BBE Soul Vibe

Dead simple, put both knobs at 12 oclock and go from there

This Vibe is the best thing to come out in affordable Vibes since the Micro Vibe. The guy below who says it is noisy before a fuzz has never owned a Micro Vibe, now they are noisy. This isn't noisy at all. I think it sounds better than the Mini Deja Vibe (sterile pedal), so much so that I sold the Deja Vibe I had on eBay. And unlike the Deja Vibe the Soul Vibe handles humbuckers without farting out. I run mine after an overdrive running hot and it sounds great. It handles clean and overdrive equally well.

I have owned the Two Timer since they came out without any trouble. I don't expect this to be any different

It's a really musical (read not sterile) vibe which isn't just a one trick pony. When you adjust the intensity you get a lot of different textures out of it, so it's not just one sound. I like it's organic presence that the sound has. My favourite Vibe over the Micro Vibe or the Mini Deja Vibe which I have also owned.

Fairly easy to use.

I'm running a Fender Strat -> Dunlop Crybaby Wah -> BBE Soul Vibe -> MJM London Fuzz -> EHX Big Muff Pi -> Xotic AC Booster -> EHX Deluxe Memory Man -> Traynor YCV 40 tube amp.


The Soul Vibe has its peaks and valleys. You can most definitely get a trippy swooshing vibey with this pedal, especially with a cranked tube amp. Pair it up with some delay and a hint of overdrive and your guitar tone could arouse dolphins with its splashiness and drippy-ness. Turn up the gain and you have a workable Hendrix/Trower tone that can terrorize old people.

That being said there are also many setbacks. For me, the biggest setback, sonically speaking, is the fact that this pedal generates a lot of noise when placed before my fuzz (when placing the fuzz before the vibe, my tone just sounds silly). All my dreams of having a vibe paired up with a hair of fuzz went out the window when I bought this pedal. Furthermore, this pedal brightens my guitar tone significantly when engaged. It feels like I've lost a sizable chunk of tone from my set-up while playing clean.

All and all, there are some significant flaws with this pedal, but there are also some really nice qualities that I think BBE has nailed perfectly. If you have a simple guitar -> vibe -> cranked marshall set up you should be fine. If you want to utilize other effects like fuzz, you're gonna run into a giant brick wall of disappointment.

(For some reason, a lot of people here think this pedal is supposed to give them the pristine sound of a rotating speaker; that, some how, engaging this pedal - and all other vibe pedals alike - should defy all laws of acoustics and turn their amps into Hammond cabinets. This simply is not the case. The BBE Soul Vibe is a univibe pedal thats supposed to emulate the sounds of a univibe.)

1. The nails stripped when I tried to access the trim-pot inside the pedal. That's not good. Now I can't access the trim-pot without getting out my power drill.

2. I put Velcro on the back of the pedal. A few hours later, I discovered that the tape portion of the Velcro had melted away, leaving a strip of velcro surrounded by a sea of gooey stickiness. Apparently, according to customer support, the plastic on the back of the first batch of Soul Vibe reacts with Velcro adhesive and creates that mess. Since then they've fixed that problem.

If you are thinking about buying this pedal used, do NOT buy one that was produced during the first batch unless the seller has replaced the back with a new one.

As for now, the things I have to deal with regarding this pedal are overwhelming, but the reason why I give it a 4 is because none of the problems affect the sound quality of the pedal.

Good people.

I had high hopes for this pedal. I'm serious. The graphic on the front was so baller that I just couldn't resist. It pains me to give such a cool pedal such a low rating.
Unfortunately, although there are many good aspects to this pedal, its just created more problems than it has solved.

It's one of those pedals with two knobs like an old Boss CE2 or OD1, or an MXR Dyna Comp which makes it pretty straight forward. I think in particular compared to other pedals that pretend to be clones of the UNIVIBE and have a vibrato/chorus switch and a volume as well as speed and intensity that this is far more immediate to get a sound out of. In actual fact the vibrato mode is practically useless anyway. I thini what Hendrix, Trower or Gilmore use is the chorus mode which is what this and the some others have in a compact pedal.

Easy to use also because the BBE battery compartments are a hinged door on the back so you don't have to take off the whole back like most Hammond 1590BB enclosures make you do. I have only used it with my 9V daisy chain and it works well that way, doesn't have any incompatibilities working on the same daisy chain with other pedals like some units can.

