ZVex Lo-Fi Junky

The ZVex Lo-Fi Junky is a family of pedals from ZVex built around one idea: take a clean, compressed guitar signal and blend it with a smashed, low-fidelity, warbled copy of itself. The result sits somewhere between a chorus, a vibrato and a Leslie speaker, with the grit of an ancient radio transmission rather than the sheen of a conventional modulation pedal¹²³.

There are two main branches. The Lo-Fi Loop Junky, designed by Zachary Vex, is a 20-second analog phrase-sampling looper whose playback is deliberately degraded: very low fidelity, a frequency response that cuts off at 2.6 kHz, brick-wall compression, hiss, distortion, and a warped-record vibrato⁴. The Instant Lo-Fi Junky, designed by engineer Joel Korte, emulates those sounds in real time with no looping onboard, using a different set of components to combine compression and vibrato effects⁵⁶.

Between chorus, vibrato and Leslie

Guitar.com's chorus buying guide is direct about where this pedal sits: "Not a true chorus pedal as such, the ZVex Lo-Fi still warrants a place on this list due to it's warm, warbling sound"¹⁰. The same guide describes a sound that skirts between chorus, vibrato and Leslie, and calls it "arguably the best vintage-styled pedal on the market"¹⁰.

The character comes from the source material. On the Loop Junky, playback runs through a chip originally designed for something called a voicecorder, a part made for children's toys, note-taking and gravesites messages guaranteed to last over 100 years¹¹. Zachary Vex explained in a Stompbox Book interview what that chip does to a guitar:

The vibrato side comes from varying the voltage on the chip during playback, which produces vibrato and a slowed-down, old tape recorder sound¹¹. On That Pedal Show, the technology was described as somewhat similar to a bucket brigade, with no analog to digital conversion⁸. Mick used a Lo-Fi Loop Junky for adding noise and soundscape textures rather than rhythmical loops, and Dan pointed to its modulation feature as sounding like a bit of tape going round or a record player⁸.

The Instant Lo-Fi Junky carries the same character without the recording stage. ZVEX describes it as a way to "Achieve new haunting chorus sounds and pulsating vibrato"¹², and the Vexter version's copy invites you to "mix your sparkly clear compressed signal with the smashed, lo-fidelity warbled signal"¹. Pedal of the Day summed it up as "Funky compression, rich vibrato and lush, swirling chorus make this pedal a real 3-in-1 masterpiece"¹³.

The controls

The Instant Lo-Fi Junky carries six controls: Volume, Tone, Depth, Speed, Comp/Lo-Fi and a wave shape control¹⁴.

The Comp/Lo-Fi control is the heart of the pedal. MusicRadar's reviewer explained it as a blend: "to the left you get punchy clean compression (ideal for boosting your picking), and to the right you get lo-fi modulation"¹⁵. Premier Guitar calls the same knob a Mix control for moving between full-compression and full-vibrato⁵. Pedal of the Day found that "Playing with the Comp/Lo-Fi knob will yield some interesting and fun sounds as well, with each side sounding fantastic on its own when pushed to the max"¹³.

One detail worth knowing: the Tone control only affects the sound of the modulation and does nothing in Comp mode¹⁵.

On the Lo-Fi Loop Junky, the vibrato has its own speed and depth controls, allowing what Analog Man's page describes as a vibrato/chorus/Leslie-like shimmer, from very slow for warped-record effects to very fast for jiggly playback⁹.

The Lo-Fi Loop Junky and its variants

The Lo-Fi Loop Junky came first. Zachary Vex said the design took him three years to finish, starting from a prototype built from a Radioshack kit, with discoveries from the first day still being included in the final design¹¹. It records 20-second phrases and plays them back through the voicecorder chip with all its limitations⁴.

The Instant Lo-Fi Junky followed. Premier Guitar reports that "Engineer Joel Korte designed the Instant Lo-Fi Junky by reverse-engineering Vex's original Lo-Fi Loop Junky circuit," but with a different set of components⁵. Guitar Pedal X notes it was Joel Korte's predecessor to his Warped Vinyl, from his time working with Zachary Vex¹⁶. MusicRadar describes the Instant as based on the Lo-Fi Loop Junky, minus the looping¹⁵.

The family also includes one-of-a-kind hand painted pieces. In 2016, ZVEX released the "Hungry Like the Instant Lo-Fi Junky," a one-of-a-kind hand painted pedal by Colin Bridges [CFB] with parts otherwise identical to the Instant Lo Fi Junky². A Daniel Buettner hand painted Lo-Fi Loop Junky, the EE086, carried parts otherwise identical to the Lo-Fi Loop Junky and is now sold out¹⁷.

The Vertical Instant Lo-Fi Junky

The Instant Lo-Fi Junky had been around for a few years as of 2019⁶, and that February Zachary Vex shared a photo of a new vertical edition of the pedal⁶. The new version is vertical in layout while retaining the same circuit as the original⁶. MusicRadar described it as "exactly the same as the original, but in a more pedalboard-friendly orientation"¹⁸, and Guitar World noted it still features the lo-fidelity, warbly chorus/vibrato tone along with volume, tone, depth, speed, comp/lo-fi and wave shape controls¹⁴.

ZVEX states that the parts inside Vexter Series pedals are identical to the hand painted pedals³. See also the ZVEX Vexter Instant Lo-Fi Junky and the Z.Vex Vertical Instant Lo-Fi Junky.

What reviewers made of it

MusicRadar's review of the Instant Lo-Fi Junky lists "Great selection of wigged-out effects" among its reasons to buy, with the overall verdict¹⁵:

The same review adds a caveat for players after conventional sounds: "If you're after more traditional sounds, there are straight vibrato pedals that'll do the job better"¹⁵.

On That Pedal Show, Mick's verdict on the Lo-Fi Loop Junky was mixed for a different reason: it "sounds amazing," but he had to stop using his because he needed a loop that would stay in time, which requires digital sound and usability⁸.

Videos

Click to load

Questions