Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe

Easy to use for the effects guru (me!) or the casual player looking to expand his/her options.

First of all, I use this pedal for bass guitar. Second, it DOES NOT achieve the sound of the Uni-Vibe (which I also own and use for bass guitar). However, it does create a host of novel tones when combined with some of my other effects. I also want to mention that this pedal DOES NOT cut low end, as stated in the previous review, but it does have the potential to scoop some of the mids when placed after your overdrive, or when your signal is rich enough in frequencies in that range. In fact, this pedal adds a little bottom, although the oscillator modulates it. On bass, if you're going to anchor a band while using this pedal, I recommend a high speed rate to help ensure you have plenty of bottom on your attack. I use this pedal with a clean signal for a sort of leslie-sim, or with a chorus for smooth, milky, psychadelic bass tone, or after a Fulltone Bass-Drive for crisp, slightly driven, "slap" tone with excellent clarity and psychadelic coloring (similar to the application of flangers on "slap" bass, except better). For fuzz freak outs the Uni-Vibe is where it's at, no doubt that.

This pedal will last me forever, but I treat my gear with respect, as I want it to last. I use Pedaltrain pedalboards, and velcro everything securely. I take care of my pedalboards just like I would a guitar. One of my bandmates throws his pedals all together into a bag, which is then thrown haphazardly into a car, with mic stands and other equipment thrown haphazardly onto it. My stuff lasts and his doesn't. Go figure.

This pedal may not be the Uni-Vibe clone it claims to be, but it is still a unique and high quality pedal. If you're looking for Hendrix or Trower, I'd recommend something else, but if you're looking for a good pedal with (god forbid!) YOUR OWN sound, give the Micro Vibe a try. High quality, true bypass, compact, and cost effective.

On one hand it is very easy to operate. Speed and Intensity. Used by itself there is no learning curve. What you hear is what you get. When used with other pedals, it's worth some time and effort to explore the possibilities. Most overdrives seem to sound best AFTER the vibe, but other pedals only sound good placed before.

There has been a lot said in previous reviews. I agree this pedal boosts the low end. I'll go further to say that it scoops mids. That is a quality consistant with most phasers, but this design is pretty extreme.This pedal helps to "soften" a honky overdrive, especially in minimum (non vibe-like) settings.

Regarding the trim pot -- LITTLE TURNS MAKE BIG DIFFERENCES. The adjustment is opposite of what you might think. Clockwise will lessen the effect, counter clockwise increases it. If you over adjust to achieve more intensity, it will focus the sound in the midrange, losing the bottom totally.

The switch went bad. Was replaced by VL. This has been the only issue.

I have found the tech easy to reach on the phone. He's answered my questions and been very helpful. He came through with his time frame for switch replacement.

I am not a vibe aficionado, so I can't compare this to other units. I mostly look to to color my sound as and don't need a straight up vibe. I'm sure there are more "vibey" "lush" "authentic" sounding vibes out there. Used together with chorus, there are some very rich sounds to be had. Used in conjunction with overdrives, trems, compression and eq it expands my palette of possibilities.

Two knobs, one switch, 'nuff said.

I use it with a Gibson Les Paul, Squier Strat(go ahead and laugh), Eric Sardinas resonator, and some home-made stuff, through a Soldano SLO-100. My other effects are a Dunlop Crybaby, an Ibanez Turbo Tubescreamer, an MXR Distorion+, a Guyatone Tube Tremolo, and a HiWatt C.T.E. It sounds great. Noise free, can get a Hendrix sound, a Leslie sound, and all those in between.

Have only had it for a day, but looks very sturdy. Reminiscent of MXR pedals.

Don't know

I play a mix between Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Gov't Mule, Deep Purple, Hendrix, SRV, and Motorhead, and it matches perfect with my playing style. Gets a wide variety of sounds, from subtle(that's right, unlike almost everyone else on the site, I can spell subtle) to extreme. I would buy another one if lost or stolen. Good buy if you want an affordable Univibe clone.

Two knobs: rate and intensity.

Just okay...there are better phasers out there. See below.

Looks solid.

Answered my questions in about a week.

Announcing...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
THE GREAT 2004 PHASER SHOOT-OUT* ! ! !
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I got a whole bunch of phasers, determined to keep one. This wasn't the one I kept. I returned it. My styles are rock, metal, and
some classic rock. I am an analog snob, and I typically use Maxon
N9NE series effects.

