Univibe and Fuzz recommendations

[springhead]

I don't remember the make/model of cells I used. It was whatever was the nearest match to the originals at the time. I remember they went out of production a little while back (built my vibe 5 or 6 years ago).

I got them from Smallbear. Looks like Steve is now getting some made up specially for vibe duty, so these may be worth a go:

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcomme ... x-hi-dark/

He's also doing this:

http://smallbear-electronics.mybigcomme ... olt-25-ma/

A few photo's of my vibe here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cxu8n8gfv0hw ... dDvQa?dl=0

Forgot I'd "temporarily" stuck the light shield in with blue tack must do something about that!

I checked the transistors - all 2N3904.

[Xplorer]

very nice build ! congrats

[Froumy]

Spring,

You did A HELL OF A JOB on that. Congrats! Very professional! Be proud.

That small bear bulb is meeting the specs of the Radio shack bulb you have in there. The cells look like the non-sealed version, but I'l take your word, that they are out of production. Checking the vibe forums and I'm starting to get it sussed out. Big thanks for the pics. That's straight up gear porn.

How'd you print white labels? What voltage did you choose?

Research shows a 10-12 hr build. I can see why it took you a little longer. GLad it sounds as good as it looks. I'll fire off the the vibe order, with the replacement transistors for the fuzz.. Woot! Big time thanks!


Back to the fuzz. I'm probably going to have to figure out how to like it. However. I liked this fuzz right off the bat. The WAY too much verb really annoyed me, but there is some serious mid knock under there. I think it may be a good base tone, if you can hear it past the verb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0siuLBWuYw

It's a dumble derivative, running 6550's(mystic Mother). Hope that may be germain to the 6550 experience discussion.... Also, he's playing 13's. That makes everything sound good.



Big time thanks for everyone's input.

[springhead]

Well thank you both! I'm happy with it both visually and the way it sounds.

I was friends at the time with a graphic designer and he did me a decal sheet with logo's like "Vibe", "Fuzz" and some smaller labels like "Volume", "Tone" etc. I built him a Fuzz Face in return. I lost touch with him so didn't manage to get "Cancel" and "Bypass" labels for the footswitches. They are rub off rather than water slide and are an off white/creamy colour. I think you can make something like that with a home laser printer now - at the time (about 12 years ago) that wasn't an option.

Voltage? RG's neovibe PCB has an onboard 15V regulator so you can feed it with 14-20V ac or 18-24dc. The audio stages get the 15V, the LFO and lamp driver get the raw rectifier output. Thats the only change he made from the original Univibe. I think I'm feeding mine with about 16V ac, so the lfo/lamp stages are getting about 19V dc I think.

Good luck with your build.

[Tek465b]

R49 on the neovibe(and most other clones too) lamp driver base is 4.7k and on the univibe its 47k, not many people catch this one .
I like the 4.7k better actually. Sure help for slow/less sensitive LDR. my ldr are very sensitive, works wonderfull too.

[Tek465b]

About the fuzz.
Just my personal tweak.
I like a 2n3906 in Q1 with hfe of 110(since its soo hard to get decent Germanium at a decend price), and any germanium on Q2 with a low VBE and preferably high collector capacitance, then i replace the nfb resistor from 100k to 127k .
I use the MP26B germanium on Q2 now, hfe of 45. it's a dream machine.

[Xplorer]

oh ! i see what you mean i have some transistors like this, and used it first in a joe bonamassa fuzz clone, but it's desireable for some other kind of tones than Hendrix i'd say.
will try again though.

[steveb]

I built a Neovibe in 1996 back when RG's was the only "how to" available. Tweaks here & there like using the 4.7k vs the 47k resistor & a couple of other things. The Forum Vibe seems to have much more versatility, but, like I said, I built what I could find at the time. Here's an old gut shot.



I also did a few sound clips back around 2007 or so & you can find them on this page. http://sbkustoms.com/music/fx/Neovibe.htm


BTW, I also built the 69 clone used for the clips & still use it to this day. It was called the Kama Sutra 69 & was an easy build. The Neovibe has been replaced with a Meg-Vibe.


Steve

[yladrd61]

I recently changed the .1uf input cap on the Blue Fuzz to .015uf much better now also biased Q2 at 5.75

[timmfun]

R49 on the neovibe(and most other clones too) lamp driver base is 4.7k and on the univibe its 47k, not many people catch this one .
I like the 4.7k better actually. Sure help for slow/less sensitive LDR. my ldr are very sensitive, works wonderfull too.

I hope you eventually learned between when you posted and now 6 years later that it is 4.7k on the univibe too (the series base one, not the one base to ground). The series one is not 47k like you said. Not many people caught that on the original univibe schematic that it looks like it says 47k but there is a small dot between the 4 and the 7 so it's 4.7k. Oh and I have an all original 1968 univibe and it is 4.7k verified. 47k will be weak, no wonder people have probs w the forum vibe and other wrong clone schematics.

[timmfun]

R49 on the neovibe(and most other clones too) lamp driver base is 4.7k and on the univibe its 47k, not many people catch this one .
I like the 4.7k better actually. Sure help for slow/less sensitive LDR. my ldr are very sensitive, works wonderfull too.

This is false, the univibe used 4.7k series base resistor too, not 47k, not many people catch that on the orig univibe schematic that it says 4.7k but looks like 47k to most people so they miss that like you did, because the . period between the 4 and 7 are hard to see. I also own original vintage univibe and it is 4.7k. If you use 47k it will be weak, no wonder you and other had problems using wrong 47k

[RedHouse]

...no wonder people have probs w the forum vibe and other wrong clone schematics.

Wrong clone schematics?, I don't think you know what you're talking about friend.

https://www.classicamplification.com/fv ... Driver.jpg