What's INSIDE a UNI-VIBE Effect? | Too Afraid To Ask 

Uni-Vibes are mysterious modulations which have confused many users as to what they really are. We take a look inside the JAM Pedals Retrovibe to find the answer. Leave your TATA in the comments and perhaps it will become the topic of a future video. Grab your own Retrovibe: www.jampedals.com/retrovibe/ Thanks to JAM Pedals for funding the creation of this video. #univibe #jampedals #tata More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/d7b6MY8 Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk

May the algorithm rain its many blessings upon ye.

You are the reason I bought this pedal! I have one small correction though: Original Uni-Vibe design engineer Fumio Mieda actually designed the effect to replicate the phase-y Soviet Union propaganda broadcast from extremely powerful radio towers that his radios in Japan would pick up as interference. Part of what caused it to sound the way it did was because of how the atmosphere shifted the phase of the radio signal. HOWEVER, the vibe was MARKETED as an effect to resemble a Leslie speaker, which is where the confusion of what it was trying to emulate comes from.

It’s crazy how lucky the modern generation are. This information is so invaluable, and anyone can get it for free! Thanks for the content Colin, you’re a true g

This is a better description of what phase is than I got in 4 years of music tech classes

Colin, could you do a video about Filtertrons? History, design, how they compare to other pickups, etc. Thanks I hope you know you're one of the best instructional channels. Anyone can show different scales, but you explain how & why our equipment works. And do it in a way we can understand. Thanks.

If you don’t already have a teaching degree, you should get an honorary one. I learn more stuff from you than any electronics teacher I’ve had.

Dammm it’s 12:30am in Australia I’m still up with my hot chocolate

Im a drummer, yet I find myself watching your videos because of just how well you describe everything. Makes we want to start learning guitar again.

Well, The best way to start Xmas holiday: Colin's video!

I've been looking for this explanation for about a week now. Thanks! Subscribed !

This reminds me of your episode about phasers, which i used as a reference when writing my final exam in college. I made a phaser and an overdrive pedal

Excellent! That explains why I have always loved the sounds created by phasers, uni-vibes and certain choruses (with a delay time control). It's phase cancellation.

The drawings are great as always !

The alien music during the TATA title is legit the exact notes from the Metroid intro and I love it.

Thanks Colin 🖐😃

Your hair cut looks really cute

One of the really cool things about uni-vibes is the master volume. No other mod pedal has it and it's super handy for pushing an amp into overdrive or under-driving a gainy amp for a cleaner sound. Great video :)

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year !!! Very informative and technical video, thanks man !!!!!

Now that's another question answered, before I even knew I needed it answered !! Great work Colin many thanks 👍

That was clear and entertaining, quite a tricky one to pull off! Thanks.

Loved that last tone, idk how, but it actually felt sharper, Dirtier, and chuckier all at the same time. Definitely going in the tone tool bag

So rad .. You rock dude

I remember years back (when I was a young metalhead- before i matured) and I came across a video of a long haired Scottish guy ranting about how active pickups suck and I loved it! so many butthurt comments! ...years on, you and your channel have grown into something truly special. This video was informative, really well presented and your editing is top notch. well done sir you have earned a new subscriber!

Really love this series! I think a great one might be 'what is an impulse responses?' The amount of guitars who think they are just used for cab models is astonishing. They have so many other uses like modelling reverbs, simulating acoustic bodies (banjo, piano ect) and making outright bizarre sounding effects.

Another great post thanks.

Merry Christmas

Absolutely tasty stuff my guy, that's a killer tone. Gotta check one out! #discordnotificationsquad

The Fender Pinwheel is a fantastic rotary effect pedal. It replicates the Leslie amplifier along with the rotary speaker effect. If you’re looking for a Univibe style pedal, check one of them out. Street price is around $250, but you’re getting a lot of pedal.

WHY are you not a multimillion subscriber channel already? This is truly baffling O_o'

CSGuitars: the science of llamas! 🦙for the almighty algorithm 👍

Great explanation, you made it easy to understand, thanks!

I knew how a vibe pedal worked, but I definitely learned something here. Nice video.

My little $30 vibe pedal uses an optical circuit. If you isolate each bulb from each other so one bulbs light doesn't bleed into the other bulbs sensors, it actually gives it a little different sound than when totally stock with bleed over. My cheapest compressor uses an optical circuit, also. I was pretty surprised by that, TBH.

Hair looks good bro👍

It sounds SO good on the lead tone! damn!

I love the haircut. It looks nice on you.

Thanks for matching the Vibe with a Fuzz and AD30! I haven't been able to use my AD30 since the pandemic hit. During which time, I got my first (and second and third) Uni-Vibe. So I haven't actually ever heard them together yet.

