Electro-Harmonix Good Vibes

The Electro-Harmonix Good Vibes is a compact analog chorus/vibrato pedal that recreates the classic 1960s Uni-Vibe sound in a modern, pedalboard-friendly box. Like the original Uni-Vibe, it uses photocells to create its chorus and vibrato, which Electro-Harmonix says produces "a warm, undulating, liquid groove for a sound and response that's true to the classic design"¹.

Released in 2015, the Good Vibes holds a particular place in the EHX range. As Premier Guitar's reviewer put it, "the Good Vibes is the company's first accessibly-priced, photocell-driven Uni-Vibe-style modulation pedal"²¹. It sits among a crowded field of Uni-Vibe-inspired pedals, from the Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe and Fulltone MDV3 to the JHS Pedals Unicorn V2 and TC Electronic Viscous Vibe, but it does so at a lower price than most photocell designs.

A photocell Uni-Vibe in a compact pedal

The Good Vibes is built around the same idea as the 1960s Univox Uni-Vibe: a photocell-based phase-shift topology, a four-stage optical vibrato circuit in which light-dependent cells shape the modulated signal¹⁵. That original circuit design is what gives Uni-Vibe-style pedals their characteristic swirl, and modern versions of it, the Good Vibes included, come in compact, pedalboard-friendly enclosures rather than the large original housing⁶.

A Chorus/Vibrato switch selects between the two modes. Electro-Harmonix describes the difference plainly: "When set to Vibrato, the Good Vibes delivers pure pitch-modulation. When set to Chorus, the Good Vibes delivers a lush, vibe-like chorus"¹. The vibrato mode is the pure pitch-bend sound players associate with the Uni-Vibe's vibrato setting, while the chorus mode blends the modulated signal with the dry signal for the thicker, phased chorus texture of the Uni-Vibe's chorus setting.

The pedal also carries boosted power rails, which the maker says give extended headroom and definition¹, and it sits in a rugged, compact die-cast chassis¹. When the effect is engaged, the LED lights, and the footswitch toggles between effect and bypass mode¹.

At launch, Delicious Audio's Brandon Stoner offered a measured verdict on the pedal as a whole⁷:

The controls

The Good Vibes keeps its control set small, with three knobs, two switches and an expression jack¹.

The expression jack is the most flexible part of the pedal. This 1/4" jack accepts a TRS expression pedal connector or a Tip-Sleeve 0-5V control voltage input¹. The Exp Speed-Intensity switch then decides what that source controls: "When this switch is set to SPEED, the connected expression source controls the speed of modulation. When this switch is set to INTENSITY, the connected expression source controls the modulation depth"¹.

That makes the pedal workable two ways. A player who wants to swell the speed with their foot for a Leslie-style ramp can set the switch to SPEED, while a player who wants to keep the rate fixed and pull the depth in and out for a subtler pulse can set it to INTENSITY. Premier Guitar's reviewer noted that "the switch for assigning it to speed or intensity is right there with the volume, intensity, speed, and chorus/vibrato controls"².

Power and connections

The Good Vibes runs from the included 9.6VDC-200mA power adapter¹, and Guitar Interactive Magazine reported at launch that it is "powered by a standard center negative 9V power supply, which is included"⁴. MusicRadar's launch coverage also noted it can run on a nine-volt battery³. Current draw is 45mA¹.

Audio connections are simple: one 1/4" input jack, one 1/4" output jack, and the 1/4" expression jack on the control side¹.

Where it came from and what it costs

The Good Vibes is a selectable chorus or vibrato pedal that Electro-Harmonix says delivers "classic 1960's tone and vibe"¹. The current EHX product page lists it at $165.10 USD¹, Premier Guitar gives a street price of $137.40², and the UK RRP at launch was £115³.

The pedal arrived into a market already full of Uni-Vibe interpretations, including compact options like the Danelectro DJ-15 Chicken Salad Vibrato Mini and the Sabbadius Tiny Vibe, and larger photocell designs like the Fulltone Custom Shop Mini DejaVibe Mk II and the DryBell Vibe Machine V-2. Within EHX's own range, it was later joined by the Eddy, a bucket-brigade chorus/vibrato pedal announced in December 2020 at a $99 street price, which takes a different circuit approach to similar territory.

For a player weighing the Good Vibes against other vibrato pedals, the essentials are these: it is a true bypass, photocell-based analog chorus/vibrato with an expression input that can be assigned to either speed or depth, in a compact die-cast chassis, at a price below most other photocell vibe designs¹².

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