Hello Gearheads!
Today I’m happy to bring to your attention a new and very cool offering from the awesome folks at DryBell Musical Electronic Laboratory - The Vibe Machine V-3! DryBell have been making incredible sounding Uni-Vibe pedals in small, pedalboard friendly formats for quite a while now… and they’ve just hit their 10 year anniversary! To mark that special occasion they set out to take their Vibe Machine circuit a step further and see what new and interesting tone shaping tools they could bring into the pedal world. After some experimentation, the Vibe Machine V-3 was born! You can read more about their story and how it happened below:
“It’s hard to believe that 10 years has passed since we started our journey into the wonders of the beautiful Uni-Vibe. Looking back to the time when we started our experiments with that three-dimensional sound, everything was very different from today.
It was a simpler time in the pedal world. There were several big, well-known companies that produced most of the classic pedals and a handful of smaller boutique builders. At that time, most new pedals could easily get into the spotlight, to be explored and talked about. It was the beginning of a golden era for the world of guitar pedals. Back then, only a few Uni-Vibe clones existed, most following the same circuit recipe as that used by the wonderful Shin-Ei, they were mostly big, bulky and rather expensive.
When we decided to take a shot with our Uni-Vibe, we wanted something different and more practical. We wanted The Sound, but we also wanted to make ours much smaller than any other Uni-Vibe on the market. In 2011, when the Vibe Machine V-1 was born, it was the smallest ever photocell-based Vibe pedal in the World retaining all the features of the classic Uni-Vibe. People loved it, and they still do.
A few years later, after extensive development, with tons of new experience, and with feedback gathered from our amazing customers, forum members, reviewers, demo guys and fellow musicians, the Vibe Machine V-2 arrived. It looked very similar to its predecessor, but it was much more complex under the hood. Besides all those added features, The Sound was greater than ever and it rocked the vibe community around the world! As one of the best Uni-Vibe effects available today, the Vibe Machine has received many awards from the Music Industry and we’re extremely proud of it!”
“The V-3 version
Several months ago, we wanted to find a special way to celebrate our upcoming 10 Year Anniversary and we decided to pull out our Vibe Machine breadboard. We played extensively with the complex opto-system and one specific setting sounded out of this world. We tried tons of different settings, but we kept on coming back to this particular one.
It was like re-mixing your greatest album. You know it’s great, but you wanted to add some magic touches to make it even more special. We didn’t expect that our breadboard experiment would result in a completely new version of our Vibe Machine, but this one is really something else and we couldn’t just keep it to ourselves. We wanted to share it with the World.
V-3 has its own colorful magic going on. Is it better than its predecessors? With such a unique sound presence, it’s really a matter of personal taste. V-3 is simply different and it sounds beautiful.
The main difference between V-3 and V-2 is in the modulation EQ. V-2 modulates just a slight part of your main tone (mid-range focused modulation), while V-3 blends in nicely with your main tone and modulates it without changing the EQ. V-3 has a wider modulation and brings you more depth. The Intensity’s character has also changed.”
Simply put, the new Vibe Machine V-3 is a great sounding Uni-Vibe pedal. It’s familiar yet enables much further exploration of the tones we all love as Vibe enthusiasts. As soon as I plugged the V-3 in I noticed wider boundaries, richer low end and a more available top end. I found that you could nail the vintage Uni-Vibe tones we all love but also get more modern focused tones that if you heard them in a track, you might not be able to pin down what was making that cool tone - that’s one of the biggest selling points in my experience with great gear… does it instantly recall a stereotype or does it bring forth something new, something exciting? The Vibe Machine V-3 straddles that line of familiar yet boundary pushing. You can hear in my demo below at the end of this Feature, the undeniable vintage Uni-Vibe “chorus” tones are there in spades as well as more modern sounds that swirl and swoosh in perfect harmony to the tracks they accompany. This revision is a vision!
