The Voodoo Vibe is the crowning achievement in Roger Mayer’s long history of guitar effect building. As expected, the Voodoo Vibe gracefully tackles all your standard tremelo, vibrato, and chorus sounds but throws in a few unexpected tonal twists which end up catapulting this unit into the stratosphere of modulation devices. After three weeks of solid testing at the Geek Testing Facility, we had a hard time letting go of this one.
First off, this thing is built like a tank. The rugged aluminum housing should withstand anything that mere mortals could ever throw at it. The quality of construction both inside and out is impeccable. Controls are thoughtfully laid out with plenty of room for stomping without interfering with the Voodoo Vibes numerous settings. Controls are well marked and the beautiful clean lines of the silkscreened artwork is a joy to look at. With 7 knobs to fiddle with, the range of tonal control over the Voodoo Vibe seems practically endless. You’ve got a single knob that clicks between the three modulation modes of Tremelo, Vibrato, and Chorus. Another knob switches between 3 sets of rate ranges for both sine and triangle waveforms with each of those six ranges being dialed in by a separate fine speed control knob. The intensity and output knobs controls the amount of effect and the overall output respectively. This is the point where most modulation boxes stop and this is where the Voodoo Vibe starts getting interesting! The next two knobs separate the Mayer unit from all the other zillions of boxes out there. The Symmetry knob basically controls the modulation so that the effect sounds as if it is speeding up at one end or the other of its sweep range. The Bias Knob acts a a filter tuner and is used to dial in sweet spots to achieve different tonal colors. Subtle tweaks with both these ingenious additions yields and incredible amount of tonal colors and modulation rhythms to the Voodoo Vibe and is what pushed this stompbox over the top in terms of sheer manipulation.
Even with these unfamiliar controls, the Guitar Geek staff was happily calling up all manner of wacky sounds within minutes. Everything from detuned wobbliness and helicopter choppiness to seasick bends are well within the grasp of the VooDoo Vibe. The tweakability of the this box is absolutely mindblowing and countless hours pass in the pursuit of yet another cool sound. After leaving some of the more demented sounds behind us we steered the VooDoo Vibe into the recognizable realm of traditional tremelo, chorus, and vibrato sounds. This is where the VooDoo Vibe rises to the top of the heap and all it’s competitors take a distant second seat.
The VooDoo’s Chorus ended up impressing us the most. Not only were the sounds unbelievably rich and organic, but they also had a depth of character that just isn’t found anywhere else. The effect blends in with your guitar tone with almost no coloration whatsoever. It’s rare when a chorus effect actually becomes part of your sound rather than resting on top of your signal with an annoying metallic sheen. This pure analog delight here!
Next up was the Vibrato. This highly misunderstood effect has been overshadowed by the ever popular tremelo for years and has even had it’s good name misrepresented on a number of popular amplifiers. If anything can set the story straight on the vibrato effect it’s the VooDoo vibe. This box captures the classic detuned vibrato bubbliness in such a grand fashion that I can certainly see a few other manufacturers coming out with their own takes on this in the new few years. Once again subtle tweaks to the Symmetry and Bias knobs yielded drastic results here. Whether you want subtle shimmers of pulsating waves or a completely dizzy detuning this box will deliver.
The Voodoo’s Tremelo nailed down all the expected Fender and Vox sounds but what really perked our ears was the addition of some new variations to this classic effect. Those of you tired of standard pulse of the traditional tremelo will certainly warm up to the Voodoo Vibes new sonic treats. With a minimum of effort we were creating strange echo-like blips, mysterious volume swells, and strange off-kilter rhythmic stutterings that would normally only be possible if we were playing through two separate tremelo pedals at once. Not only were these variations on a familiar theme a lot of fun to play along to, they also inspired a lot of great riff and song ideas. The only complaint here was that the Tremelo portion of the Voodoo seemed to be a little undernourished in the volume department in comparison the the other two effects.
Before you go out shopping for your next stompbox be forewarned! You’re not going to find a better sounding chorus, vibrato, or tremelo box than the Voodoo Vibe. Best of all it’s also ANALOG! Another huge bonus is that the Voodoo Vibe is dead quiet! Those of you who may wince at the Voodoo Vibe’s price tag may want to start saving especially after adding up the similar cost of buying 3 different sub par chorus, vibrato, or tremelo pedals.