mkstewartesq
Well-known member
If you have followed my past build reports, I’ve been hunting for a good vibe sound while steadfastly trying to avoid building an actual optical vibe. Even though I’ve built easily more than 50 pedals now, I think the thought of all the special parts sourcing – as well as parts I never worked with before like incandescent lamps – just left me a little a-scared. So I built numerous pedal that had some sort of vibe functionality, like the Lectric-FX Karaoke Chorus, PPCB Circulator, GPCB’s The Vibe, and a vero build of the Runoffgroive Tri-Vibe. Some were better than others (of the ones named above, the vibe on the Circulator is my favorite) but I finally decided to just bite the bullet, put on my big boy pants, whatever metaphor you want, and just do it.
The Build: I went with the AionFX Straylight because I was daunted by the build and, given all of the biasing required, I really needed a little more of the handholding that Kevin’s build docs give. It took a while to source the parts and then when it came time to build, I actually took some advice @Big Monk gave in another thread – namely, no matter what, never rush building a vibe. So I took things very deliberately, and I also studied a lot of pictures of other Straylight builds on this forum and elsewhere to get a better sense of installing the lamp, positioning the LDRs, etc.
I also bought AionFX’s custom reflective light box to go around the lamp and LDRs – I really think he should just throw this in with the PCB as standard and charge a couple bucks more because it really is a necessary part of the build. I found it incredibly useful – although, as happens with manufactured things, mine was not cut exactly right for all of the edges to fit flush, but some judicious use of some metal files on various edges eventually made it all work.
Let me preface the following by saying that were it not for AionFX, I would not be here in this forum or in this hobby. Sometime in early 2022, I got a bug up in my ass to own a Rangemaster and decided to build one even though I had never soldered in my life and I could not tell you the difference between a resistor and a capacitor. I bought his Radian kit and the instructions were so awesome and helpful as far as explaining components, how to install them, etc.that I immediately moved on to PPCB, building PCBs and sourcing my own parts. My love of the hobby has grown since then, and I’ve gotten to know all you find people. So I owe Kevin a lot.
That being said, I LOATHE AionFX’s design choices around their breakout boards. I get why he does it (especially so these can be leverage as kits) but I find them so incredibly counterintuitive and, in a build like this one where everything is incredibly tight, what a freaking nightmare it was to connect 16 wires in the box to stomp switches where it should’ve been something like 8. And I’m not even 100% sure I can tell you the purpose of each wire. Anyway, it’s AionFX’s world, and I am just living in it so I will hush now.
The Sound: I like it a lot – but I may need to append this review later because I am obsessive about biasing modulation effects (I re-biased my XC-Phase approximately 200,000 times over a six month period and still I’m not sure I have it right). And as @Gordo noted, biasing vibe is like going to the optometrist - you can get paralyzed with having to choose between minuscule differences. I shall continue to dither her until around Thanksgiving.
But so far the vibe sounds like what I expect a vibe to sound like, as does the chorus (really a phaser) - I do think the sound feels a little more thin (i.e., not much low end) than I was expecting, but I have zero experience with a real vibe so I will trust that this is just a shortcoming of the original circuit since Kevin seems to be a real student about the historical aspects of the circuits he re-creates.
But what really surprised me is that, so far my favorite thing about the vibe isn’t actually the vibe – it’s the “cancel” mode, which allows you to replicate the original (non-true bypass) bypass function of the Uni-Vibe, where the lamp was switched off but the signal still passed through the circuit. The build docs say that this adds a “subtle coloration that some people like” – well, I freaking love it. It basically sounds kind of like an Echoplex preamp, and just seems to add a bit of punch and sparkle to my Telecaster. Frankly, I’ve played around with that more than I have the vibe and I’m considering moving this pedal to the front of my chain just for that effect. (Since “cancel” turns off the lamp, I can leave the pedal powered on without worrying about shortening the lamp lifespan). I have a Clandestine Preamp, which is an echoplex preamp, but I greatly prefer this one because it seems to have a lot more headroom.
The Enclosure: the enclosure is just a Hammond enclosure polished by hand, with a film free decal and an application of clearcoat. Sunnyscopa changes their glue formulation a year or so ago so that it requires much less heat to cure (I ruined several decals using my normal curing regimen before figuring out the glue had changed) but now that I’ve cut my oven curing time in about half to compensate, the decals are coming out much better again. That’s a long-winded way of saying those a little specks in the picture are dust, not flaws in the decal.