For the shoot-out, I used a Schecter Blackjack C1, with a Seymour
Duncan JB in the bridge and a Duncan '59 in the neck. For the amp,
I used my ALL TUBE crate 50 watt combo (VFX5112). No other effects
were used in the chain. The phasers went right between the guitar
and the amp, not the effects loop. Here are the results:

Dunlop-reissue MXR Phase 100: A+, the clear winner. This is a 10
stage phaser, unlike almost every other model tried. PROS: A wide
variety of sounds, but most of all, CLARITY. Every other phaser
sucked all the treble out of the tone, and most of the bass. This
one preserved it, though it took some mids out. I was wary about
buying this at first, since everyone on HC was slamming Dunlop's
reissues. But the sound quality here is great. It handled the JB's
high output just fine, unlike some of the other models, and it
actually made sounds that I wanted to listen to! CONS: AC adaptor
jack is on the side, which is odd, and the jacks don't give a
satisfying "click" when you plug in. Also, there was no manual in
the box, rather, a Crybaby wah manual...a really lame marketing
scheme if you ask me! Wahs annoy me, and I won't buy one. If I
did, I'd test a bunch out. But this pedal restores my faith in
MXR. The BOTTOM LINE? A GREAT phaser--the sound samples on the
web don't do this justice! It's bright, and very clear.

RUNNER UP: Maxon PT-999: B+. This was a four-stage phaser, and of
that kind, it was the clearest. Very transparent, and the effect
became part of your tone. BUT, it sucked most of the treble out and
some of the bass as well. The physical construction of the box
was solid, nice "clicks" when you plugged it in. But because it was
small, I feared it getting battered about. There was only one knob,
to control the rate. The depth was, I guess, supposed to be set at
the best range. And it's hard to argue with the setting. The
BOTTOM LINE? If you want a dark, transparent, classic phaser, this
one is great! It just wasn't the sound I was looking for.

HONORABLE MENTION: Guyatone PS-3, C+. This would have been an
acceptable phaser. It's cheap enough, and it does have a separate
depth control (in addition to rate). This pedal does let a lot of
high-end through. It wasn't anywhere near as good with distortion
as the Maxon PT-999. It sounded like it was fighting the distortion.
Remember that I'm using tube-based preamp gain here, the real stuff.
Decent for clean sounds, very crisp compared to the Maxon, but it
did drop some bass and treble out. This worked okay with humbuckers,
although the JB would cause it to fizzle out when I whacked a high
note. The phasing would gradually creep back into the sound as the
volume level faded out. It was better with the '59. The BOTTOM
LINE? This would do in a pinch! It has a different sort of envelope
than the others and might be an interesting sound to have. People
are freaked out by the rubber ring that holds the battery compartment
on, though. Me, I use adaptors, so it's not an issue.

VOODOO LAB MICRO VIBE: C, just average. It really darkened up the
tone, pulling everything into the mids. It handled the distortion
the same as the Guyatone. Clean, it was not as crisp, so it gets
lower marks. It was very close in tone, and about twice the price
of the Guyatone, and so it was much less of a bargain. The BOTTOM
LINE? If someone gives you one, say thank you. Otherwise, save
your money. It's a good phaser, but not $150 worth.

DIGITECH HYPER PHASE: D-, that's still a passing grade! Yes, I am
an analog s

VERY EASY TO USE ONLY TWO KNOBS SO ITS NOT HARD TO FIND THAT HENDRIX TONE

I MOSTLY USE A FENDER STRAT WITH BUT I ALSO USE MY ESP SOMETIMES
AND GET A GREAT SOUND WITH DISTORTION THREW MY MARSHALL AMP
IT SOUNDS GREAT IF ONLY IT CAME WITH A FOOT CONTROL LIKE THE ORIGINAL UNI-VIBE IT WOULD BE PERFECT BUT THE KNOBS ARE BIG AND EASY TO TURN WITH YOUR FOOT WITHOUT BENDING OVER EVERY TIME YOU WANT TO CHANGE A LITTLE BIT OF TONE

I THINK YOU CAN DEPEND ON THIS ONE IF YOU'RE GIGING OUT ON THE ROAD
I WOULD SUGGEST TO USE A/C POWER SUPPLY FOR THIS IF YOUR PLAYING ON STAGE OR USING IT ALOT AS FAR AS ITS CONSTRUCTION ITS METAL CASING AND THICK PLASTIC KNOBS ARE VERY RELIABLE

I BOUGHT THIS USED ON EBAY

I PLAY MANY DIFFERENT STYLES OF MUSIC ON MY GUITAR BUT I THINK FOR THE PRICE I PAID IM VERY IMPRESSED WITH ITS PERFORMANCE IM SURE ITS NOT AS GREAT AS THE ORIGINAL UNI-VIBE MINUS THE VIBE CONTROL FOOT PEDAL BUT IM HAPPY WITH IT VOODOO LAB DID A GREAT JOB
I THINK PRICES FOR EFFECTS PEDALS TODAY ARE WAY TOO EXPENSIVE THOUGH

Two knobs, rate/depth(that's all you need!) Simple as it gets.

