Univibe or Chorus which is it ?

Univibe or Chorus which is it ? - As we discussed last week the difference between Vibrato and Tremolo when it comes to guitar pedals or amps there is a difference and also a lot of confusion. Lets look at Univibes and Chorus pedals, the original Univibe from the Jimi era it actually says on the pedal Chorus and Vibrato ! So here again we have tons of confusion of is a Univibe a Chorus pedal, worse is it a Vibrato pedal. Well like Vibrato Fender amps that where actually tremolo a Univibe is really a phaser circuit a 4 stage phaser to be exact. The UniVibe was designed in 1968 by Japanese company Shin-ei. The idea was to replicate the doppler effect or the sound of a rotating speaker but the result turned out to really sound nothing like a Leslie speaker system or pedal simulator based on time drag. The circuit is basically a 4-stage phaser based on a pulsating light bulb surrounded by four photo cells. But in the end it's a Phaser guitar pedal, and this is far from a Chorus guitar pedal

So now that we have defined the Univibe guitar pedal as a 4 stage Phaser, the chorus guitar pedal the effect is taking guitar signal and mixing it with one or more delayed, pitch-modulated copies of itself. It's a shimmering time delayed pitch modulated beautiful effect not a phaser. If your lucky plug these two fine guitar pedals in line with each other and go back and forth. They sound mmm a bit close in texture if you where stoned....but maybe that was the problem in the late 60s ! 

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