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Fulltone Mini Deja Vibe
Summary: Fulltone makes some of the best pedals in the world, hands-down. You pay for the quality, but you’ll almost never walk away disappointed for the coin you have to pay for a Fulltone pedal. The Mini Deja Vibe is a great take on the original UniVibe, and faithfully reproduces the old ‘Vibe sound. Pros: Fulltone quality, and pure ‘Vibe sound. Chorus setting is intense and sweeping, and mixed with reverb and just a little breakup, you can easily get that Hendrix and Trower sound. Vintage/Modern switch provides great versatility. Cons: Pricey for what you get. Vibrato is too subtle and intensity knob belies the narrow range of intensity this pedal should be capable of – at least for me. Price: $249 Street |
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Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
Summary: The MicroVibe does one thing and one thing only, reproducing the orignal UniVibe sound quite faithfully. A bit darker in presentation than the MicroVibe (think David Gilmore). Pros: Super simple to dial in a great tone, plus awesome value for the tone that this box produces. Cons: None Price: $149 Street |
With some of the songs I’ve written, chorus just doesn’t seem to be enough, so I’ve been looking at going the “vibe” route to get a more psychedelic sound. Over the past few days, I’ve listened to sound clips and read reviews, and narrowed my search down to two ‘vibes that I’m considering: The Fulltone Mini Deja Vibe, and the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe. Both pedals’ manufacturers claim to faithfully reproduce the original UniVibe circuitry. And, at least to my ears, both do a great job. I recently had the chance to A/B boxes at the same time.
Fulltone Mini Deja Vibe
The “Mini” is a stomp box take on Fulltone Deja 2 pedal, with the same circuitry as its expression pedal counterpart. It has three knobs for Volume, Intensity, and Speed, plus two toggles: One to switch between a Modern and Vintage sound and the other to switch between Vibrato and Chorus. In general, I dig Fulltone pedals, and in general, I’ve been really blown away by the tones they can produce. So I was a bit surprised that this particular pedal just didn’t have that kind of impact on me. Mind you, the tone’s incredible, but to my ears, not spectacular – at least not enough to justify the $249 price tag. No doubt that it does psychedelic really well. On the “chorus” setting in the vintage mode, the tone was spectacular. But on the vibrato effect in either modern or vintage mode, was so subtle as to be practically undetectable. It’s there, you notice it, but there’s just not much to it.
I suppose it could be argued that you’re getting this for the chorus mode, which is what the ‘Vibe is all about. But I have a problem with expensive toys that have features that are practically insignificant. Mind you, I didn’t have the expectation that the vibrato should be more like a tremolo. But my expectation was that it would be quite a bit more profound. So combine with the high price, the Mini Deja Vibe gets 4 Tone Bones.
Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
By comparison, the Micro Vibe is a lesson in simplicity. It does one thing and one thing only: It creates that sweet, Vibe tone. As with the Mini Deja Vibe, Voodoo Lab claims to faithfully reproduce the circuit of the original UniVibe, and like the Mini, it does it very well, though with just tad bit darker shading. But it wasn’t so dark that a little EQ adjustment couldn’t make it ring sweetly.
With just two knobs for Intensity and Speed, it’s very easy to dial in the right tone to fit your needs. I was really impressed with this pedal. It sounded great, it was very quiet, and I had a ball playing with different knob positions. I don’t know if it could’ve helped to have a volume knob like the Mini Deja Vibe, I certainly didn’t miss it. On top of all this, the pedal has true bypass switching. All these features together, plus the nice price of $149 gets the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe 5 Tone Bones.
Now I know there are going to be some purists out there who will probably think I’m crazy for choosing the Micro over the Mini. But like I said, the Mini doesn’t sound bad at all. In fact, tone-wise in Chorus mode, the sound was spectacular. But if I could get what I was looking for in a smaller and less expensive pedal, and all I have to do is EQ a bit to make it sound a little brighter, the Micro Vibe makes so much more sense to me.
