Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe

With the trim-pot set correctly (for your setup & tone) it is really easy to get great sounds out of it...where ever you place the knobs. Setting the trim-pot though can be the difference between a great sound and either a dead one or shrill one...depending on how the factory had it. My first m-vibe (stolen) was set too shrill and at the time didn't know about the trim-pot (found out about these things while setting up my boss ce-2) and the one I am reviewing now was too muddy and dark stock...after a few twists I have it just right for me.

Setup-Strat/335/SG-dunlop crababy (crap), Micro-Vibe, danelectro pastrami overdrive set to really cheap sounding fuzz (works well for that...actually sounds pretty good), Boss CE-2 Chorus, AB-A Danelectro Fish & Chips EQ (mid & Gain boost), Peavey Classic 30 & 1x12 extension cab-B-Boss SD-1 Overdrive, Marshall VS65R. This pedal does an excellent job of doing the Robbin Trower, Jimi Hendrix thing as well as classic phase tones ala Lowell George, especially for $150. Doesn't add to the noise level, which is good cause on the classic 30 it is insanely loud when the band quiet anyway. There are better sounding units out there...but not for this price.

I take care of my stuff, and I can't afford more (this one was a gift) so I have to depend on it and can't gig with a backup. Even if I could afford one I would feel pretty confident in it...seems pretty sturdy and the cirtuit board is anchored within the pedal...which is pretty clean compared stuff like boss and dunlop.

dunno...5 year warranty incase the unthinkable happens

I play any kind of rock that takes its roots from blues...and this matches well. Been playing 9 years, 4 professionally out in the clubs/bars and I don't anything else besides what I use except for an Acoustic. Good deal for $150

How much simpler can it get?

Beautiful sound. I had tried the Danelectro Rocky road, and I can honestly say there is no comparison. I'm glad I bit the bullet and spent the extra money on the Micro Vibe.
I use a Jap 50's strat with Seymour Duncan pups into a crybaby, the Microvibe, Boss CS3 compressor, TS9 reissue, (Sometimes) Vtwin. In the fx loop of the amp I run a Boss DD2 delay and a TR2 tremelo, sometimes with a Boss CE3 chorus or a boss BF2 flanger.

Pretty new so I have not gigged yet - I have high expectations of this gear since Voodoo Labs is such a "must have" brand.

I'm going for SRV all the way, with a healthy dose of Mike Landau on his Burning Water stuff. However, the main reason I bought this pedal is the Steve Lukather tune "Never Walk Alone" on Candyman. This pedal is perfect for that slight transparent shimmer behind a slightly, but not-over distorted tone. I'm stoked that this pedal has hit the spot. It is also great for a really middly, fixed Wah position tone. Again set with the intensity low, the Mocro Vibe really adds tothe sound by adding a slight dynamic to the sound - a slow shimmer and swirl that really adds life to the sound - cool, cool, cool. The bypass also seems spot on - much better than any Boss or Dod.

very easy to use, very easy to get a great tone out of it.

Sound is amazing! not really any cutting the tone. its pretty full for the most part.I use a fender strat and peavy amp.

Well I had it for 7 or 8 mothe and the switch went out on it. I think so i will have to bring it back where I bought it and let them take care of it.

Great. i e-mailed them and they mailed me back like in a half hour explaining what and how I would send it back and that there is a 5 year warranty and so forth. good service anyways.

not too bad at all. great sound, just a little bummed about parting with it to get it fixxed though.

Once you get the internal trimmer set, it is simple to use. However, expect to spend several hours working with the internal trimmer to set the pedal so that it does not cut your high ends signal or sound trebly and thin. Once the trimmer is set right, the pedal sounds great. I give it a 5 for ease of use because getting the internal trimmer set is not easy and some users will never get it set exactly right so that this pedal does not suck tone when engaged. (It is true bypass so it has no effect on your sound when swiched off.) I suspect that Voodoo Labs is saving a lot of money by failing to fine tune the pedal before shipping. I find it hard to believe that they are not aware of this problem.

Has a nice Leslie-like sound with the intensity from 10 to 1 o'clock and the speed on full. Slower speeds with higher intensity give you the classic Univibe sound. The sound is not overly sweet, which is a problem with some chorus pedals. It is a nice alternative to a chorus pedal for folks looking for a more unique sound (everybody uses choruses it seems.) This covers the ground between a MXR Phase 100 and a Boss chorus pedal. Sounds good both clean and with overdrive. I'll give it a 9 because it is not a Holy Grail pedal, but I really love the Leslie-like setting.

