Dunlop Rotovibe
guildenstern
Posts: 92
any tips?
does it really work?
does it provide a good range of tremolo?
thanks.
ah. prices for a second-hand one?
does it really work?
does it provide a good range of tremolo?
thanks.
ah. prices for a second-hand one?
ThisIsNotAnExit
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I always thought it was a rotating speaker effect. Having said that, I would say its pretty good at what it does if Hendrix used one, along with countless other legends.
The Dunlop Rotovibe is different again. It looks like a Cry Baby wah-wah pedal but it has red casing. It has a setting switch on the side of the case, between the usual 'vibe chorus and vibrato. I had one for a while and stupidly sold it. It was lovely.
The effect I always wanted was a Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe. I tried one once in a shop. Oooh, it did the job.
http://www.rocknrollvintage.com/prodima ... r%20ec.jpg
(That one won't parse, you'll have to paste it)
Here's Dunlop (without foot pump):
http://www.pulseonline.com/dunlop/Univibe.jpg
Here's a Rotovibe:
http://www.pulseonline.com/dunlop/jd-4s.gif
And a Voodoo Vibe:
http://www.stevesmusiccenter.com/RMVoodooVibeBig.jpg
Here's the Shin-Ei link, amended (thanks to aNiMal on the techie forum):
http://www.rocknrollvintage.com/prodimages/late%2060's%20early%2070's%20univibe%20w%20foot%20controller%20ec.jpg
Stevie Ray Vaughn used a Fender Rotating speaker (vibrosomething I think) with a different chorusy sound that is less swooshed and more like the tone of a leslie rotating speaker. The Rotovibe is more in this vein than the hendrix sound, but you can get similar tones from the roto vibe just not as thick and phasey (dripping) as the Uni Vibe (voodoo vibe/deja vibe/mojo vibe/) etc original light bulb circuit you get the picture.
Eric Shannon actually has created a fun little phaser in that vein called the Uniphase I'm having a lot of fun with currently. It's essentially a really great sounding phase 90 although this one has the rotation like the univibe. It's really cool and flexible.
A nicer sounding leslie in a box would be the Electro harmonix wiggler, which I would only assume is as cool on an organ as it is with a guitar.
If you look onstage behind Boom and his beautiful Hammond B3 you'll see the spinning top and bottom rotors of Booms Leslie Speaker Cabinets. Boom controls them with a treadle similar to the one on the rotovibe. The hammond organ with it's Leslie cabinet was intended to be a cost effective organ for churches etc without a lot of money. They are tone wheel organs and they were quite complex and ingenious. Once again engineers sought to find a cost effective method of attaining a particular sound and were not completely successful but in thier failure they built something revolutionary, and thus is the brilliance of human enginuity when it comes to the musical instrument.
Unfortunately I have no Idea. I've not heard of it, though it's likely in the same series as the Univox (I believe aslo labeled Shin Ei) Superfuzz and it's probably an overdrive pedal.
The best thing to do might be to email the Roger Mayer company. They might know.
It basically was a volume boost and a bit of distortion involved. They are approximately the size of a Dodge Ram pick up truck!
I had one, but I think Youthinkyou'reold swiped it! I didn't see it when I moved all our stuff, though. I haven't seen it for years, now that I think of it. They weren't necessarily "better" from what I remember,,, they were just "there"!
It didn't do much at low volumes. Mostly a stage pedal in front of Marshall stacks at full volume,,,,,, you know how THEY need a boost!
Think Jimmy Page with his Les Paul and a violin bow and a Marshall live,,,, and there you have it. :cool:
I saw one in the Hendrix Isle of Wight video, too. I think he was Roger Mayer's muse when he was getting going in the business. He went through quite a few of them, apparently, when Mayer was developing them.
They were mostly around in the early '70's,,, foggy days for Who's_pearljam? !
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Isn't that the answer for pretty much everything at the time?
Very cool you had one Bob.
One day we must jam. I will make it to Philly one of these days.
That's true, Paco!
Can you imagine,,,Hendrix, bored with eight 100 watt Marshall stacks turned to 10 lined up on back of the stage.
Looking for something more!
I forgot about that pedal,,, and never really thought much about it till now. I'll have to look for it, but I don't think it's around anymore. Probably worth 10 grand, too! :(
Oh, and I have a Rotovibe. I really never liked it much. It's a decent pedal, but it sucks tone away. It should get a true bypass on it. The Tremelo works pretty well, but doesn't have nearly the sweep of a Deluxe Reverb.
It's basically a wah configuration, switches from tremelo to a univibe effect. The thing I DO like about it is the control of the speed via the pedal, and you can control the sweep with another knob. It sucks up power, too, so you definitely need a power source.
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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I get blown away every time I listen to woodstock, where Hendrix appologises after every song for being out of tune and for the PA not being loud enough.
Gee I wonder why, maybe they should have chained the 1200 watts worth of Hiwatt slaves that Townsend was using into the PA.
I bet she's using that as an OD into the Ampeg rig. Might be really cool on the bass.
Oh, and if you haven't tried it Eric's Uniphase is a modern classic. No tone suckage. Really cool, all it lacks is the speed treadle. I wonder if I could sucker him into building mine into a wah treadle If I could find one.
