Morning earworm: Bridge of Sighs, Robin Trower. This one has been lurking around in my head for a few days now, and for a reason. That distinctive swirling, trippy guitar sound comes from an oddball pedal known as the Univox Uni-Vibe. A curious thing, the Uni-Vibe - it isn't really a chorus, or a phaser, or a rotary speaker simulator, but some weird hybrid of them all, with its own unique sound. Trower is most readily identified with it; Hendrix had one, and a few others.
And I just scored one on eBay :D
OK, actually I got a newer model made by Voodoo Labs, a faithful reproduction but of much sturdier and more reliable construction - this was 1960's technology, after all. Still, it represents among other things the final piece of my new pedalboard, which will hopefully be up and running when we resume gigging next month.
Looking back, I notice with some amusement that I have come full circle with my stage rig. Twenty-five years ago I hit the road with a 1976 Fender Strat, a homemade pedalboard containing a volume pedal, Vox CryBaby Wah, Ibanez Tube Screamer, MXR Flanger, and an old Univox tape delay, run into a MusicMan HD-130 Reverb amp with a MusicMan 4x12 cabinet. Over the years this has evolved through a variety of guitars, amps, and multi-fx units, including several which ran direct to the PA, using no amp at all. Today - technically within the next month - I have assembled what I consider the best sounding system to date: a 1996 Fender Deluxe Strat Plus, a homemade pedalboard containing a volume pedal, Vox 847A Wah, Boss CS-3 Compressor, Soundblox Classic Distortion (set on the Tube Screamer model), Voodoo Labs Micro-Vibe, and a Boss RC-20 Loop Station, running into a Digitech TSR-24S multi-fx (for modulation and delay), feeding into the very same 30-year-old MusicMan HD-130 Reverb amp with a Peavey 4x12 cabinet.
I realize this means absolutely nothing to most of you - lol - but I am stoked. Maybe I should do a little video when I get this all together to explain what all of these gadgets do. In the meantime, thanks for your patience :D
The musician has three disciplines: the disciplines of the hands, the head and the heart.
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