Great post mate! Where’s the subscribe button? Haha
Yes interesting reviews and thoughts. I’m so glad you shared this with others. I currently own a Mini Deja ‘Vibe, a Micro Vibe and a Mojo Hand Luna. This is the third Micro Vibe I have owned now. I keep coming back to it and I’ve had the Sweetone Mojo Vibe to (yuk! – too much like a chorus not a vibe at all – extremely overrated – don’t belive the hype).
The Mini Deja ‘Vibe is a very “nice” pedal. It’s a good choice and it’s very smooth and alegedly authentically built with it’s clones of the hermatically sealed glass epoxy LDR’s. Whatever Mike says I think it lacks the chewy quality that the Micro Vibe has and to play through it is less expressive. I never play through the Deja Vibe and think wow that felt a bit Hendrixy right there, but it happens all the time with the Micro Vibe.
I think there is a clear reason why. The Mini Deja ‘Vibe started from getting to sound like four of the best Uni-Vibes that Fuller owned. Now you have to remember Uni-Vibes varied in sound a lot from one unit to the next. So that’s point one. Best to him. Point two is making the MDV sound like those. Sounds like it to him.
I’ve got a GT-500, an OCD and owned a Fulldrive 2 Mosfet. Every Fulltone pedal has this kind of silk sheet over the top of the sound. It’s a reflection of Mike Fuller’s standoffish personality. There is a sterility to them all. That’s point 3. Fulltone products lack soul.
The Micro Vibe just captures your heart when you play through it. It’s supposed to be a “sonic replica”. I think sounding like the original and capturing it’s spirit of operation is more important than being a partial parts clone of the original that lacks any soul.
The Micro Vibe is said to be darker, but it’s also brighter as well. The sound moves from dark to bright and soft to loud with a more dramatic movement. It has a funky swagger to it. The MDV just doesn’t have a lot of effect in some ways. I’ve heard people who own originals say the MDV at full intensity is like the original on half.
The customer service of Voodoo Lab is great. I had several quieries about a used Analog Chorus of theres. A number of emails back and forth ensued. When you first email Voodoo Lab you get a confirmation reply saying message received. I’ve never had anything answered by Fulltone ever. I find that really ticks me off and it makes me not want to have any Fullclown things in my life. There are now far too many other valid choices to bother with an a-hole like Fuller.
So for me after much thought, I am selling the other two and keeping the Micro Vibe. I feel better about having a Voodoo Lab product around me rather than a Fulltone. I hate the OCD and the GT-500. I really think Fulltone is 60% hype and 40% product. They are built in custom steel enclosures so that is unique however as far as sound goes they are nothing special.
The overdrive/distortion I now use is the Blackstar HT-Dual. No silicon based pedal life form can compete with the sound of valves being overdrive.
Chris, so surprised to not have seen this! Must’ve been right when I was in the middle of my 80-hour work week stint (did that about 4 weeks in a row). Great insights!
For me, I’ve really TRIED to like Fulltone stuff, but with all the great pedals out there that cost FAR less, they leave me uninspired and uncompelled to buy them. It’s not that they’re bad; there’s just better and cheaper stuff out there.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I totally agree with the above poster about Fulltone products. They are sterile, soulless and over-hyped. They are built beautifully but sound like turds.
I have owned Deja-Vibe 2, Clyde Standard & Deluxe, Supa-Trem, FullDrive 2, GOT500 and to be honest the only ones worth keeping are the FullDrive 2 and the Clyde Deluxe.
The rest sound weak, weak, weak. And I really wanted to love them as they look so good and are so well built and chunky. But when you A/B them against other pedals you just want to weep as they sound so weak, thin and sterile.
But most people follow the herd so if someone tells them Fulltone products are great they may well allow that to influence them.
The other thing I don’t like is that Mike Fuller is such a rude pig. Some of his staff are quite helpful but the man himself is an ignorant oaf. Very, very arrogant.
Also, he keeps on bringing out version after version of each effect so he gives the impression he doesn’t know what he is doing. If you ARE going to buy a Fulltone effect then make sure it is the V3 of any of his pedals.
At that stage in the development Fuller may have lucked out and got the design right!