I knew it was a phaser the moment I first plugged in my Phase 90 and it sounded VERY SIMILAR to my Univibe-style pedal. 👌

Phaser just makes my mind pulse

Amazing vid Collin!!!!! I need that pedal!!!! 🎸🔥🎸🔥🎸🔥🎸🔥🎸

In the earliest days of recording, Thomas Edison would have a booth at county fairs, where you could record your voice on a wax cylinder, for a fee. Some of the journalist reports of the era that I read couldn't get over the quality of the wax recording and noted how "lifelike" the recorded voice was. Of course, it didn't take long for people to conclude that there really was a major disparity between the actual human voice and what was on the cylinder, once you got over being impressed with the mere fact (and miracle) of recorded sound. So it was with rotating speakers. The bubbly sound of earliest Vibes, phasers, and chorus were often dubbed as accurate and far more convenient substitutes for refrigerator-sized Leslies. Some of the older Boss phasers in the 70's included a ramp-up/down feature, as did a number of phasers in the 80's and 90's. But, like the Edison wax cylinder recordings, we eventually said "Well, it's not *exactly* the same. There's this and that and this other quality missing." Your explanation of why vibes yield different outcomes placed before or after distortion makes some good points, but doesn't tell the full story. Unlike phasers that use same-value capacitors in all stages, vibes create broad and shallow dips in the spectrum, rather than deep and very focused notches. One of the consequences of this is that, when placed before distortion, it moves large portions of the spectrum away from and closer to the clipping threshold. The resultant effect feels more "animated" than filtery. To a much more limited extent, one can achieve a similar tone by situating a phaser before a distortion, making sure to remove all feedback in the phaser. Which brings us to a few other tidbits often overlooked regarding vibes. One is that you will NEVER see a feedback/regeneration/emphasis control on a vibe. That's because, for a host of reasons, they don't actually do anything useful. Seriously. I've tried and there's no point. Two is that the range of speeds on a vibe is narrower than that on a phaser. Because the notches and peaks are more focused and pronounced on a phaser, especially when the feedback is turned up, you can sweep VERY slow and still hear the effect quite well. Since there are no emphasized peaks, and the dips are shallow, vibes need to sweep faster than some minimum rate in order for the effect to be audible. This is also true of chorus, phaser, and flanger pedals converted to provide vibrato (i.e., wet only). The slowest sweep rates on those pedals that produce pleasing sounds AS chorus, phaser or flanger, always need to get turned up faster in vibrato mode in order to be audible. That's just a matter of how our hearing works. Finally, people will often mistake vibes with harmonic tremolo, and vice versa. Why? Harmonic tremolo, you'll recall, applies modulation to the mids/highs, and the lows, in reciprocal fashion. That is, as the one gets louder the other gets softer. Unlike conventional full-signal tremolo, that people can appreciate for a bit, but rarely leave on for a whole tune, harmonic tremolo tends to be the sort of effect that people don't mind leaving on all the time. Just like a Uni-Vibe, the perceived effect is one of an undulating "animation" to the sound, rather than something that appears to take the sound away and then bring it back. The here/not-here effect is quite dramatic, and deservedly used to create drama. In contrast, both vibes and harmonic tremolo are capable of providing gentle and subtle effects that can sit comfortably in the background and provide just enough to make the sound *interesting* to the player and listener.

Gotta a suggestion lmao what about info about old and obscure effects maybe or just lesser known effects in general

That Jam PCB you showed us has EIGHT photoresistors! My DejaVibe and the original only have four. I must research this.

I am impressed...

The sun don't shine The moon don't move the tides, To wash me clean Why so unforgiving and why so cold Been a long time crossing bridge of sighs..............I

I have the jhs unicorn and I love it

I have the fulltone Deja Vibe and Electro Harmonix Good Vibes Uni Vibes both are Authentic and fantastic

I'd love to see one on master, volume, and gain controls. I know what those things *do* but I don't totally understand the relationship between them

Nice jimmy clip you got there ;)

How could someone dislike this? The knowledge is invaluable to a regular jackass like me

Colin, you mentioned that the JAM Univibe requires 9v input, and will convert the voltage to 15v internally. But why can’t all pedals be designed this way? I.e, why do some pedals require 12v, 18v, or 24v from the input power plug, not just 9v and then internally convert the voltage? #TATAs

I have a TATA: Why is it a bad idea to use lemon oil on maple fretboards in particular? Other fretboards are fine, but I've heard people saying that lemon oil does bad things to maple fretboards; yet I've never heard seen/heard anyone explain why.

So that's why John Frusciante used a Phaser to make it sound like a uni-vibe. I never found the point of having that pedal but now I understand it

Can we get a TATA on fretboard radi? Bonus points if you can cover how that scales on 7+ strings

you look so handsome with short hair brah.