I was just going to find Eric and order one. I'm on my way to an "all Eric" effects chain!
When I was touring in the seventies,,, the guitar amps and bass were rarely miked, just the vocals,,, so the PA systems were rudimentary.
Big difference from the Stones the other night at the Wachovia center. The best sound I've ever heard! There were no amps or monitors or pedal boards on stage. It was cool,,,, when Ronnie Wood was coming up to a song where he needed a wah,,,, a tech would run out with a wah on a cord and place it out there, Ronnie would use it,, then the guy would grab it and take it off stage.
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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yeah , i was really kind've worried when i saw this in philly.
boom keeps some sort of strange fuzzy blue pet, like a "Furby" on top of his Leslie ...
the rotating speaker is exposed, and i kept thinking ... man if that dumb toy falls in to the cabinet, he's hosed ...
... true to my fears, 2\3rds of the way through the show (Philly) the little fuzzy thing drops and hits the floor ...
... a damn miracle it didn't actually lodge into the speaker cabinet and break the whole fucking thing ...
now THAT would have been a scary noise! ! !
no pets on top of leslies, boom!
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Were you at last week's Philly show? I was there, but I had an altercation and missed half the show,,
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=146908
Long story, but I had problems with drunk frat boys, and one fell and hurt my knee and we all got pulled out,, then they had me in the medical section,, right when they were turning on the X-ray machine, was when the something blew up on the stage at the beginning of Crazy Mary. :eek:
I thought it was the machine,,,, maybe it was the fuzzy bear!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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(......) but it sucks tone away. It should get a true bypass on it. The Tremelo works pretty well, but doesn't have nearly the sweep of a Deluxe Reverb.
does it compress the tone? set it on a middlerange? did you line it close to something that flatten its tone?
He means that when off the pedal is a detriment to your overall sound quality. The bypass is not a good one. Essentially you can do better than the rotovibe.
At least somebody can read my mind!
When the pedal is off, it dampens the signal from the guitar,, a lot in my opinion. I was picky about tone because I played a lot of clean, and a lot of rhythm,, but funky syncopated stuff with the goofy bands I was in. I wasn't too heavy into effects,, but to get just the right color. For lead it was a Fuzz Face, then a Tube Screamer, when they came out or any number of overdrives that are in a trunk somewhere on my third floor now!
The Rotovibe is an "ok" tremelo, "ok" rotary speaker/chorus. If you're playing distorted stuff you'd probably be fine with it,,, but if you want clean Hendrix style univibe sound, it's a start, but like I say, it'll take away some of your guitar's tone before it gets to the amp.
The good thing about it is that it's a wah style, and the pedal controls the speed of the chorus and trem, so that's fun and you don't have to have a separate foot switch for that.
I've heard of modding them, but I never looked into it.
If I remember correctly, there was a Clay Jones mod that changes the whole thing around for the better,,,, but I dunno... Mines in that trunk o'stuff.
Definitely try one with your own rig and listen to it before you buy one.
Good luck!
I now turn the floor over to the effects pedal experts!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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Turn the color knob to about 10 o clock and fuzz it up. It gets thick and gooey. I want to see what it could do with a good octave down.
I have these in my "Musician and Gearhead" collection so far:
Exhausted "Grumpy Cockatiel" switcheroo box
Shannon Overdrive
Shannon Compressor.
Pearlwax's bar tab!
Don't be mankind. ~Captain Beefheart
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for whatever reason, it doesn't get along with my tweakfuzz at all. does fine with the overdrives though i prefer using the phaser into the OD for the swampier thing. the uniphase adds a brightness that i don't like as much when overdriven.
interesting, my amp is darker than yours too I guess an my only fuzziness comes from the EGDM I like it lots. I initially had a problem, then I moved the Uniphase infront of everything and it likes it now, my Morley is too harsh on the top end. One day maybe I'll find an RMC pic wah.
I really do need new tubes though, I'm getting the volume problems a lot now. I do wonder if any of it is due to the attenuator.
I think I'm going to go with the EI's with gold pins.
fuzzes are tempermental little bastards, sort of like children.
is it wha.style?
luckily anything with a pot can be made such with a unique little tool called the TIP third hand.
Also, Eric and I have discussed swapping the middle speed pot with a big rubber knob easily manipulated with your feet.
I've found that this is a cost effective method for speed control, although you really don't have to change that drastically either so the big knob method is quite good at subtle changes once you get used to it.
What kind of sound are you looking to get from the rotovibe the hendrix/trower thing?
i once heard a band, this guy had it in its line and when he kicked in the roto i just went "how good!". now this obviously doesnt fit the dampness in the tone you and ex mentioned before, so i'm just wandering... guess i must give it a try
It's a cool effect no doubt. I just think you can find essentially the same but better tone elsewhere at the same price or cheaper.
Jim Dunlop builds lots of stuff now but they don't always pay close attention to quality over cost effectiveness, they do make some good stuff, but you won't find a cleaner soldier joint inside anyones cases than Eric Shannons stuff.
The rotovibe is a a cool effect though, if you want it, try it out. if it's not for you there are at least 5 other ones you can try that might fit better.