I would gig without a backup because in a pinch I would use my chorus and phase pedals. But I don't see a problem. My biggest concern is that if I had to buy another one I might have to go throught the hassle of setting the internal trimmer once again! I really found the pedal unsatisfactory with the factory setting and getting is set just right is not easy. So I will give them a 6.

Don't Know

This one is a keeper but you have to mess with it initially so that it does not destroy your tone. I suppose there are other modulation pedals that cover the same ground as well. If this were lost, I would try a few others but probably would buy another Micro Vibe.

Very easy pedal to use. 2 knobs: Intensity and Speed. The instructions get you to Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs (slow and deep) and SRV - Couldn't Stand the Weather (fast and shallow).

My pedal board chain is Crybaby (mod. w/tru bypass), Tube Screamer, MXR phase 90, MicroVibe, Dan-Echo. That goes into a Mesa Boogie DC-5. My #1 is a PRS Custom 24; #2 is an American Strat with Bill Lawrence pups. My set-up is SILENT. I won't have anything in my chain that is the least but noisy or sucks any tone from the guitar straight-in. I was looking for the Trower and SRV sounds. I was also hoping I could get a sort-of chorus out of it. While it performs its main job well (even the quasi-chorus is reasonable), and it is pretty quiet, but it sucks highs in a way that I can't live with. When I use the PRS "Les Paul" setting (middle setting), the effect becomes so muddy it is unusable. The hot fat pup is a little better. Add distortion and fuhgedaboudit! The Strat is better but only on the bridge pickup. I like to use the neck pickup with the Tube Screamer for SRV but when you kick in the Micro Vibe, it's sayonara to the highs. If I totally change the EQ settings on the amp, I can get a decent vibe sound. But then it's all wrong when you switch it off.

The unit wouldn't work out of the box. I sent it back and it has worked fine since but I have to nick its rating for the DOA. It is housed in a durable, metal box. The bypass switch and the pots are obviously good quality.

I called them when it arrived dead. They were very responsive and repaired it quickly, though I was stuck with the freight-out costs.

After reading reviews in GP about this effect, I was really excited about getting the SRV sound at this price. I was really disappointed when I kicked it in and the tone went bye-bye (after waiting to get it fixed). I have had it over a year and have given it every opportunity to WOW me. I have tried different amps and guitars. I've taken it out of the effects chain and tried it both direct and through the amp's effects loop. Maybe it's me but it just isn't going to happen for us. As of today, I'm kicking it to the curb. Now I have a hole in my pedal board. Maybe I'll meet a nice analog chorus that will give me what I'm looking for.

It should be easy to use. There is a one-paper manual that should do the trick!

The sound should be great.

BUT: when I got it it already was broken!

I have no idea how it sounds. The controles do not work!

It clearly is not reliable.

I e-mailed them with cries for help. There was no reaction!!! Worsed service ever.

On paper the micro vibe should be a great effectpedal. It's a shame mine is broken.

I would buy it again because the effect is great. I also fancy the true bypass.

Let's hope the next one will actually be operational!

I don't own a Microvibe (but am considering getting one) but I have a suggestion for Voodoo Labs. If Voodoo Labs placed the trim pot on the front panel as a tone control I'm sure that the ease of use would be 9's and 10's accross the board.

This is an update to my review dated 2/19/2002.

Out of the box this pedal gave me a huge volume and treble loss so I needed to run my Austone Fuzz Nutz in from of it at full blast. However that didnt help me on the clean sounds so I decided to unscrew the unit like you would if you were to replace the battery, and I adjusted the internal trim pot with the same small screwdriver I used to open the pedal- the trim pot is a small white plastic screw located at the bottom of the circuit board.
When starting out at full left position and turned the trim pot to the right I noticed changes in tone but the sound refused to oscillate with the speed knob turned up high. I decided that the trim pot must be adjusted from right to left, and with the speed knob up at least halfway so that you can hear the oscillations to be sure you havent mis-adjusted it. Anyway, I spent a few minutes playing my guitar while turning the trim pot- there are huge tonal changes available, and I finally settled on a setting that at least improved the sound from when I first used the pedal. Now I dont seem to have a volume loss, but I also dont have a volume increase like some other reviewers have mentioned on their older versions that dont have the LED. Mine has the LED. So the trim pot is very sensitive and cant be adjusted by turning it back and forth- you need to turn it all the way to the right to start, and then slowly turn it to the left until it sounds OK. Very tricky but easy to do, and I am no engineer.
Now that I adjusted the pedal it sounds much more like a chorus instead of a phaser when I play clean at certain settings. I really love the sound now- Its subtle when used clean at low settings, which I like. When used with distortion the effect is enhanced. This is a good pedal.