As far as the name, I just wasn’t feeling particularly creative and just called the damn thing a Uni-Vibe because that’s what it is. Coincidentally, while building this, I ran across a guy on Facebook who is also building a Straylight; he mentioned to me that he was going to call his “Uni-Brow”. Which I think we can all agree is a far better name, but it was too late for me to steal it.
Mike
The Build: I went with the AionFX Straylight because I was daunted by the build and, given all of the biasing required, I really needed a little more of the handholding that Kevin’s build docs give. It took a while to source the parts and then when it came time to build, I actually took some advice @Big Monk gave in another thread – namely, no matter what, never rush building a vibe. So I took things very deliberately, and I also studied a lot of pictures of other Straylight builds on this forum and elsewhere to get a better sense of installing the lamp, positioning the LDRs, etc.
I also bought AionFX’s custom reflective light box to go around the lamp and LDRs – I really think he should just throw this in with the PCB as standard and charge a couple bucks more because it really is a necessary part of the build. I found it incredibly useful – although, as happens with manufactured things, mine was not cut exactly right for all of the edges to fit flush, but some judicious use of some metal files on various edges eventually made it all work.
Let me preface the following by saying that were it not for AionFX, I would not be here in this forum or in this hobby. Sometime in early 2022, I got a bug up in my ass to own a Rangemaster and decided to build one even though I had never soldered in my life and I could not tell you the difference between a resistor and a capacitor. I bought his Radian kit and the instructions were so awesome and helpful as far as explaining components, how to install them, etc.that I immediately moved on to PPCB, building PCBs and sourcing my own parts. My love of the hobby has grown since then, and I’ve gotten to know all you find people. So I owe Kevin a lot.
That being said, I LOATHE AionFX’s design choices around their breakout boards. I get why he does it (especially so these can be leverage as kits) but I find them so incredibly counterintuitive and, in a build like this one where everything is incredibly tight, what a freaking nightmare it was to connect 16 wires in the box to stomp switches where it should’ve been something like 8. And I’m not even 100% sure I can tell you the purpose of each wire. Anyway, it’s AionFX’s world, and I am just living in it so I will hush now.
The Sound: I like it a lot – but I may need to append this review later because I am obsessive about biasing modulation effects (I re-biased my XC-Phase approximately 200,000 times over a six month period and still I’m not sure I have it right). And as @Gordo noted, biasing vibe is like going to the optometrist - you can get paralyzed with having to choose between minuscule differences. I shall continue to dither her until around Thanksgiving.
But so far the vibe sounds like what I expect a vibe to sound like, as does the chorus (really a phaser) - I do think the sound feels a little more thin (i.e., not much low end) than I was expecting, but I have zero experience with a real vibe so I will trust that this is just a shortcoming of the original circuit since Kevin seems to be a real student about the historical aspects of the circuits he re-creates.
But what really surprised me is that, so far my favorite thing about the vibe isn’t actually the vibe – it’s the “cancel” mode, which allows you to replicate the original (non-true bypass) bypass function of the Uni-Vibe, where the lamp was switched off but the signal still passed through the circuit. The build docs say that this adds a “subtle coloration that some people like” – well, I freaking love it. It basically sounds kind of like an Echoplex preamp, and just seems to add a bit of punch and sparkle to my Telecaster. Frankly, I’ve played around with that more than I have the vibe and I’m considering moving this pedal to the front of my chain just for that effect. (Since “cancel” turns off the lamp, I can leave the pedal powered on without worrying about shortening the lamp lifespan). I have a Clandestine Preamp, which is an echoplex preamp, but I greatly prefer this one because it seems to have a lot more headroom.
The Enclosure: the enclosure is just a Hammond enclosure polished by hand, with a film free decal and an application of clearcoat. Sunnyscopa changes their glue formulation a year or so ago so that it requires much less heat to cure (I ruined several decals using my normal curing regimen before figuring out the glue had changed) but now that I’ve cut my oven curing time in about half to compensate, the decals are coming out much better again. That’s a long-winded way of saying those a little specks in the picture are dust, not flaws in the decal.
As far as the name, I just wasn’t feeling particularly creative and just called the damn thing a Uni-Vibe because that’s what it is. Coincidentally, while building this, I ran across a guy on Facebook who is also building a Straylight; he mentioned to me that he was going to call his “Uni-Brow”. Which I think we can all agree is a far better name, but it was too late for me to steal it.
Mike
