EHX Good Vibes Modulation (Uni-Vibe) - I Like My Modulation Like I Like My Oatmeal; Lumpy

The Year of UniVibe continues with another swirly box of mystery, the Electro Harmonix Good Vibes. With simple controls, an expression pedal input, and a blinking red light of truth, what has EHX brought to the table to stand apart from the others? Guess you'll have to watch and find out for yourself.
0:00 - Demo #1 - Front Street Breakup
1:52 - What Is Univibe?
5:08 - Demo #2 - Caught Sneaking
5:45 - The Controls
6:45 - Compared with Micro Vibe
7:55 - The Power Supply Issue
10:23 - Demo #3 - A Flower In The Sun
11:12 - Closing Thoughts

[@sacuna3333]

This was awesome! Just found Your channel and I’m really digging your content, I bet this channel will really take off

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you so much! Fingers crossed

[@CalvinLehman-hk7uz]

Just came across this and I highly appreciate the detail and explanation. I've had my Good Vibes for about two years now and it's been challenging to wrap my head around the difference between this and other modulators until now, Thank you.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Absolutely, glad you enjoyed it! One of these days I want to do a “let’s chart out all the types of modulation” episode, though it may devolve into me looking like a crazy person by the end.

[@mattgilbert7347]

DOO ITT! DO IT NOW! GET TO THE CHOPPER! 😅

[@jonathanwapner6262]

I love the Good Vibes' sound. I've had 2, but I never keep them because they don't work on a lot of power supplies. It's too much of a hassle. I have a Unicorn v2 that does the job well enough.

[@Chrosa]

I can't wait til you hit like 100k subs and I can say I've been here since pre 1k :D you make great videos brother, very underrated channel.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

You and me both, Chris. I just want that plaque, then I'll quit my day job.

[@mundainmonstre2372]

I got one of these used from GC for 100$. Got it home and popped it on my board running a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Plus 2 and it works just fine. The expression pedal I use with is the Boss EV-30 which uses TRS Cables. I love my Good Vibes. It gets used a lot!

[@maxbrothman1937]

Great video. I bought one. What are your favorite Hendrix settings with it, and have you figured out how to power it using Voodoo Labs or similar power brick?

[@marksullivan7246]

It’s so strange that your doppelgänger was in the same place you were while shooting this vid. Great demo btw!!!!

[@PedalExperiments]

Great demo, as always, mate. 👍 Man, it sounds so good. I've always wanted one of these pedals, but knowing that about the power supply is a major deal breaker for me, personally. If you ever get chance to try a Horrothia Effects Berkeley, I highly recommend doing so. It sounds every bit as good as the Good Vibes, but is built to a far higher standard, and works just fine with a standard, 9v power supply. 😎

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Wait, you mean I don't need a surge protector out on stage with me? MADNESS!!! Thanks for your support as always, man, I really really appreciate it. Means a lot.

[@PedalExperiments]

@@StompboxBreakdown You're welcome, mate! Happy to do what I can. You deserve way more subscribers than I have, so if there's anything I can do to help get you there quicker, I will.

[@alexanderlumberjack]

I got a good vibes pedal today and love it

[@Trent_Sutphin]

I have a 2015 good vibes pedal with the blue pcb, I think ehx kinda fixed the power supply issue, I was able to get this to work with both the ehx 9.6v plug and using one spot cs-7 with the 9v 200ma outlet.

[@JL-mu9sl]

Never had a "broken" issue with this pedal connected to an isolated 9V power supply chain. I like and own a ton of EHX effects but this pedal is very sweepy and sharp. Recommend the Rotovibe wah-style foot pedal: much smoother, warmer, and controllable.

[@alejandroattili8667]

hello! thank god i saw your video about the goog vibes pedal. I was about to buy it but my sources are 9 volts. it wouldn't have worked. Thank you. can you recommend me pedal uni vibe that work with 9 volts and are not so expensive? thank you for your time to answer me

[@alejandroattili8667]

add something. I want them to be analog. I have the phase 90 script and it's great but I would love to add a univibe

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Right now, my favorite analog univibe is the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe. I did a video on that, and I can’t quite put it into words, but I like the way it works with the way I play.

[@Dam-oH]

particularly lovely playing around the 1 min mark

[@masqui81]

Great video! I’m using my good vibes un my pedalboard, 9v output looks good as soon as Amperage is enough.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thanks! I’m glad it works for you. When I tested it, it only came alive once it got around 9.5v. It didn’t draw that much amperage, so that wasn’t the issue.

