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Vibe Pedal Placement

Jimi Hendrix Woodstock — Effects pedals at Jimi Hendrix's feet. [photograph by Allan Koss in 1969 at Woodstock]

The Shin-Ei “Uni-Vibe” was originally marketed as a compact, portable Leslie rotating speaker system simulator. Although it didn’t accurately reproduce the sound of the Leslie, artists such as Robin Trower and Jimi Hendrix, used it as an effect in it’s own right. The weird & wonderful psychedelic guitar sounds they created ensured the Uni-Vibe became firmly entrenched in rock ‘n’ roll history.

A vibe pedal is essentially a phaser where the four phase-shifter sections are tuned to produce two notches in the low and high end of the frequency spectrum. A Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) sweeps these notches up and down the spectrum to create a phase-blurred filtering effect. The position of the vibe in your signal chain is therefore critical, as removal of frequency content in this way drastically alters the tone of any other effects that precede the vibe.

Up until a couple of years ago my preference had always been to connect vibe post any gain effects (overdrive, distortion, fuzz or preamp). The technical reasoning behind this was that there is more frequency content to for the vibe to work on, and therefore the effect sounded more intense. Vibe can be categorised as a modulation effect (phaser, flanger and chorus) and I was following the well known mantra.

Guitar -> Compression -> Gain Fx -> Equalisation -> Modulation Fx -> Delay -> Reverb -> Amplification

Where modulation effects follow gain effects. However, because the vibe introduces severe filtering it completely obliterates any fine tone adjustments made with a graphic, parametric eq., or even just the basic tone controls on your favorite overdrive pedal. A good overdrive/distortion sound depends heavily on careful tone shaping, so putting a vibe after it undoes all that painstaking effort spent dialling up your prized signature overdrive tone.

There are many players out there who run their vibes before overdrive/distortion. One my customers suggested I try this, and now I’m sold on it—I always place vibe before overdrive. I still keep phasers/flangers further down the chain, though. After all, if you want to achieve Alex Lifeson’s massive swirling guitar sound for the intro to “Spirit of Radio”, phasing must follow distortion! Many players reading this will probably be interested in replicating Jimi Hendrix or Robin Trower’s sound, so how does this stack-up in the light of what’s just been discussed?

Well, Hendrix applied his Uni-Vox Uni-Vibe towards the end of the effects chain, adhering to how a real Leslie rotating speaker would be used. His chain went:

dallas_arbiter_fuzz_face — Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face

roger_mayer_octavia — Roger Mayer Octavia

Although Hendrix’s Fuzzface was modulated by the vibe, rather than the vibe being fuzzed by the Fuzzface, his lead “drive” tone was not just fuzz, but a Fuzzface -> cranked Marshall Plexi amp. Obviously his amp(s) came at the end of the signal chain, after the pedals. The cranked Marshall Plexi’s ECC83 preamp and EL-84 valve power output stage provided further tone-shaping and harmonic colouration, a.k.a. crunch! Jimi would roll his guitar volume knob up for certain songs, such as “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock or, later on, “Machine Gun” and get the amps to feedback and really sing.

Further, whilst we’re discussing Jimi’s signal chain, it’s worth noting that Roger Mayer recommended placing his Octavia after Fuzz. However, photographic and film evidence of the Fillmore East Band of Gypsies gigs shows a chain of Strat -> Vox wah (Mayer-modded) -> Mayer Octavia -> Fuzzface (guts replaced with Mayer Axis Fuzz circuit) -> Uni-Vibe -> three Marshall Plexis.

That said, vibe doesn’t really sound at it’s best in this position and, to my ear, is more defined and clearer at the front. That’s how Robin Trower uses it, placing his vibe towards the beginning of his effects chain. The guitars in “Bridge Of Sighs” and “Day of the Eagle” sound best when using this configuration. To summarise, there are no firm rules, so go ahead, be progressive and experiment. After all that’s what all great guitar players do, right?

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Vibe Pedal Placement