Dunlop Uni-Vibe

Plug in and GO! No problem. Manual is short and sweet, as it should be.

I've read through the reviews and I want to throw some things out there to consider and maybe help. This is not a slam on anyone as everyone idea of a sound or tone is subjective. For the most part, everyone seems to have pretty decent amps and guitars. Now, some of you getting noise should consider the following rule: When it comes to foot pedals, the rule of thumb is to put your modulating effects first in-line then your fuzz/distortion. Otherwise, you can end up with an EQ disaster. Makes no tonal sense to boost and distort your signal and then modulate it. Using the amplifier effects loop with an effects processor (not a pre-amp) for modulation and delay is a different approach and better. A possibility concerning the power problems: plug the adapter into the unit first and then plug it into the wall. Otherwise you could get an arc and blow the power supply or the unit. Some folks just want to SPEND more money to get what the UNI-VIBE does. I've heard the Fulltone and it sounds good, but I can't justify an extra $200 just to have a UNI-VIBE clone touched by Mike Fuller. Trower endorses the Fulltone Deja-Vibe (Do you really think he sought out the Deja Vibe or paid for it?). Robin used UNI-VIBE's for most of his career and probably still has the originals, what's he need a clone for? The Voodoo Lab Micro-Vibe is a good alternative if you don't want to spend the money on a UNI-VIBE. Anyway.......my set up is: a '62 reissue Strat > VOX WAH > UNI-VIBE > MESA BOOGIE V-TWIN > TS-9 > FENDER TWIN (The Evil one!) No noise and sounds great. Gets Trower and Hendrix tones with no problem. Maxed out, it even gets a great SRV Cold Shot vibe. Very inspiring sound. Gets the creative juices flowing. Thick, swooshy rotating chorus....it's what you are looking for, beleive me. The vibrato actually bends the note, but not like a true vibrato, and I haven't really found a use for this function......yet.

I've only had it for about a month, but so far so good. As far as dependable, the kid at the music store rummaged around for the adapter quite a while, then found what he thought was a compatable adapter (Keep in mind this is a new UNI-VIBE) and plugged it in to show me that it worked. The adapter was 2 volts and 300 milliamps too much. I urged him to find the original adapter and he finally did. So, my point is that even over powering it didn't hurt it.

I emailed the service tech for a newer manual that covers the vintage switch and within a day or so, i got a nice email with an adobe version of the new manual.

I play blues/classic rock and dabble in jazz-fusion. Been doing it since 1976. I tried some of the clones, Deja Vibe, Micro-Vibe, etc., but this one was the one. Great sound and very usefull musically. It gets right in the Hendrix/Trower/SRV arena and it is a beautiful thing! I'd buy another one.

Huge and needs seperate PS. Hard to find room for.

G&L Legacy w/Dimarzio Virtual Vintages, Heritage 535 w/SD 59's into
Mesa Blue Angel, Victoria Bandmaster, '67 Deluxe Reverb. It is noisey even when it's off w/no effective bypass. Huge tone and range loss, adds harshness. Sterile, stiff response.

30 yr. professional player. Won't do the Ry Cooder (or any other) Leslie thing. Won't do Hendrix well as it also works poorly w/other effects (germanium Fuzzface, FD2, TS-808). I bought an early white Deja Vibe to replace it which was much better, but was still lacking alot. The newer Deja's have an improved ac power a couple weeks after I bought it and they are a little better than the originals. I had to sell it for 1/2 of the $300 I paid for it. It was a month old and in LN cond. I traded my month-old $225 Dunlop Uni-vibe back to the store for $85 worth of tubes. This was 4 years ago. Don't waste your $ too.
There are much, much better products like MJM 60's Vibe, Sweetsound Ultra-vibe, ect.

Super ezy!

well, i have been using my univibe for more than 5 years right now. of course with the speed controle pedal, which is the only way it makes sense! i sold my intellifex, because i was through with all that digital shit! i am absolutely happy, you can recreate all the hendrix sounds pretty easy. i even used it on a cd that i recorded with a new metal band - that is the pont - it is versatile and stable. forget about the true bypass! in my eyes the little influence this pedal has on the original sound is only of advantage, you will see and love it.

never had a problem! come winter, summer or whatever, i coulsd always rely on it.

how could i tell, when i never had a problem?

mybe this unit is not the original one, but it does a great job. i also play a roger mayer axis fuzz myself, but i think that every guitarist should find his sound by listening carefully and find the right stuff. names are nothing, even if it was dumbshop instead of dunlop i would buy it again.