[@beerwolf8518]

Cool video. I like how you talk about some of the insides like how the LEDs work. The only type of pedal that I have like this is the Dunlop Rotovibe (which is an excellent pedal). I usually use phasers (phase 90 and phase 45) more than univibe type pedals. The EHX seems pretty cool, though!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Rotovibe looks incredible, pretty sure I could lose a whole weekend playing around with that one. When a phaser sweep lands right where you want it to, and your fingers land in just the right place, that's the closest some of us may ever get to the planets aligning in our favor.

[@alejandroattili8667]

hello! thank god i saw your video about the goog vibes pedal. I was about to buy it but my sources are 9 volts. it wouldn't have worked. Thank you. can you recommend me pedal uni vibe that work with 9 volts and are not so expensive? thank you for your time to answer me

[@BlueberryStinkFinger62]

I have and use the Fulltone Deja mini Vibe Fulltone MDV-3 and Electro Harmonix Good Vibes Uni Vibes like them all..

[@BlueberryStinkFinger62]

Excellent Uni Vibe

[@pizzaROX]

Great review. Could you explain a little what the internal trim pot does ?

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thanks! As a rule of thumb, if an internal trimpot isn’t labeled or mentioned in the manual, I don’t touch it, because it’s usually a bias setting set at the factory. I’ve seen lots of people adjusting it and claiming all sorts of things, but I don’t want to feel bad about anyone breaking their pedal, so I don’t get into it. Sorry.

[@qddk9545]

On other vibes it is the intensity of the lightbulb, and if you mark the factory setting, there should be no problem in trying other settings.

[@speedohugo8646]

Boss adapter are 9.6 volts .....so I am not sure why it did not work

[@URTH-yb5xh]

Can’t thank you enough I have found other sources and pedals Let this one go awhile back The volume dropout It did’nt occur to me that it was power/V starved A great demo/vid from you Univibes are great If you were to get a Mooer Hustle or other OCD clone put it in place of OD and turn it up and then turn it off you might be surprised

[@alexanderlumberjack]

Talk about the internal trimpot and running at higher voltages please! Love your reviews

[@Trent_Sutphin]

Hi, I have this pedal. This pedal is 9/9.6v only, I think higher voltages would fry it, also I messed with the trimpot in mine, It made it sound more like a phaser instead of sounding like an on/off switch, really made the pedal sound better in my opinion

[@alexanderlumberjack]

@@Trent_Sutphin i use the power supply that came with it and an expression pedal to control speed on the fly. Awesome pedal ill be keeping

[@Trent_Sutphin]

@@alexanderlumberjack nice, I also got the pedal working on a truetone cs7 using the 9v 500ma outlet

[@xelaalvarez]

Oh man. I really want to see you Analyzing the BBE SoulVibe like this!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

The BBE pedals mostly hit the sweet spot for me. I’ll try to find one for a video.

[@xelaalvarez]

​@@StompboxBreakdown YES!

[@xelaalvarez]

@@StompboxBreakdown kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKTMoZave6t4aKs

[@KYCDK]

look at the dawner prince viberator it sounds pretty good, but in depth demos of it are pretty rare

[@5150show]

So good , good had to sub

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you!!

[@gabrielluis6648]

Nice!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thanks!

[@BitcoinTakeover]

Been meaning to buy one since 2016, but I was afraid I might not find the proper place/context for it. I know where/how to use a phaser and where/how to use a chorus. Something in-between is just too wild, man!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Embrace the Uni-Vibe!!! It's just wild enough for people to think something's broken.

[@henriquecorreia9917]

have one... it's good. Did not know that about the power source

[@wesmitchem825]

I'm definitely going to have to get one of those I have a Dunlop univibe and a danelectro chicken salad vibe and a digitech Ventura vibe and the ehx sounds alot better

[@mattgilbert7347]

Yeah I've got a Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe and the Ventura and this pedal definitely sounds better, especially when compared with the Ventura. That one has two decent modes but the Univibe (Vintage) mode is very "metallic" and boxy sounding. Ok in stereo but not great.

[@mattgilbert7347]

An underrated Univibe. Legit vintage design with the photocell/LDR thing is rare in most modern Univibe pedals. I can only think of a handful and most, like the Jam Pedals Retrovibe, Drybell Vibe Machine cost as much as a secondhand Blues Junior. The JHS Unicorn has it but I have heard that pedal has issues. I think they crammed too many features into that one at the cost of reliability and ease of use. Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe is legit - if you can find one on the used market. Ditto their Chicken Salad Vibe. NUX Monterey is an extraordinary digital Univibe for damn near no money.