Interesting… I was a real fan of my OCD, then started playing other OD pedals. It’s good for what it does in adding a compressive OD, but after awhile its overdrive characteristics started to grate on me. Some people love, so I’m not going to pan it, but it just didn’t work out for me in the end.
Very interesting comments, thanks for what I feel is actually some educating reviews instead of the usual BS. I have been wracking my brain trying to decide which Vibe is “most true” to the original, and weeding through all the hype has been a true test of my patience. I was sold on the Fulltone until I read this…….and now I believe it may have been a mistake.
But I would like to hear a little about the other popular Vibes in production as well, like the Foxrox Captain Coconut 2, and perhaps the Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe and the Ubervibe, and Bob Sweets Ultravibe?? Do you guys know what these are like compared to the Micro Vibe?
I know money counts here too, but I am willing to pay more for a pedal if I am going to keep it for a long time, maybe for good. I just shelled out over $1800 for my set up (Musicians Friend saved me over $1500 btw!) and they are all considered in the class of “The Holy Grail” of FX pedals, and I love them all. They actually inspire me to play, and they peak my creativity….and THAT’S what a good pedal(s) should do. That’s what it’s all about, great tone and never ending creativity, IMHO.
Mojo, it’s not that the Fulltone is bad. It’s just that when I think of “vibe” I think of a fairly dramatic effect, and the Mini Deja Vibe just didn’t cut it for me. As far as the Micro Vibe is concerned, I actually removed it from my board for awhile, and recently put it back on when I realized that there were times when I wanted something more than chorus. So it is back, and I use it fairly regularly, really appreciating it for the voice that it has.
Dawg, I hear ya. Since my last post, I have read reviews and listened to audio clips on the Megavibe, the Capt. Coconut2 (didn’t like it), the Ubervibe (nice pedal), the Ultravibe, Dunlop Rotovibe (so-so pedal), The Mojovibe (too chorusy), The Ultravibe (discontinued), and the Roger Mayor Voodoovibe (very expensive but excellent pedal also used by Trower and Clapton, and the Microvibe (excellent for a one trick pony, really nice)……….and I too am down to just 2 pedals…….the Fulltone MDV2 (with treadle) and the MicroVibe. Those are ultimately the best choices, price wize and sound wize. However, the MDV2 really is the less expensive pedal considering the extra cost of an expression pedal for the MicroVibe($80) PLUS the extra real estate it will take on my Furman Pedalboard…….I think that cinched it so far…..the built in treadle…..plus I don’t care that much about the weak Vibrato, I can always add the vibrato from my M-134 stereo chorus if I really need to.
Hmmm… the vibrato is a major component of vibe, providing the pulse for the vibe effect. Though you could achieve that with a separate vibrato, my feeling is then all you’d need is a chorus pedal. 🙂
One more thing, I can’t help but be impressed with the extra mile Fulltone went with the custom made photocells and the way they are set up exactly like the UniVibe (I have pics of both including the mirrored shroud). Some of the other Vibes show their photocell set-up and they are dissapointing looking….their photocells are TINY and some even use an actual “thimble” as a reflection shroud which is really tiny compared to the original which is quite a bit different and obviously takes in a lot more light in a very uniform fashion. I am not taking up for fulltone, I don’t like the guys attitude either, but he really did copy the UniVibe exactly, and the others didn’t. Food for thought. I have the URL’s of the Pics if you want to see them. Now, MicroVibe doesn’t mention their photocell set-up anywhere, so they could have done it right too, I’m just not sure. Your thoughts are appreciated!
Mike Fuller is an ass. I wont buy his crap! enough said.
No matter whether he is an ass or not……you will not find better crafted effects pedals at any price range on this planet, and that’s a fact. His pedals are extremely good reproduced classics that the music world simply cannot live without. True, I am not fond of a few of his pedals, however, I wasn’t fond of the originals in the first place…..so, job well done. I own the Mini Deja Vibe 2 with built in tradle and it is even better than my original UniVibe for several reasons……it is MUCH quieter, better built, more reliable, and a much smaller footprint. You simply can’t beat it. And his Clyde Wah is fantastic, I wish I owned one but I am out of room on my pedal boards, and my Crybaby with red Fasel sounds too good to get rid of.
