Fulltone Mini DejaVibe Vibrato/Chorus

The crew over at Fulltone has been a leading innovator of modern-day effects that precisely emulate some of the most sought-after and classic effects from the 60’s and 70’s, going through painstaking detail to faithfully recreate these incredible sounds and tones. One of these effects is the Uni-Vibe, made famous by David Gilmour and Jimi Hendrix, among others. Fulltone’s Mini DejaVibe captures that sound almost perfectly, but in a nice, pedalboard-sized enclosure, and featuring a couple more modern upgrades.

Volume starts the controls off, and is a great option for a vibe pedal, as some of the older models has a bit of tone suck to them. Not the case with the MiniDeja, as it sports a good bit of volume control for any musical situation. Intensity has a good range here, too, able to do a multitude of settings, from a slight, subtle, barely audible wave al the way up to a big, beefy, pulsing monster vibe or chorus sound, depending on your settings. The big fat knob at the bottom of the pedal is a Speed control, and the geniuses at Fulltone decided to make it actually useful while in a live setting by putting a larger-than-normal knob, for easy foot manipulation while on stage. This comes in handy in so many ways, whether it’s live, in practice or recording your favorite part in the studio, this Speed knob is a great feature to have on a pedal of this nature (plus, there’s a nice LED that pulses with the speed, letting you know what adjustments you need to make to match your tempo).

The two toggle switches up top play key roles here as well: one selects Modern or Vintage, the other from Vibrato and Chorus modes. The Modern setting features a bigger output boost and a bit of a brighter sound than its counterpart, the Vintage mode, which boasts some darker, warmer tones reminiscent of the Uni-Vibe sounds of past classic decades. On the other side, the Vibrato mode is more of a pitch-bending vibe sound, while the Chorus aspect adds some phasing into the mix, to get those Jimi/Trower sounds we all dig. All of these toggles work together with the other controls to create a gorgeous array of musical soundscapes, capable of really taking your sound to another level altogether.

Using only the highest-quality parts for this stunning recreation of a classic (especially the custom-made, original-spec photocells inside), Mike and the Fulltone crew have really put together a beautiful-sounding (and aesthetically=pleasing) vibe pedal, one that really does rival the sounds heard on so many great recordings over the years. There are others that have tried to recreate this sound, but none have been able to do so as faithfully as Fulltone – if you want to get “the sound”, you’ll need to pick up one of the Mini DejaVibes as soon as you can.