[@mattgilbert7347]

Stand corrected. It's an LED based unit but you wouldn't know it. I didn't know that the Micro Vibe uses the 'bulb. Cool

[@71rcode72]

Thank you for the review. One bit of feedback. The Reverb at the end is throwing off the true sound of the vibe. A little overdrive is ok. Also important to play rhythm using the vibe.

[@markferguson3745]

When I started looking at Uni Vibes, what I discovered was that there were few good options, and even less that were flexible and affordable.It's not a circuit that's easily replicated, digitally or otherwise, and if you want the real mojo, you need the original design.Like other effects, there are some cool facsimiles that get the same ballpark,like the EHX, which at least has the expression option.Jam make one of the few newer releases that are worth checking out, and while the JHS Unicorn is pretty good, it's not the same as the old Fulltone Deja Vibe. Personally, I'm more than content with the Walrus Julianna, which has expression control, and can do the bits I prefer.

[@matimoksa]

Doea it has volume drop?

[@StompboxBreakdown]

There’s a volume knob on it, so if engaging the effect feels like cuts volume, you can raise it up to match.

[@marcuslewitzki4610]

So, what's the "right kind" of expression pedal to use with the Good Vibes?

[@StompboxBreakdown]

A Boss FV-500L, M-Audio EXP, or the EHX Expression Pedal should work

[@michaelfowler3187]

I recall on the previous vine episode with the voodoo labs micro vibe, you said something about it being intended to replicate a rotary speaker, but I think that was debunked in lieu of an explanation about an engineer being inspired by the swooshy throbby effect that he was hearing from Russian radio waves bouncing off of the atmosphere and into the home of this person. I don't recall the details but should be a fun bit of trivia to look up.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

It depends where you look. When you sweep the dial on a shortwave radio (or anything that gets a signal bounced off the ionosphere) you get interesting effects on the sound, and I’ve definitely read about that being an inspiration for it. I also spent a lot of time watching my grandfather on his radio and remember that effect fondly. When the pedal was marketed in ads, it was positioned as a rotary speaker emulator, though. Maybe not the engineer’s words, but even after changing names, all the ads I see have it listed as a rotating speaker effect. So its probably a combination of “how can I make a rotary effect” and “I remember a really interesting flavor of modulation from listening to overseas radio”. It really is its own thing :)

[@mr.astrophysics9115]

The Fulltone Deja Vibe MDV-3.. Fulltone Deja mini Vibes are the very best Robin Trower has been using Fulltone Deja Vibes since 1994..next would be the Electro Harmonix Good Vibes...

[@GuiltySouls]

Great informative video. Thank you!

[@macsarcule]

Had to watch this a few more times, just for the jams (i'm sure i'll be back for more). I'd love to see you talk about the Greer Lightspeed. I feel like it sounds like some light overdrives I have, but i also felt like it didn't sound like _any_ other overdrive I have. Never got muddy or flubby, it was that rare combination of rich and clear. It seems to have decent tones all through the sweep of each pot. There's a lot of room to hunt tones! Maybe it was the compressor and the little bit of slapback (not to mention some really fun playing on your part), but either way, I'd love to hear more about the Lightspeed, anything that makes it what it is as an overdrive. I'd also love to know on this pedal (and any other overdrive, distortion, or fuzz you share) if it seems to perform it's best with single coils or humbuckers. I'm sure you already know one of the best examples of this is the tube screamer. Most have their best responsiveness and output from single coils. Some bluesbreaker style pedals react the same way - lackluster with PAF style humbuckers, but amazing with single coils and some mini-humbuckers. Other pedals I'd love to see an exploration of if you have them: Keeley Compressor Plus, Earthquaker Spatial Delivery (or even a sampling of several envelop filters: DOD 440, QTron, and others to share if there are any general classes of envelope filters to help us think about what we like), and i know everyone knows this one so well, but the Memory Man. I got the Memory Man Nano a few months ago, and I just can't seem to really get what i'm looking for out of it. Probably too used to my go-to delay and expecting it to respond that way. I'd like to understand what it's known for so I can try to enjoy it for the way it was meant to be used. I really enjoy in your vids that you don't talk about a pedal as good or bad, but what makes it sound like it does, how far you can push the envelopes of each setting (to help our own personal definition of weird or awesome), and some samples of what makes it distinct, to help us understand if that's a tone they're looking for. You're making awesome stuff with content that's useful, that's clear with out being too summarized, and that's in-depth without padding or repeating yourself (whatever scripting and storyboarding you do before hand is coming through in what appears to be smooth and effortless presentation - your hard work is so worth it). I always come away with something useful and I always think the video is over too soon - that's perfect! I'm having a good time watching! This has definitely become part of my Top 5 guitar channels to watch!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate you watching and all of your feedback. It means a lot. The Greet is fairly new to me, and honestly I'm still trying to figure it out. I definitely plan on doing a video for it, but I want to get some more experience with it first, because I'm still discovering new things that it really excels at. This video was a case of me just grabbing it as a "maybe this'll work" and instantly being blown away by it. There's so many "preamp" pedals right now, and they all allow for lots of saturation, but get there with various ranges of drive. Like the Chase Tone Secret Preamp is a wonderful end-of-signal box to make things sound a little more full, but you wouldn't use it the same way as the Benson Preamp or (from what I've seen, at least) the Hudson Broadcaster. I definitely plan on some videos for all of those, I just don't want to do them a disservice by under-representing them. You nailed it with the "not good or bad" angle. The way I see it, every pedal that's made it to a point where I can purchase it and read about it online went through a pretty intensive process of development and refinement, and the right pedal for one person fingerpicking a Gibson ES-335 playing blues through a Peavey Classic 30 might not work for another dude straight-up ramming riffs through Strat into a DSL100. I've even bought pedals, used them for a while, put them on the shelf, only to pull them out years later and rediscover them in a better light. Part of the reason I don't sell anything anymore, I've ended up re-buying too many pedals at a higher cost. So yeah, I'll never say "This thing is straight trash" because all it takes is a good recording where *that* effect fits for everyone to rush out and want *that* sound, even if it comes from a broken Arion flanger. I really appreciate your viewership and everything you wrote, the writing (of script and songs) and then recording everything and editing it together is tough work, but your words show that it's all worth it.