Just a thought about those expensive vibes costing 3-4 times as much like the Fulltone, MJM FX, Moolon, Effectrode and so on and on, regarding authentic vibe sounds. The Boss CE-1 was the original chorus. Does that mean that only a chorus which has an exact reproduction of that pedal inside is going to be useful as a chorus? Of course it doesn't. So how stupid is it when Mike Fuller says he has photocells which are exact reproductions of the ones used in the original univibe? So what! The original photocells would be the cheapest things available at that time. Just like the JRC4558 was the cheapest dual opamp that did the job at the time of the TS808. I think especially with these vibes there is far too much total bs being spoken about authentic this and that when what matters is the sound.

I mainly use a Gibson ES135 with Seymour Duncan P90's, a Vintage in the neck and a Custom in the bridge. I also changed the magnets from AlNiCo 5 and Ceramic to AlNiCo 2 & 8. I also play a Les Paul Melody Maker, a Hamer Special HB and a Godin Freeway SA. The Melody Maker has the stock P90, the Freeway SA is also stock. The Hamer has a Seymour Duncan ALNiCo II Pro and a Custom 8. For amps I have a Ceriatone JCM800HW and a modified Valve Junior (Preamp like JCM800). The treble peaking caps are removed from the preamp of the JCM800 so it's thicker sounding and not so brite. I use Weber Blue Pup 8 and Blue Dog 12 ceramic speakers.

Ok the questions...Not noisy, Not weak sounding, amps see above, Probably sounds like other people not that I care to sound like others but Guitar World magazine said it nails Hendrix Machine Gun and Trower Bridge of Sighs.

It stacks well with my Flangers (I have a Nady FL10 and an MXR117).

Ok Vibes I compare this to. First go listen to the clips on Youtube etc. The thing this vibe has is the rise time and the fall time are different so the sweep is asymetrical. That's what you get with a light globe based osciallator and that's a vital ingreadient to getting a real "Vibe" vibe. You sort of get a double pulse type sound. The older green circuit board Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe I owned did that to. The Danelectro CV-1 Cool Cat Vibe DOES NOT do this. It sweeps up and down symetrically like a fet based phaser (mxr90). Look on youtube where I (Blupup8) compare a Micro Vibe to a Danelectro Vibe to hear what I mean. I actually sold my Micro Vibe thinking why have that much money sitting around when the Danno is pretty good, but soon found I missed the Micro Vibe so I sold the Danno and I bought another Micro Vibe. I found it didn't work right either and inside I see it's a newer red circuit board. I got rid of it to. Then I saw/heard a clip of the Soul Vibe on Youtube and immediately noticed is does it the right way, and I bought one. It is clearer than the Micro Vibe which can be described as a bit murky, so is their chorus to for that matter, but it is not distorted like the Danelectro and doesn't have a volume drop or boost like each of the other two.

So it's eq'd nicely, not muddy, not overly distored (just a little distortion which is good for the vibe), not boosted or attenuated, it sweeps properly and it's affordable, bright and cheery looking. Those are all pluses for me, but it's not quite true bypass which I would prefer.

I have an Electronics background but I have not looked inside so I couldn't comment accurately on what I think of the guts. I had a BBE Two Timer which was worked perfectly for the time I had it. I think they make good products. Some of the comments below about the stomp switch being on a 45?? angle and the battery cover falling off seem like someone has either not done the final assembly correctly or more likely a customer has screwed around inside it and returned it. I have not looked inside of mine and have no reason to. I'm just happy to accept it like it is, which says something because half my pedals are modded in some way by my. I won't give a score as I can't really give any useful data.

Dunno, website is good enough, seems as good as other websites about pedals. Never contacted BBE so can't rate it.

If it was lost or stolen, lets just say if I was silly enough to sell it would I get another one. Yes I would. I like this better than other vibes I have owned. They are the Chicken Salad, Micro Vibe, CV-1 Vibe, and Soul Vibe. The CS was good to get to see if I would use such an effect but nothing to write home about in terms of bypass, construction etc. I am so glad I got the Soul Vibe and if offered either the Micro Vibe or Soul Vibe which is an oft considered choice by a lot of people online I would go with the Soul Vibe.