Well....here goes my take.
I've had most of the boutique exact replicas(Fulltone, Sweet sound,Dunlop reissue ect.) None have the depth and dimension of the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe. I spent a good amount of time saying to myself,
"This can't be" "These $300.00 pedals HAVE to sound better somehow"
But no..they don't. Save your money and go with the great sound/value.
Those other pedals do sound good but for my Univibe sound reference(which is "Breath" by Pink Floyd)This smoked them all. The minute I hit the opening chord of that song, it't GOT THAT EXACT SOUND.Uncanny.
Through my Bassman RI it's deep, rich and swirly. This is one facet of this pedal that can't be given less than 10. If you can hear a dozen classic songs just from playing through a pedal, you have a winner. I know this must sound like a promotion, but this pedal stirs me up. Go open your wallet and more importantly your EARS and go get one. Don't mess with the trim pot unless you know it was already tampered with, I own TWO of these and they never needed any tweeking.

Never heard of one busting, but you never know. That's why I saved my money and bought two.

I needed some power leads for my voodoo power supply. They sent me a bunch FREE, postage paid. How's that?

Great classic sounding pedal. No bull, just killer tone.

Just and addition to my previous review:
Was experimenting with my rig and found that by putting my Mutron Phasor II after it I got the univibe sound dead on! The phaser was rate: 5.5, depth: 8, feedback: 3, and the vibe was at the usual "vibe" setting which is about 10 or 11 o'clock speed, and full intensity. The phaser thickened things up even more and created lovely overtones and more importantly "loosened" it up just right.

Two knobs, what can I say?

All I can say is THE TRIM POT! I bought this used and the sound was no where near a vibe like sound (I should mention I have the early version without the status led), I was pissed. I checked this site and went back to my setup and within 1 minute had the sweet oozy drippy sounds I was looking for. Cranked right was the vibey zone, left was the darker chorus zone. The adjustment was DEAD SIMPLE.

If you are looking for the vibe sound and dont hear it, do not despair make the the adjustment. You wont be dissappointed!!

The sounds for the $$ on this thing make for massive bang for the buck. Yeah,the dejavibe and rotosphere is way better but also about 4 or 5 times what I paid and both ungainly sizes, this li'l unit is in a nice compact box.

Also, if you have lots of stomp boxes, dont forget to experiment with placement in your chain. Because it soundwise does not rate quite as high as a dejavibe or rotosphere I cant give it a 10. But for the money, compactness, quality and durability of construction, it definitely deserves a 10.

So far so good!

Just does not get any better than this for the $. This unit hits its target quite square, only suggestion would be to make that trim pot external. Regardless of whether the Q/C techs at Voodoo Labs are doing their jobs is immaterial, this type of control should have immediate user access, but I guess it wouldnt be so affordable then would it?!

Very easy to use. If you cannot use two knobs and a footswitch you should be be in here reading peddle review really. Like all legacy classic style stomp boxes or remakes though no way to store any settings.

Excellent, tested clean the micro vibe offers no change in volume or tone. What goes in off comes out identical. What goes in on comes out identical with rotary twist.

I think so. Any peddle costing more than $100 isn't just thrown in the gig box anyway. I treat mine with kitt gloves and near to as good as my guitars.

Never called. Never messed with the trimpot obvious when changing the battery accessed through the PC board. Unless it dies under the 5 year warranty have to plans to call the vendor.

Hendrix, KWS, hard rock styles here. Playing going on 40 years. Own RM Octavia which works well with this unit. If damaged lost or stolen it would get another. I like it's simplicity. I do not like that it doesn't offer that aire of "more" for those who want more but it does what it does and is true to that. I compared to Deja Vibe and Line 6 varients in stomp box and Guitar Port U-Vibe (which I don't hear much mention of). So let me be first? Comping it inside vs. outside with the micro vibe, well the outside wins and is far more silent noise wise. I wish it could keep it's settings though like Guitar Port U-Vibe can. It is about 30% better than doing it all inside the comp and worth the lower price for most vibes.

The Micro Vibe is very easy to use. A speed knob, an intensity knob, and an on and off switch. There is a small red pilot light that tells you when the pedal is "on". There is an "in" jack for your guitar, and an "out" jack for the cord going to the amplifier. It doesn't get any easier than that. The one complaint that I have is to access the battery compartment one must go through the bottom plate of the pedal. You must remove the four corner screws to access the battery which located inside the pedal. This isn't a major problem but it takes a little longer to swap out the 9 volt battery. Just make sure the red pilot light is glowing brightly before you go to the gig! The manual is somewhat helpful but the pedal doesn't have a bad setting so experimentation is really the way to go. You will find what you are looking for.