Simple to use

Running it from a Paul..to a Fender Hot Rod
Only thing I find that I didn't like was unwanted noise when I run it from a drive box. Don't think the foot pedel is all that great,..very very touchy,.I don't like it.

No problems with it so far

n/a

I play blues,.it gives me what I want,..but I just don't care for the pedel. I'm happy with it,.and probably would get another one if it got stolen.

Very, very easy to use! I didn't get amanual with mine, but you'd have to be an idiot not to figure this one out. Volume, speed and intensity controls - I have the optional footpedal for speed which is really cool.

Has both vibrato and chorus effects. I think the vibrato sucks and the chorus is so-so. It is supposed to simulate a Leslie speaker but it doesn't really sound like one. It is, on the other hand, very versatile and I can change the sound with the controls. Although it doesn't work well as a Leslie, it has it's own character. It does add a nice psychedlic effect, but again if you want a Leslie sound I recommend buying a Leslie speaker! I recommend the foot controler so you can add emphasis by adding more speed. I'm running this thru an Orange AD30TC and a Marshall DSL 401.

Built like a brick - I've had it for just under a year and have had no problems!

No idea?

I play blues/rock and it does have it's place for some tunes. Been playing about 2 years. My rig is fairly simple Les Paul run through dunlop wah > uni-vibe > tuner > MXR phase 90 > A/B box > 2 amps. If it were stolen I would replace it - I only use the chorus effect so I would probably recommend if your looking for just chorus to buy a chorus pedal since this one is pretty expensive.

Very simple. Choose a depth, speed and overall volume. Not much to it.

Does what it's supposed to do, I can't argue with that. What you will not get (at least without judicious use of post-effect EQ)is the warm, swirling atmosphere that made this sound famous. As with all major effects manufacturers, you take your chances when you buy. While you always get (basically) what you're looking for, you will not get the attention to detail and individual components that you find with smaller, more dedicated and passionate companies. I've been using this pedal for about 4 years now and have always found it to be a bit too shrill for my liking. Will you have the same results? Hard to say. You'll have no problem getting the desired effect but overall I find that the sound isn't quite as pleasing as I feel it should be. I'm running a Strat to a Boogie with various (good quality) overdrives, compressors, and the like. My optimal tone is the classic 'overdriven tube amp'sound made famous by (insert name of 60's or 70's guitar hero here).

Never had any problems. Solid enclosure with a tank-like build. Have gigged without a backup for a long time now.

Never contacted. Haven't had any need to.

Want the Univibe sound? Pick this up. Want that classic Univibe sound with a little more attention to detail and better manufacturing? Drop a few more bucks and visit Fulltone or anyone else who builds a 'Vibe clone and puts a little more heart into it. Understand, my only regret in buying this pedal is that I didn't shell out a little more cake and get a better representation of the 'Univibe sound.'

If you can deal with a couple of knobs and a switch, you can handle this. Pretty good layout of controls except for the switch/modern-vintage.

Not bad for that classic swirl. I put this up against the Fulltone version and the Fulltone sounded a bit richer and responded better to my other effects. I feel the effect should be slightly more prominent though. Using with a Victoria Bassman reissue and a Japanese strat.

It's hard to slam a product especially when I think Dunlops stuff is good. BUT...I too experienced major failure with this unit TWICE. The recommended power supply was used both times and it blew twice. Customer service people informed me they knew of no problems with the Univibe. So to my surprise here on these pages is the documention of the problem! Dunlop must be in deep denial about this problem and the cust. service guy got a little hot when I asked him about these comments on HC. Bottom line: I got it fixed and unloaded it as soon as I could. Don't need the headache. Quality first! profit later! Pay attention! The Japanese do it!

TERRIBLE and self serving. Avoid this pedal.

Avoid this pedal if you are thinking of buying. Go with something else. Consider not buying it preventive maintenence.