2 knobs and one footswitch easy to get some subtle phase sounds to full on psychedelic pulsing wobblyness.
loses one point as the adjustable trimpot is inside the enclosure.
battery compartment is seperate and easy to access.

used throught front input of a vox ad15vt hybrid/modelling amp set clean or a 30W EL84 framus clean and lead channels

love it on subtle settings on high gain lead channel and nice to add a diffrent flavour for clean playing.

can coax tones bordering on phase and close to tremelo but in essence this pedal captures the univibe vibe quite well

solid enclosure and quality feeling knobs and footswitch

great for doing hendrix/gilmour/trower impersonations however also does modern styles (eg soundgarden black hole sun) quite nicely.

at first i thought it was very gimmicky (it is on intense settings) however there a nice range of tones to be had.

the box says its "true hardwire bypass" however it is actually true bypass (i checked running without a battery and reversed the input/output and bypass still works)

Two knobs and an internal trim control makes it very easy to use but the trim control should be able to be altered without having to open up the pedal.

I use a Fender Blues DeVille 4x12's with Various Telecasters, Stratocasters, G&L's, SG, Sheraton, Rickenbacker etc. I can definitely get a Trower/Hendrix/Gilmour sound and that's not a bad place to be. Those are 3 guys who know tone and I like to be able to get that sound when I want to. It's not a pedal I use extensively but I need it often enough to have it in my pedal board. I find it a VERY quiet pedal and have zero negative experiences. Lately I've been turning the intensity knob down low and I leave it on much of the time and it fattens up the tone. Very nice!

It's very dependable as are the other BBE products I have.

I've been playing and recording for over 20 years but I will admit that in all that time I've never owned a Uni-Vibe type of pedal. I'm not sure why, but I've used 1000 effect pedals, just never considered buying one like this. I've played through 'em before but didn't consider it a piece I had to own. Now that I finally bought the Soul-Vibe, I really like it and look for places to put it to use. It's really a great effect to set the intensity real low and the speed on slow. You get a nice, thick tone and I only recently started using it this way. I'm so far behind the times it's ridiculous!

Intensity and speed: not to tough here.

This pedal has sort of an odd sweep compared to other pedals.

Looks well built..........way cool graphic.

This pedal has way too much noise to use for anything other than a live band situation. I was looking for a cheap alternative rather than buying another Fulltone Deja Vibe. My advice, go ahead and spend the extra bucks for the Deja. The Soul Vibe is ok for live applications but just barely.

Easy. Two knobs. Didn't even know there was a trimmer inside. For a pedal of this size they could have put a smaller knob on the exterior to tune the trimmer. Taking off covers is a slight pain.

Didn't care for the sound. Sounded like the tremolo on my AC15 as opposed to a rotating speaker. Didn't get the changing of the sound as a speaker rotating away from you and back towards you should sound. Just sounded like someone turning the volume up and down. I don't own a rotary speaker emulator to compare this to so my rating reflects that.

I've never had a BBE product of any kind so hopefully this one was an anomaly. One word for it though - Junk. Bought this on eBay as more of an impulse buy after listening to the canned sound bites BBE has and whatever else I could find. Auction was for mint in the box but couldn't list it as new because it was purchased from a store that went out of business. That's acceptable to me. Received the pedal in the box with it in the bubble wrap and everything looked fine. Took it out of the bubble wrap and the battery holder on the top backside dropped about 1/2" out of the pedal. Seems the two bolts that fastened the battery chamber had lost the lock washer, regular washer and nut. Luckily all the parts were loose in the pedal and in the bubble wrap. Had to fix that. Noticed that the stomp switch was at a 45 degree angle inside the pedal. The metal ears on one side of the switch were not punched into the plastic correctly thereby letting the stomp switch move around. Had to fix that. Once done with that I plugged in and noticed the knobs bit into the sides of the recessed spots on the front face. Had to loosen the two knob posts and shimmy the entire circuit board over so the knobs didn't bite. Oh, and the power jack didn't fit well either since it was shifted over too. All this nonsense and I hadn't even plucked a string. Which probably colors my judgment on the pedal as a whole but junk tends to do that to me.

Didn't bother because I wanted to unload this pedal and get the steaming pile out of my home. Bundled it in a trade and although the fixes were solid I didn't want to even look at it anymore. As I said before this could be just one of those pedals with the curse on it but BBE seems to a bit cheap in price across the board so possibly you get what you pay for.