Good information! Thank you for the interesting courses. But have an interest, what is effect Deep Purple applied in the chorus of the composition "Super Trouper" of the album "1973 - Who Do You Think We Are!" Everything flies there. Is it a flanger or is it rotating speakers like Leslie for Master track? Thanks!

Nice vibes :)

i love my Wilson Haze on bass, down low it’s super throbby, and dare i go up the fretboard i get some awesome Peter Hook-type modulation tones

A red llama tshirt. I like that :)

Has anyone noticed the wee mans eyebrows have a life of their own?

DISCORD GANG WHERE YOU AT

I know this video's a couple years old now but I have a related TATA: what is it exactly that makes Uni-Vibe different from a phaser? I put an MXR Uni-Vibe on the first permanent iteration of my pedal board almost a year ago and I loved it and I was able to dial in a sound I really liked but then I started getting really into Lichtlaerm Audio pedals and replaced the Uni-Vibe with their Kassandra phaser thinking of it as an upgrade having heard people say things like "the Uni-Vibe is like an early four stage phaser even though it says 'Chorus'" and reading in the description of the Kassandra that it can achieve Uni-Vibe tones. So I sold my Uni-Vibe (one in, one out) and almost immediately regretted it. I lost something in my tone that I haven't been able to put my finger on. The Kassandra is great and I've found a place for it in my sound but I rebought the Uni-Vibe and put it right back where I had it before this whole expensive experiment.

Feed the algorithm Seymour! We may get more tone!

Yo Colin! I don't remember if you've done this or not but can you make a TATAs video on pickup magnet types and pot voltages? I know the basics of their function and physical construction, I'm more interested in how they effect tone. Thanks in advance bro!

I love TATAs.

I like future Colin, knows his stuff.

This is a genuinely brilliant series. I might have said this before. I can't get used to the short hair though. Great content though.

Nice vid, as usual. It looked like when you used the expression pedal that the speed decreased as you moved your foot downwards, rather than the other way around which is what I personally would expect. Did I get that wrong or is that what's happening? And whichever way round it is, is that fixed or can you 'reverse' the direction to taste?

you are giving me flashbacks to talking about trigonometry in math. still don't understand that shit

I feel all cancelled out! I will have to watch it again.

helping the algorithm for u Colin. 😘

What I want to know is why you don't see many phasers with a tap tempo button. Something with a time-based effect really needs more precise control.

“If you think back to my chorus/vibrato video you’ll see”.. the hair is gone 😭

Quite fancied one of these... until you said "reflected in the price"... nearly 300 quid, fuck a duck! I'll still to making weird noises with my Super Chorus, Phaser and Flashback.

5:35 Almost licc spotting... the arp is really close to the licc. 🕵️‍♂️

A DSP, that's what is in my univibe.

Someone must’ve got some new jeans for Christmas. 😁

I have a question. I'm looking into the Mosrite Ventures models of guitars. I've been trying to find out what pickups they have. But I can't find anything on them. What pickups are they? Is it a form of Humbucker or P90?

TATA: Unity gain across pedals, AMP and OD and steps on how to achieve it?

it's like you knew I've been lusting for a univibe :(

This video is giving me vibes

Is there an effect that has split signal in 180 degree phase and clips it asymmetrically, then sums it up?

"SOFT THROBBING NATURE"

IRN BRU!!!! I LOVE IRN BRU!!!!! Where do I get that IRN BRU pedal!!!!!!! Love the channel!!!!

Bro can u explain the burns trisonic pickups please. i assure u , u will love it👍 btw u explain stuffs great👍👌🤘

Yo collin, could you do a video on Morley and their ldrs

Colin, could you explain the difference between power conditioners and power regulators?

I miss the lush, psychedelic throb of a truly vintage Scoosh.

Radians FTW!!!

Interesting fact: The original univibe wasn't designed to emulate a leslie speaker. the Leslie thing has become common place but here Is the real story restated by Josh scott on the JHS website.thejhsshow.com/articles/univibe-101

What a Drama Llama

Hi, thanks for all the detail! I received mine today (a MK3), is it "normal" for it to pop in the amp when engaging and disengaging?

Colin teach us how to scream

TATA Just how bad is RU-vid compression and why does it exist And what the hell did you do to your hair?

So, Univibe is basically a phaser effect with only two notches

instead of stepping up the voltage why not series 2 9 volt batteries? or better yet use a lower voltage bulb instead of a 24, 18 or 12 volt bulb why not use a 6 or 3 volt bulb thereby the device can be ran from 2 or 4 D batteries?

JHS makes a univibe with tap tempo. I think it's called the Unicorn 🦄

"I love lamp."

11:06: The most Scottish thing I have ever seen.