[@macsarcule]

​@@StompboxBreakdown That is a really smart practice, not selling pedals anymore. I went back to guitar about 15 years ago after having not played for a long time (sold all my gear for money in college). When I came back to it, there was this very transitional thing happening in guitar, pedals especially, and my familiarity with guitar pedals was near zero. Growing up in the 80s, there was a tremendous amount of folklore (largely by people who didn't play guitar) around how people like Hendrix got their sound, all of it really wrong. I'd owned only one pedal (a beloved DOD FX75B Stereo Flanger) and never really understood how to use it well. I also was among the loads of people who knew as much about the guitar industry as their marketing told us. So going back to this meant loads of experimentation with equipment I didn't understand, with very little information to help me understand it better. Even the best books and magazines of 15 years ago weren't much help. Because of work and personal life events, the first few years I was very into guitar again (and earnestly practicing for the first time in my life 😆), but after about 3 years, it became only an occasional interest. Sure, I still acquired gear and half-heartedly practiced, but I didn't really understand what i was buying, didn't really understand why I couldn't get the tones I was after. Then a tragic personal loss upended my life, then the pandemic hit, then I was laid off from the company I'd been with for 16 years (not tragic, it was actually a huge relief - one of those things where you don't know how bad it is until you're out of it), and and this layoff gave me a considerable amount of time on my hands. In the summer of 2021 enters a KZbin pedal video recommendation from Josh Scott. I had not found anything that gave me any joy in the midst of a deep grief since the loss of my fiancé, who i'd only been with for 6 years. For whatever reason, Josh's deep catalog of videos on pedals sparked an actual interest in enjoying something again. Like he does for so many, his promotion of other company's pedals spurred me to buy those pedals, pick up a guitar again, hear sounds I had been searching for, and to end a really long story, I was hooked. I found back something that made me happy, and I went pedal crazy. That's a really long way to the barn to say two things: 1) Now that I have (by some folks' estimation) way too many pedals, I have been sorting through them to make my 'starting line-up' board, at least for now. I had really planned to acquire lots of them, and then sell off the ones that didn't make the cut. But your strategy makes sense to me and it's something I've already experienced in my short time. Thanks to videos like yours, I picked up pedals I'd put on the 'sell pile,' retweaked the settings, and found things I liked. Example? The JHS Unicorn - I couldn't seem to get decent univibe out of it, but was confused by the (sorry Josh Scott) dumb choice to label the chorus and vibrato switch as 'dry and wet.' I assumed the gooey goodness of the univibe chorus setting must be wet and the dry was probably actually dry signal. Yes, I should have read the manual, but your Micro Vibe video clicked in my head that I need to check out the manual for the chorus/vibrato setting. I love that pedal now! 2) I love the info in your videos and find them very helpful and certainly fun. Keep in the back of your mind that you're not only informing and entertaining us, but that there's very likely more people out there who are like I was: completely out of hope, not sure why they're even bothering to stay around. Those folks may very well find your videos like I did Josh's and find there's still something down there that's good, and joyful, and some measure of peace can begin to return. You're doing good and helpful work beyond the guitar and pedal info. I'm by no means out of the woods of grief and will never be. A lot of folks eventually experience a loss that doesn't heal. But I know where to go for doses of joy, and videos like yours keep those fires burning. Thanks!

