Danelectro Chicken Salad Vibrato Mod (Univibe Conversion)

[Robokiller]

Few have heard of this wonderful little pedal but let me tell you it rocks, it says it's a vibrato pedal though in reality its a univibe clone, and a really good one at that. It uses the same photocell technology as the original and the sound really comes across as the unique warble of the old vintage vibes. Stock, the unit is not that impressive it, kinda sounds like a cheesy phaser but if you mod it you will have a univibe for $30 or less. First you must open up the battery cover and remove the two circuit boards within. On the second one there will be a little black box that has been epoxied, more on that later. To your left you should see a small trimpot, it too is epoxied, remove the adhesive and rotate the pot counter clockwise until it stops then ever so slightly rotate the pot clockwise maybe by 5 degrees or so, this should provide the optimal lamp brightness. Make note of the pot's position. Now move on to the little black box, carefully remove the surrounding epoxy and open the small lid, you should see a lamp and four surrounding photocells, the photocells cant really be moved so leave them there, now one of the keys to the original vibe's warble was the reflective housing that shielded ambient light from the photocells, you can recreate this fairly well by attaching a thin piece of tin foil to the underside of the lid facing downwards. Once the foil is attached carefully poke holes through the four holes on the lid, as these holes join up with posts that keep the lid in place. After all that reassemble the pedal and enjoy heres a clip of the modified chicken salad in action. If there's too much confusion Ill post pics and more samples.

[sjsuismylife]

Can you please post some pics? especially of the new trimpot position....

[Robokiller]

yeah sure ill try to get em up by today

[Robokiller]

forget the pictures, I'm working on putting up a video demonstrating all of the features. Update, just found out danelectro is releasing a metal true bypass updated version of the chicken salad called the cool cat vibe, its got an added mix control which i assume controls the lamp brightness

Check out http://www.coolcattone.com/vibe.html

[vibe]

How did you remove the print out of the case?

[surfblues]

i bought a chicken salad to try your mod. i cant get the pcb board out. the second one that is. is there someway to remove the two control knobs first that lets it come out? i dont want to snap the board and that s the only way i can see getting the second board out. uggh. im anxious to hear back.

[Robokiller]

hey surfblues sorry for not replying sooner, you should have no problem removing the second pc board from the casing simply unscrew everything, carefully seperate the first board from the second but still leave them connected, then carefully tug the bottom board towards you and up and the jacks should slide out, thanks for reminding me though ill post a video soon, maybe tonight if I feel like it

[Skydog]

Hi Robokiller, I'm doing the mod now and also having the stuck problem Surfdude had. It's so tight in there I'm worried about tweaking that second PC board or something. Not sure how the knobs are attached or if I need to remove them. Did you ever make that video? Thanks for reading!

[Skydog]

Well I did it. It was hard to get the second PC board off because the knobs are attached. There's got to be a way to get them off without breaking through the housing like I did, but they wouldn't come off with pliers. It doesn't matter, I may put it in a better housing one day anyway (not that the plastic is so bad actually - the base is metal).

So here's what you have to do: unscrew the boards, get those 2 knobs off somehow or use a hammer and bust through the orange plastic holding them if you plan on putting them in a another housing. There's no way to get the second board out without freeing it from the knobs! That's the missing step (for anyone interested). Once everything is out it is a simple matter to do the rest. The reflector has little effect, I found, but I did it anyway. The real reward is getting to tweak the little bias knob inside. I found a less thick-sounding yet more realistic waveform (of a Shin-Ei Uni-Vibe) at just after the 3 o'clock position. At least for a strat. Any more and it gets too thin. A nice thick sound everyone agrees on is around 2 o'clock. Stock is 1 o'clock. Play with it as it is more of a bias than an intensity control.

Certain positions can accent higher strings and others accent lower strings. Extreme positions are weak in intensity so somewhere between the two extremes gives the best sound. You could avoid the aluminum foil IMO, just do everything else, get out a drill bit, locate the position of the bias knob inside and drill yourself a hole and you can have access to the bias at any time via a phillips-head screw driver. Definitely worth the $40 for the chicken salad, an adaptor and an interesting evening playing with the sound.