Junk. That's all I can say. I know it's buyer beware, especially for eBay items, but having multiple quality issues right out of the box and then having it sound so-so was disappointing. So I've crossed BBE off the list. I let the seller know about all the problems and told him I didn't hold him accountable because it was pretty much new in the box and how many times do you open up and inspect something in that condition for resale? He was nice enough to give me $20 back and would be wary of BBE as well.

The Soul Vibe is very straightforward and easy to use. The manual's suggestions for getting different sounds are right on the money and the controls are just as I like them- minimal but very effective. It's easy to get sounds and experiment with variations on them.

I play a Les Paul Studio with Duncan Antiquity pickups through a Victoria 50212 Tweed Twin (larger gigs) or a Fender Blues Junior Limited Edition (smaller gigs.) My pedal lineup from the guitar is as follows: Boss tuner- Soul Vibe- T.C. Jauernig Gristle King (overdrive and boost)- Boss digital delay.

I had bought another vibe pedal that I liked but it's switch quickly failed. While I was waiting for a replacement from the company I bought the Soul Vibe, inspired to give it a try by it's very cool graphic and BBE's reputation.

The Soul Vibe has exactly the lush, liquidy swirl I was looking for. I find it excellent for both clean and overdriven sounds. The speed and intensity controls are very interactive and effective, and they allow for both subtle and broad variation in how much vibe one gets. It feels so right that I was inspired to add Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" to our live repetoire and I'm now getting the swirl I was missing on some of the Hendrix tunes we play.

Naturally, after I bought the Soul Vibe the first pedal was returned. I was able to A-B them and was immediately struck by how much more transparent the Soul Vibe is. It doesn't suck anything out of the tone I work so hard to get.

I've only had the Soul Vibe for a few months. It seems to have the typical built-like-a-tank feel of well made metal effects pedals. My educated guess is that it will prove to be very reliable and I use it without a backup, but I don't feel I can honestly give a reliabilty rating

I haven't had any direct dealings with BBE.

My own band plays original New York-style blues, and at gigs we also play whatever covers are fun in the moment- Hendrix, Stones, ZZ Top, Al Green, Bob Marley, as well as blues classics. I also freelance playing blues, rock and R&B.

I've been playing for over thiry years, and I try to make sure that whatever music purchases I make these days are excellent pieces. Aside from the Soul Vibe my most recent purchases are the brilliant Zoom H2 and the equally cool Limited Edition Blues Junior. My next purchases will be an MXR Carbon Copy to replace my digital delay for gigs and perhaps a Vintage Mahogany Les Paul.

I would definitely replace the Soul Vibe if it were stolen. I love it's tone, ease of use, transparency and the way it looks. I haven't yet found anything not to like about the pedal and I hope it stays that way. It does exactly what I want it to do with ease, and I'd highly recommend the Soul Vibe to anyone who wants an excellent vibe at a very musician-friendly price.

Very easy to use, two knobs and a trimmer inside

Very nice pedal! i didn't get any volume boost like another said. I did have to find the sweet spot with my amp by ajusting the trimmer inside. Very easy for me to find my setting. Has the sound and vibe of all the new ones out there. Way better than the fulltone and a lot less money. Good job BBE all the trower / hendrix tones are there. kool pedal!

5 year warrantee why worry?

N/A

I bought this just for the heck of it . i have a dunlop and have owned the mojo, fulltone deja, Micro, nebula. I guess BBE waited till they knew they could woop azz. well? lets just say its as good at less money than the others. Thats the +

Two knobs and an internal adjustment. Not too hard. The internal adjustment is where the rub is.

I was looking for a replacement for my Voodoo Vibe that seemed to distort too easily on clean sounds, but sounded righteous. I didn't want to spend $300+ for a single pedal. The pedal had 2 fatal flaws for me. First, it introduces an obvious gain increase when engaged, mostly due to the increased low mids and bass. I didn't get this with the Voodoo Vibe. Second, I couldn't find the sweet spot on the internal adjustment. If I set it to have just a little more presence, the wobble got out of control, inducing a sea sick feeling. If I used it in the stock setting, the pedal was too dark. This is using a fairly bright Strat through an AC-15. So, one of my students has it now and I'm the proud owner of a Glass Nexus! Never been happier.

A very well built pedal. Quiet and solid. No issues here.

Have no clue.

Nice pedal, could be great in someone else's setup, but not mine.