Big Monk
Well-known member
- Build Rating
So, let’s talk about the “bad” stuff first. 
If you pursue this build, make sure you don’t approach it all cavalier like I did. Get the proper caps. I had no clearance issues, but just barely. I had enough short tantalums and not too tall electros to get the job done but I did need to lay down a few caps on the LFO board because of components swaps in my mod list.
DON’T, I repeat, DON’T do it like I did. There’s not a lot of room for error on this build and get the right stuff and take your time.
I had a few issues that were not component related.
First, I used one of my own breakout boards which had the LED and ground connections in the middle swapped. My LED was staying illuminated and the stray voltage was causing the LFO to delay when engaging the effect. Simple fix.
Second, I used 2N4401 in the Preamp and wanted to swap in some higher gain 2N5088. I was at unity gain because I swapped in a 4.3M for R4 but I knew some higher gain transistors would get me where I was supposed to be.
Long story short: I disregarded my own advice, starting pulling them, when my blood was up, and made a mess of Q1/Q2 pads on the underside.
Luckily I’ll be able to run some flying leads to get everything fixed up. Moral of the story: Take a breath, as it doesn’t all need to get done RIGHT NOW.
Now to the good stuff. I had bought the EVM board right after I sold my original box box EV. Right around that time I started corresponding with @Chuck D. Bones about some ideas and designing my own UniVibe for eventual commercial sale under the Big Monk Electronic Device Co. name. He was a great help and designed a simple opamp Preamp replacement for the original UniVibe Preamp, which in itself is a discrete opamp, as well as some component value suggestions and I set about designing my own modernized UniVibe design.
That has been more work than I originally imagined, especially when trying different layouts and control sets that all seem to have their own charms, as well as different size enclosures.
So as the year wound down I thought I’d implement most of these major circuit changes into the EVM board I had to see if they were worthwhile.
The main goal here is to make a Vintage sounding Univibe (at least in the sense of the best examples, as we all know that, like Fuzz Faces, there were DOGS in the Univibe realm as well) for the Everyman, i.e. one that sounds deep and rich and not hollow in the mids for people who are not cranking through Marshalls and Hiwatts ala Hendrix, Trower and Gilmour.
The problem with the straight vintage circuit, although not a problem for those playing through the classic rigs, is that on smaller amps, cleaner amps, mid-scooped amps, etc. the midrange can be a bit hollow on the Univibe leading to a perceived lack of bottom end and a thinner sound.
Also, I wanted more depth at slow speeds plus slower and faster available speeds in general. The results, hopefully, will be a big, fat, swirly and lush Univibe that the average player can get good tones out of on equipment different from the classic rigs where the Univibe shone brightly.
All in all this is not my best work. You'll see places where too much heat was applied, a little burned wire, some flux. I let my desire to hear this thing in the wild get the better of me. It does sound good, which is a plus but it definitely LOOKS like a prototype.
If you pursue this build, make sure you don’t approach it all cavalier like I did. Get the proper caps. I had no clearance issues, but just barely. I had enough short tantalums and not too tall electros to get the job done but I did need to lay down a few caps on the LFO board because of components swaps in my mod list.
DON’T, I repeat, DON’T do it like I did. There’s not a lot of room for error on this build and get the right stuff and take your time.
I had a few issues that were not component related.
First, I used one of my own breakout boards which had the LED and ground connections in the middle swapped. My LED was staying illuminated and the stray voltage was causing the LFO to delay when engaging the effect. Simple fix.
Second, I used 2N4401 in the Preamp and wanted to swap in some higher gain 2N5088. I was at unity gain because I swapped in a 4.3M for R4 but I knew some higher gain transistors would get me where I was supposed to be.
Long story short: I disregarded my own advice, starting pulling them, when my blood was up, and made a mess of Q1/Q2 pads on the underside.
Luckily I’ll be able to run some flying leads to get everything fixed up. Moral of the story: Take a breath, as it doesn’t all need to get done RIGHT NOW.
Now to the good stuff. I had bought the EVM board right after I sold my original box box EV. Right around that time I started corresponding with @Chuck D. Bones about some ideas and designing my own UniVibe for eventual commercial sale under the Big Monk Electronic Device Co. name. He was a great help and designed a simple opamp Preamp replacement for the original UniVibe Preamp, which in itself is a discrete opamp, as well as some component value suggestions and I set about designing my own modernized UniVibe design.
That has been more work than I originally imagined, especially when trying different layouts and control sets that all seem to have their own charms, as well as different size enclosures.
So as the year wound down I thought I’d implement most of these major circuit changes into the EVM board I had to see if they were worthwhile.
The main goal here is to make a Vintage sounding Univibe (at least in the sense of the best examples, as we all know that, like Fuzz Faces, there were DOGS in the Univibe realm as well) for the Everyman, i.e. one that sounds deep and rich and not hollow in the mids for people who are not cranking through Marshalls and Hiwatts ala Hendrix, Trower and Gilmour.
The problem with the straight vintage circuit, although not a problem for those playing through the classic rigs, is that on smaller amps, cleaner amps, mid-scooped amps, etc. the midrange can be a bit hollow on the Univibe leading to a perceived lack of bottom end and a thinner sound.
Also, I wanted more depth at slow speeds plus slower and faster available speeds in general. The results, hopefully, will be a big, fat, swirly and lush Univibe that the average player can get good tones out of on equipment different from the classic rigs where the Univibe shone brightly.
All in all this is not my best work. You'll see places where too much heat was applied, a little burned wire, some flux. I let my desire to hear this thing in the wild get the better of me. It does sound good, which is a plus but it definitely LOOKS like a prototype.
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