My rig ususally consists of a 97 American Standard Stratocaster, into a Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer, into the Micro Vibe, and then into my Fender Deluxe Reverb II amplifier. I don't like a lot of things in the chain so I keep the setup very simple and add my other pedals only when needed. I don't always use the Micro Vibe, but when I do this is my setup. I may occasionally use my Ibanez AS120 Artstar Semi-hollow body guitar in place of the Strat. The Micro Vibe pedal is dead quiet. Using the normal set up that I just explained, any of the noise in my signal comes from my trusty Boss Compressor/Sustainer. The Micro Vibe has a great true by-pass and doesn't affect your tone in any way while in the "off" position. When in the "on" position it really affects your tone. It does so in a very POSITIVE way. As I said earlier, there are no bad settings, it's all in what you are looking for. The swirling sound does amazing things to chords, but especially to guitar solos. I don't know if I like it best with a clean guitar sound, or with a dirty distorted guitar sound. Both sounds are very nice and exactly what I expected from a Uni-vibe/Leslie speaker simulating effect. Playing Robin Trower songs have never sounded closer to the guitar sound on his albums. Bridge of Sighs, The Fool and Me, Daydream, Gonna Be More Suspicious, etc..., all of those great songs will come from this pedal with the authentic Uni-vibe sound. Robin uses the Fulltone Deja Vibe version of this effect. I have seen him twice in the last four years and was close enough to where he stood that I could have reached out and turned the knobs on his pedals. He is truly an amazing player, writer, singer, performer, and person. He is so humble in every interview and easily one of the most expressinve and original guitar players to ever live or leave this planet. So if you want that sound in a guitar, and you don't want to spend more than $150.00 on a Uni-vibe type effect pedal, you'd better run out and get a Micro Vibe. I did a demo of the pedal for my good friend. Then I handed him my guitar and adjusted the knobs to different settings while he played various styles on the guitar. Before he left my garage that night he had made up his mind that he was buying one. Within two weeks he had his own Micro Vibe Pedal. As far as having to open the unit to adjust the trim pot, I haven't had to do this. The sound from the factory on my pedal and my friends pedal seem perfectly fine for the Strat/Fender amp combination. Voodoo Labs must have worked the trim pot adjustment problem out because there is nothing but quality TONE emmitted from these two Micro Vibes that we have bought in the last few months.

My Micro Vibe is only a couple of months old but I have already dropped it on a concrete floor, hauled it around, and put some hours on it. I don't anticipate any problems with it. Thanks to Harmony Central most folks seem pleased with this product. The pedal has a really great paint job and the housing, knobs, and switch seem to be of very good quality. Great job Voodoo Labs! I would take it out to a gig without a backup. But, always bring an extra battery and a screwdriver. It doesn't eat batteries like my delay pedal does, but you'd better have a spare for whenever the power fades.

I haven't had to notify them but their web site is one of the best. You can demo every effect that they sell and hear it in action. Blues Saraceno does some incredible guitar demos for each unit that they sell. Who else is doing that on the internet? With the pedal came a CD. I haven't listened to it but I suspect it contains all of the sound samples of their products, just like what is on their web page. Check them out. I wouldn't mind owning several more of their effects.

You will be able to nail that SRV, Trower, Hendrix Uni-vibe tone with no problem. I play a wide variety of music. This effect could be used in some way with any guitar style. It also adds body or boost to your sound. Clean or dirty, fast or slow, or set at any knob combination, every sound is useful in some way for me. I have been playing for 30 years. I don't rush out to buy every little thing that I see advertised. I research every product that I buy and that is why all of my reviews here at HC are positive with high numbers. I don't invest in over priced, useless, toneless junk! If this pedal were stolen or lost I would want to replace it as soon as possible. My next choice would be Fulltone's Deja Vibe, but it is a good bit more expensive, and the Micro Vibe works fine for me. It really enhances your sound providing that you start with a good sound. My opinion is first and foremost that you have a good (Fender)all tube amplifier, a decent guitar made of quality wood and decent hardware, and then add some effects, but only as needed. Like seasoning a good plate of food. You wouldn't sit down and eat a plate full of pepper would you? Start with good tone and enhance it from there. The Micro Vibe is a definate winner and will add something very useful to your sound. It is fairly priced, has the true by-pass feature that really works, is sturdy, and sounds incredible.