As I said before, I’ve owned the mojo and ultra as well as a number of other units (see my original post). I’d like to add a bit more in what I have experienced. First, I have a lot of respect for Bob Sweet (after all, he is from my home town in Coral Springs ), but moreover, he is a great builder that really got the univibe thing going again, and I really respect and appreciate that. Yet, to that end, I am also posting my personal opinion, and it should be taken as such… as simply my opinion... the final word rests with you!

First, just about every unit I mentioned is pretty special in its own right. There are things the Foxrox unit does (or can do) that other unit can’t, and similarly, there are facets in which others seem to excel. You have to look at your setup and what tone you are really trying to nail.

To that end, I feel that every individual vibe unit I have tried out has been subtly different than the rest. This even goes for the mojo verses the ultra. I know that the two, from what I have read, are very much the same, but I really feel like there is a difference just from what I have played. This really applies to every unit that I have goofed around with. In general, they all do the same thing, but if you want to nit pick and waste more time thinking about subtle tone than your playing (such as I’m guilty of), then you may hear some variation.

The Foxrox is a really great unit with a huge pallet… but in the end, the available tweaking may have been a shortcoming (to this simple mind), and in addition, there was something about the pulse that didn’t quite sound right to me. I can add that I felt it was very “hi-fi”. Take that for what it’s worth.

I owned an ultra for about five years, and it was the end all pedal for me. For some reason or another, I thought I’d get the mojo for pedalboard space reasons. I felt like there was a difference between the two… not in the pulse but in the headroom. It felt like the mojo distorted just a bit while the ultra was pretty open sounding, independent of the pedal I stuck in front of it. As a builder, I can understand how this may be frustrating to read, but I stand by my gut in saying that I feel there is a difference… and if I had a lot of extra pedalboard real estate, I’d pick the ultravibe over the mojo.

In regard to the Mega—there is a tone difference. I owned the mega and mojo at the same time and A/B’ed the two. It was very close. My first impression of the Mega was that it was not as thick sounding and thus not really what *I* was looking for. I also liked the fast settings on the Mojo more, as well as its pedalboard friendly design. However, the mega did seem to have a different eq band that it worked with… and didn’t seem to produce as thick a phased tone as the mega. I know this is the exact reason that some people have sold the Mega (which I considered, as I was initially after the thickest vibe tone)… but it grew on me the more I played with it. Recently, I have wanted to get another mojo (or ultra) so that I could spend more time goofing with the internal trimmer pot.

However, I did spend time with the two (mojo and mega), and did spend time goofing with the internal and external trimmers (they both have them) to change the thickness of the “phased” signal. For me, the Mega was just a better fit. In fact, I really feel like the two are just different enough to warrant owning both… and a simple search will uncover that same sediment I posted a while back when I did own both.

The high end oscillation I mentioned in my original post can be found in both units. I don’t want to make it appear that I was saying that one unit does it while the other does not. That is not the case. However, I feel like the Mega does nail the Hendrix Woodstock tones in a very scary way. It has a howling tone that really floored me. To me, the Mega IS the Hendrix Woodstock univibe tone. I feel the mojo, at its best settings, is generally thicker, and I did mention the “Who’s That Lady” tone… but it’s not to say that it’s not a Hendrix tone. The Mojo sounds more like Machine Gun at Fillmore New Years ’69… it’s just a thicker, and has a more phased-like tone. Of course, if you have listened to any sizable amount of Hendrix, you know the tone changes from show to show… and it depends on the equipment, amps, fuzz, blah blah blah (see my post on ‘Hendrix fuzz tone’). It is all about what you are after. Personally, I am after the Woodstock univibe tone—it seems to be more open, less phased, and rings out in a different way… more so that his other tones. It is a subtle difference, but it is there if you listen to it. Of course, I realize that he was probably using the same vibe unit on both shows, but they sound different, and the Mojo and Mega will get you different tones. They are different pedals, very much alike… but with enough variation that they offer different pallets of tone and are both certainly keepers without too much overlap.