I agree that he is pretty hard to deal with sometimes, but most really talented people are. It is a trade off that I am willing to deal with, and so should you if you want the very best in a classic pedal reproduction..
OOOOOPS…….Sorry guys, I put my old ID name here in that last post….SKYNETRP……………..It’s me, Mojo RP!
Come on people! Surely the ultimate pedal in any given field is subjective. Every set of ears are going to hear things a little differently aren’t they? Your ears will change from day to day as will your perception of the sound of any pedal. Unless of course you distinctly dislike a particular sound – or have a bug up your ass regarding the manufacturer!
I tend to think that a lot of people fool themselves into thinking that they can hear the most minute subtle differences between audio/effect sources … and of course some of us Gods can haha … and obviously there are a lot of differences in build quality, components and end results which make a huge difference. But blogs and review sites, while giving the lost a little direction can actually give very heavily biased opinions which add to some peoples confusion and may misdirect some away from what is possibly their Nirvana.
Unfortunately it can take years of experimenting ( and sometimes a lot of money changing hands! ) before you find YOUR perfect sound … where everything just sits perfectly and when you plug in and strum that first chord or pick your favourite lick and everything is right with the world.
But what sounds lush and full to you may sound dull and flat to another.
And what may sound bright and sparkly may sound harsh and nasally to another ….
I think a lot of people tend to rely waaaay too much on pedals as a crutch and maybe have a tendency to clutter up the purity of playing guitar by having too man options …. Hendrix was a great player … sure the pedals he used helped him to define his guitar persona but it was still his playing ablity that made him well, Hendrix.
All the great old school blues guys (and gals) just played acoustic guitars and kicked serious ass.
Whoah … stop me before I digress myself up my own behind!
All Im saying is relax folks … just because you have a preference for one over the other doesn’t always make the other a pile of kaka.
Some people like Kaka!
Very well said! The “best” whatever is what works for YOU. Funny that you mentioned pedals being a crutch. I agree that they certainly can be at times. For me, my board has grown smaller over the years. Oh I still have a collection of them, but I now tend to keep no more than four pedals on my board at one time; one of which is a tuner. I rotate pedals in and out depending upon my needs or mood.
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Hey Dawg! It’s Mojo RP, back after a year and a half of playing on my first choice…..the Fulltone MDV2 (with Treadle), and I have to say I am extremely pleased with it in every way. As far as all of us hearing things a little differently, I have the answer to that……instead of how we hear things differently, think of it this way: We ALL love Hendrix and Travers vibe sounds, so we should each find the pedal that sounds like their vibe sounds to OUR ears, not the ears of others! And for me the MDV2 sounds exactly like my original UniVibe which sounds exactly like Hendrix and Travers UniVibes……….so, for me the search is over. But for you…….it may not be…………see what I am saying? Whatever YOUR ears hear when YOU listen to Hendrix or Travers is what YOU should be looking for in a UniVibe clone’s sound. It is obviously going to be a different clone for different folks, otherwize there would only be one choice out there. The only thing that really bothers me is that when I play on stage and I am in an ass-kickin zone and that majic groove is there, there will be audience members who don’t hear what I am hearing! What a terrible thought! I guess that’s why when you go to a concert some people loved it and some people hated it………it didn’t sound as good to some of the audience as it did to you……….food for thought.
Mojo, great insight! I’ve come to the conclusion that in the end, you’re just going to sound like you. Some people will love how you sound, others won’t, but as long as you’re pleased and inspired by your sound, that’s really what counts.
Amen brother, Amen!
I have to make a huge apology to everyone. I was pretty stoned on my pain killers when I made the post before last and I said “Pat Travers” instead of “Robin Trower”………..OUCH! I am embarrased……….my apologies! I have a bad back injury and have to take pain killers every day until they can find a way to fix me and it just came out Travers instead of Trower! See ya.
No worries! I just had hip surgery and know exactly what the pain killers can do!