Tonally, I enjoyed the wider “bandwidth” of the Vibe Machine V-3 in all the modes available. I also have been personally using the Vibe Machine V1 and V2 for years in both the Chorus and Vibrato settings. It’s always been a staple on my stage pedalboard to get amazing Hendrix style swirls and low key pitch vibrato shimmers. The Pitch Vibrato setting on the Vibe Machine has always been a personal favorite, pulling out anything from the tones of a Magnatone combo to the venerable Boss VB-2. Many of us Gearheads out there forget about the Vibrato setting on our vibes, concentrating on the pulsing magic that Hendrix influenced us all with… but there’s some massive mojo in the Pitch Vibrato section the circuit and the new Vibe Machine V-3’s version is fantastic. Remember to always explore these tones Gearheads… something beautiful awaits you!
Vibe Machine V-2 on one of my pedalboards
There are of course many full features hiding in plain sight on the Vibe Machine V-3, which is amazing considering the small stature and ability to slip into any spot on your pedalboard. I personally experimented with all of the fine tuning mini trimmers and I luckily marked the manufacturer settings and suggest you do as well only to come back to stock. You may of course find that you want more of ‘This or That’ and that’s why these options are here!
I will say that while I often not only fall, but happily jump down the rabbit hole of being a tried and true Gearhead - the idea of TMKS… or “Too Many Knobs Syndrome” (Yes, I just made that up) yields option anxiety and distress like no other… HOWEVER, the WAY the folks at DryBell design and engineer these pedals are nowhere near that experience. They are a unique interaction between simple, elegant and deep. That’s the magic recipe here folks… make something easy to use and to dial in - IF you want to get your mini screwdriver in hand, this pedal can bend to your will. The truest form of Yin and Yang in pedal form.
Here’s some more on those additional options from the horse’s mouth…
“V-3 features the same versatile custom sound options as V-2. There are 6 ‘set and forget’ side trimmers: CHORUS, GRIT, CUSTOM, SYM, RANGE and VOLUME. All these controls come with initial factory settings. Check the manual in the support tab for more detailed descriptions, but to begin playing you don’t need the manual or to adjust anything, just plug in and enjoy!
The CHORUS trimmer adjusts the depth of vibe modulation so the user can adjust the swirl/watery/chewy character of the Chorus sound. The CHORUS trimmer also affects the low end frequencies of the Chorus throb.
With GRIT you can set the overall brightness, it acts as a low pass passive tone control and also defines the output impedance. Try a fuzz/dirt pedal or just an amp after the V-3 and with GRIT you can find your tonal sweet spot with whatever is next in chain.
The CUSTOM trimmer adjusts the input impedance when the three way ORIGINAL/BRIGHT/CUSTOM switch is set to the CUSTOM position. If you switch guitars on stage, sometimes you may want to flip this switch to balance your guitar’s brightness.
The SYM and RANGE define the light bulb bias and character/response of the Vibe movement.
With the VOLUME trimmer at its maximum setting, it boosts your volume above and beyond unity gain.
The V-3 can be used with any passive expression pedal with a linear pot. Also, the V-3 has several functions that are controllable with the DryBell F-1L footswitch or any other simple footswitch. With the footswitch you can engage the CANCEL function, TAP TEMPO feature, Fast/Slow with adjustable Leslie® ramp delay or a Two speed function.
CANCEL function – Just like on an original Uni-Vibe®, a warm & darker sounding preamp (Cancel on original Uni-Vibe®) is available using an expression pedal. Please refer to the Options manual for more information.
Just like on V-2, there are a couple of ‘set and forget’ options like different footswitch type compatibility, expression pedal pot taper adjustment and more. Check the V-3 options manual to see all of its features.”
Check out my video demo below for the DryBell Vibe Machine V-3… I enjoyed using both the Chorus and Vibrato settings throughout the track and really dug how responsive the tone was. Clean, cutting, vintage, soupy, swirly and succinct… it’s all there! I brought in an old favorite for the overdrive and distortion portions… ‘The Engine’ Foundation Preamp from DryBell as well. You can check out my past Gearheads Feature on ‘The Engine’ here: CLICK ME!
As always, thanks for checking out the new Vibe Machine V-3 and my experiences with it. I’m always so happy to see friends in the industry making killer new pedals and taking their creations to new heights. I’m excited to see what the mad geniuses at DryBell cook up next!
To learn more about DryBell and the Vibe Machine V-3 check out these links:
http://drybell.com/
http://drybell.com/vibe-machine-v-3/
Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!