For me, it was the Mega. For others, it’s the Mojo (… or for me again, it’s the Ultra. Just to bust you’re balls). Try them both, because they are different and it is something that words can not translate. Like I said, I’d really enjoy picking up another mojo (…. actually, another ultra, just to bust your balls again), because they both rock in different ways… although which sits on my pedalboard this month is a different story.

Cheers Bob and to everyone else, I hope this helps in a very honest and personal view---

 

i've got a mega coming tomorrow, so i'll get around to clips. i do agree on the ultra vs mojo, in that the ultra had better headroom and didn't distort when hit by a strident clean tone, for instance, while the mojo did a bit. we're really splittin' hairs here though, as they really do sound more alike than thet do different. but i imagine that if & when bob bumps the voltage up on the mojo, it'll essentially be an ultra. the only reason i'm not playing an ultra anymore is that mine stopped working, and i just felt too embarrassed to send it to bob to fix, so i sold it to sean. but that's given me the opportunity to try some others, just so i'd know what players were on about when describing their likes & dislikes among the diff makes. i just sold my dunlop, which i really liked a lot (the vibrato mode was gorgeous!). it's a very dense & chewy sounding vibe. now i'm gonna give the mega a go, and i'm really lookin' forward to it!

i did play bob's mofaux minivibe, and let me tell you, it is SCARY!!! almost made me reconsider the mega! it is THAT good! and it THRIVES with a good fuzz before it!!!


ml

 

Just a couple of small points...taken for what they are worth.

I have one of Bobs' Mojo vibes on order. I am really anxious to try it out. I chose this one (just from word of mouth, I got the feeling like my ideal would be the Ultravibe...I haven't tried either IT or the MÒJO yet, but just from comments, and I have read a lot about them), but I am completely confident that I am going to love the Mojo.

Also, to Exodus, man....you gave me a scare there...but I read on.
I mean, there is, in my mind, a WORLD of difference between "Who's that Lady" (I HATE that sound...really..) and Hendrix (especially MG) on Fillmore East (I WANT that sound)..

And Hendrix to me, Fillmore East and Woodstock are way more similar sounding in the vibe tone, general tone, than MG is to "Whos that Lady"...

Anyway, I currently own a Deja-mini-vibe which has been a favorite that has always made the cut on my board...except, I can too easily sound like WTL Honestly, that is my benchmark or touchstone too, I don't want that sound. I can dial it away, it is just if I set the intensity up too high.

But I do have issues with it. For one thing, I think we are all "apples and oranges" here, in that I know from my amps they sound very different with different amps...But on all my amps, the Deja was too trebly and thin. I have since, here especially, read others describe it exactly like I am but more descriptive. This helped me choose the Mojo. I had emailed Mike and gotten a really rude reply. I KNOW that a pedal maker doesn't want to hear bad things, and I pointe out in my original email I LOVE the pedal, but...I am experiencing too thin, trebly a sound. I put it very diplomatically.

He came back with a diatribe, telling me I was "wrong" and that "if ANYTHING I get complaints it is too dark!" followed by "PLEASE don't tell me you are using it in the effects loop???"
(and why not, I thought? I hadn't been...)

Point was, I really wondered if mine was broken, or out of adjustment. I could set my whole rig up to using it with the pedal, and lose all decent tone when off, or the opposite. I tried to get a ahppy medium, in the end I DID try it in the effects loop, and it helped tremendously. Finally I read here and some places else that others have experienced this.

I still own and use it, it is a great pedal (deja I'm still writing about) but I have a definite hoope and feeling that for me personally, the Mojo Vibe is what I have been after.

I also owned a Captain Coconuts 2, I just sold it. It was really nice, but as Exodus pointed out, (never thought I'd say this) too many paramters, and a little too touchy for me. It had LOTS of possibilities, but I seemed to keep running it into some "WHUUP-WHUUP-WHUUP" mode...I couldnt' get the artifacts from the LFO lessened. I tweaked it a LOT, for hours on end, and liked some of the sounds, but on my setup...the fuzz was great, but the big thing for me was the octave!!! That would have made me keep the unit alone...except now I have ordered the Octron, and Mojo, and I have enough OD, fuzz stuff....

I think I'm going to be really happy pretty soon with my sound possibilities!