[@deanallen927]

Great video! this pedal seems a bit "square wavy", not like my big ol' Dunlop. Probably not for me. And since I'd be using it with either a Voodoo Lab ISO 5 or an MXR Brick I'm REALLY glad I watched. GREAT JOB.

[@EricTheCleric93]

Almost in Time for Gilmour's birthday ;)

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Oh man, missed it by one day!!

[@mr.beaver2822]

Concerning the power supply issue it didn't actually work and sounded like in the video... this is a pain in the ass I don't know how you powered it on the board?! I also own the Lester K which is great for the price and same issue.... Thanx for this information now cleared out....

[@StompboxBreakdown]

I used the power supply it came with. I want able to get it to work with a standard dc power supply.

[@hailmaryrecordings8255]

This one is nice! I bought a NUX Monterey Vibe just to try the effect & love it. I think I looked at an EH univibe, but the NUX was cheap. Nice tracks, by the way. The intro was really nice.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you so much! Haven't tried the Monterey, but just checked out a video and man that's got some sounds in it! Glad you like the tracks, that first one is definitely one I'm bookmarking for later.

[@hailmaryrecordings8255]

@@StompboxBreakdown It lends itself to vocals, for sure. I don’t know if you sing or in a band with a singer, but that’s one to work-up. ☮️

[@CorbCorbin]

Your also likely, not getting enough milliamperes, using that Boss and other 9v supplies. It has 200ma, which is often the difference between EHX and a Boss 9v plug. I think Boss’s are 100, but I could be misremembering.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Looks like all the Boss ones are 200ma and up, but even when I used one with 500mAh, as well as the outputs from my TrueTone CS-6, I got the same result. Unfortunate, it’s a great pedal, I’ve seen a lot of people not able to justify keeping it on their board because of the voltage issue.

[@jacobbrown1690]

I used an old ibanez 10 volt power supply and it was fine with this pedal. Don’t use the 10 volt with certain overdrives that internally increase the voltage. EH should have just made an 18 v version with more head room.

[@macsarcule]

The jams…. The jams … the first two especially, killin me with that righteous gilmour tone! ☺️🎸🤘

[@AnthonyGoombots]

The Mt Rushmore of guitar pedal makers are Mike Mathews Michael Fuller Jim Dunlop

[@AnthonyGoombots]

I have the good vibes very authentic and the Fulltone deja vibes you won't get any better than Fulltone 100% Era correct and hand made Michael Fuller is a genius it's to bad he closed shop..

[@robmcclelland2930]

9volt is fine as long as it runs at 200 MA….

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Not in my experience. Tried it with 200 and 500ma, mine needed the extra voltage to operate.

[@marcuslewitzki4610]

Have anyone used a Cioks DC7 to power the Good Vibes?

[@StompboxBreakdown]

I did a lot of poking around on forums and subreddits before putting the video together. I found people using the Cioks DC7 with and without success, same with some other solid power supplies like Voodoo Lab, Trutone CS7. I've got three theories: (1) There's more than one version of the Good Vibes out there, and at least one of them works on a standard 9V power supply (2) Some people are confused about what it should sound like and think just because the light comes on, it's working, regardless of what it sounds like, or (3) There's a wide variance in some of the parts in these pedals, and some of them do ok with 9v, some of them don't. What I *can* confirm is that when I used an adjustable power supply, my pedal didn't start sounding right until I applied at least 9.5v of power. Amperage was never the issue, it was the voltage. It wasn't an issue of how isolated each jack was, it was the voltage, and that's kind of backed up by the fact that EHX includes a 9.6v power supply with the pedal, though why they call it a "standard Boss-style power supply" is beyond me. I know that Uni-Vibe power is a tough nut to crack. In my AXiom Effects Omega Vibe OV-1 video, I showed how the creator wrestled with the issue of a bulb-less Uni-Vibe because of the power requirement. The creator of the MicroVibe mentions the same challenges, for the same reason. It'd be nice if there were a simple answer around this pedal because I've seen sooo many people saying they like the sound of it, but it's of no use because it won't work on their board with a regular power supply.

[@marcuslewitzki4610]

@@StompboxBreakdown So do you know of any univibe WITH the bulb that works well with any 9V power supply, or is this a general problem that tend to plague lots of different univibes?

[@StompboxBreakdown]

@@marcuslewitzki4610 The Voodoo Lab MicroVibe and the BBE Soul Vibe are both really good, and have bulbs in 'em