This pedal will get you into the Univibe ballpark, but understand this; It's a tone killer when in bypass. Sounds like an old Univibe for the most part, but somehow slightly off. It sounds a little fluffy and pretty close to the Dunlop Rotovibe. If you like Hendrix, you will smile when you kick this thing on for the first time. Overall, for a non-botique effect, fairly good.

My first one died within 3 days. Got a new one though. My buddy had one that died quickly as well. I think the IC chips are pretty prone to blowing out. Otherwise, I have had few problems.

This is an update to my earlier review, I still give it a 9, simply because I still haven't found a good tweak for the vibrato function. I'm sure someone has, but I sure as hell can't figure it out.

Still makes even my cheap solid state gear sound a LOT warmer; almost adds a tube-like feel to solid state, and you can set it for chorus and leave the level and speed all the way down and still get the warmth of that luminescent lamp in this thing. Very nice.

I gave it a 10 previously, but I'm knocking it down to a 9 for one reason. A while back it started cutting out on me when I bumped it (and who doesn't bump a foot pedal; they're made to be stepped on!). I was ready to give up, and was heartbroken because this thing has become the most heavily used tool in my arsenal. HOWEVER: sine I bought mine used at Dan;s guitars in Honolulu Hawaii, and I know that Dan is the coolest guy in the world who is never happier than when he sees a guitarist happy with his gear and tone, he looked at it. It was unbelievable. I don't know why I didn;t think of it myself. One good spritz of contact cleaner in the power supply input ans i's as good as new (I live in the rainforest part of hawaii and things get thick miost dust that you can't always see).

Anyway, for all those people who've had this thing quit on them, I recommend first trying a shot of contact cleaner on the power supply input. I'm once again able to drive the wife insane with my bad initation of Robin Trower, though she loves Trower, I just suck ;-). I must admit, she IS blown away by my beefed up high gain riff on Bridge of Sighs.

Never dealy with the company, don't have a clue

This is da bomb. The Holy Grail of tone. Old businessmen at Chamber of Commerce breakfasts like that nice pretty swirly organ sound I get when I play my mellow background music for them. Blues jammin' buddies like the throbbing modulation. Metalhead buddies like the thick gobs of underwater tone it adds to high gain jams.

There is no style of music I cannot make sound better with this unit. Maybe another vibe might be a little better, or a little more reliable; I don't know. I just know that I love this unit more than any other guitar device I've ever owned.

The first sound I got out of it was cool-Then I adjusted it and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up-It came with a manual and an option for a foot control-I didnt read the manual, I mean if I cant figure it out, I have no business with it-As far as the foot control goes, I dont need one because I find that I do most everything with one setting-Definitely a re issue-I love it-

I use the regular mode, although the vintage mode sounds cool-Its not at all noisy-The effects signal is never weak-I am running the UniVibe through Marshall DSL 50's and 1960 cabinets-I can get all of the Trower/Hendrix/Gilmour sounds and tones that I want-I play Standard Strats only-This set up allows all of the Strat tones to punch through-Im in Heaven!!!

Its well made, and dependable in that sense, but I'll never use it live without a backup-It has quit working a couple of times, for no apparent reason-Just turning it off and back on took care of that-This pedal is an absolute Monster-There is nothing better in my opinion for that balls to the wall Marshall/dreamy/spacey/floating/smooth/pure Trower punching power tone than the Mighty UniVibe-

I almost took it in to be repaired under warranty until I solved the problem myself-But they were friendly and eager to help me in getting the problem solved(Rockin Robin/Houston)

Original blues/rock-I wouldnt do it without the UniVibe-Ive been playing since 1967-My gear consists of Marshall DSL 50 heads, 1960A & B cabinets,MXR Distortion+,MXR Dyna/Comp and the Univibe and Standard issue Strats-If my UniVibe's vanished, I would buy 2 more-I love everything about my UniVibe, all features being equal-I tried the DejaVibe and the Blue Voodoo, both cool in their own right, but a UniVibe theyre not-Just more Marshall's and more black Strats-The UniVibe is the ultimate inspirational tool-I find myself writing around the effect-Creating music that only the UniVibe could do justice-I used to admire the sound, now I live it-PLEASE never stop making them-When I can I'll buy 20 more for spares-