Takes some tweaking to get useable sounds, but the effect is very strong. Two knobs- speed and intensity shape the sound. The knobs are very responsive to small changes, and interactive- also the actual tone of the guitar seems to change when you make drastic changes to the knobs. It takes some time to get the correct speed setting- if you play rhythms at the same speed as the pedal you get a unique effect- also octaves sound great on this pedal. Its close to the sound Hendrix uses at the Woodstock 1969 concert, but needs to be tweaked in order not to sound overwhelming.

Sounds like a cross between a phase shifter and a vibrato effect. There is a slight volume drop when the pedal is engaged, but cranking your fuzz pedal's volume to the max (assuming like me that you place the fuzz first before the modulation effects) restores enough volume to crank my little Vox Cambridge 15 watt amp to nice levels with fine tone. I havent tried this pedal on my Marshall AVT 50 amp yet but I am sure it kicks. The effect is strong and I prefer a low intensity and high speed setting combination, contrary to the guidelines given in the instruction manual, which is just a single page, but at least it comes with some literature. The effect can be a little noisy at obnoxious settings but the sweep is pretty quiet when set correctly- its a little more noisy than my Maxon 301 Flanger. This pedal replaces my original 1970's EH Small Stone which is good but seeking retirement in my drawer- I wanted newer better-made effects and this pedal fit the bill nicely. Like I said it can replace your phase shifter, and its two knobs offer more control than the harsher sounding MXR Phase 90 re-issue. I am using this with a Gibson Les Paul but I am sure it sounds better with my Strat- everything sounds better with a Strat. As with all phase shifters there is a small loss of high frequency response, which is another reason why Fender guitars probably sound better with this effect.

Very reliable. True by-pass switching. Built like a tank. The red LED is nice.

Never attempted to contact them but they give a toll free number with the instructions which is very considerate.

I play blues/rock and this pedal is great for the heavy stuff like Hendrix. As a matter of fact I just downloaded some of the guitar tab and chord contributions on the database link here and riffs like Hendrix Burning of the Midnight Lamp, or the Beatles I Feel Fine sound very good with this Micro Vibe pedal. An advantage of this pedal is that it is small and battery operated and portable, where as other pedals that do the Univibe thing are bulky and more costly.
This pedal completes my gear- I also own a Maxon 505 Chorus and 301 Flanger, an original EH Big Muff and Small Stone, a Maestro MFZ Fuzz, a DOD FX 50 Overdrive Preamp, the Austone Textone and Fuzz Nutz models, the Roger Mayer Spitfire, the Guyatone TZ-2 Fuzz, and the new re-issued EH Deluxe Memory Man. The Memory Man compares well to the Micro Vibe and is a good alternative for those not wishing to own so many effects.
Overall this Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe is a decent choice for boutique pedal users in my opinion as a vibrato and phase effect. I would NEVER buy any of the inexpensive new DOD or Boss effects because I think they are cheaply made junk, in my opinion.

As everyone noted, it's only got two knobs. Still need to play around for the best sound though! The manual is one page and if you need that to explain 2 knobs, you have big problems!

I've noticed no noise when I turn it on. No pop or anything. After all the other reviews I read, I was expected this and was pleasantly surprised. I did notice a loss in highs, but also read the trick about the trim pot below, and that seemed to do the trick. I've found one other thing: before you adjsut your trim pot, make sure you are plugged into the power source you plan on using because the tone sounds different between battery and wall wart. Either way, it's got a beautiful swirling sound. It'll never be the same as playing through a Leslie, but I don't have that kind of jack and the petal weighs a lot less!

Built like a tank. I can't see what could break, except the LED.

Don't know, never used them. Hope I never do!

I play blues, old rock, and a bit of jazz. Try playing "Blue in Green" (Miles Davis) through this for a different jazz sound! Wish I was good enough to say I play like Clapton, Jimi, or SRV, but my head's not that big. I just enjoy myself.
I own a Am Fat Strat Deluxe, a Tele, and a Les Paul, going through either a Mesa Boogie Nomad (mostly) or a Fender HR Deluxe (occassionally). I've played TS in front but mostly use that for a different option with the Nomad or as OD on the Fender. The M Vibe gives that late 60s sound that I've loved since the Beatles. When I was test-driving this in the store, it kept suggesting all kinds of Beatles stuff to me. Defintely a good match for what I like.
I didn't compare it to anything else because I own a Voodoo Overdrive petal and Petal Power, both solid as can be and neither have given me a moment's worry. Enough said. Would I get this again? You bet your sweet bippy!