Fender Vibratone

The Fender Vibratone is a Leslie speaker style cabinet that was built to look like a regular guitar cabinet. It was manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments.

The Vibratone was made from 1967 to 1972. Early models had a raised Fender logo with tail; later models had a flat trim, with "Vibratone" stenciled across it in red.

implicity of the vibratone

The Vibratone was designed to be used with a regular amplifier. The original Leslie speaker had a built-in power amp, with no preamp. Because of this, the power amp was bypassed. The weight and expensive price of the Leslie speaker are unnecessary for something that wouldn't be used.

Basic principles

Here are some of the basic principles of the Fender Vibratone and what it does:
* There is the 10-inch speaker which fires into a "drum".
* The "drum" or "rotor" is made of Styrofoam and is 15 inches that has a slot cut out of it.
* The drum is mounted onto a piece of plywood by a metal brace, along with a 2-speed motor that controls the speeds of the rotor.
* Both the drum and motor have pulleys connected by a rope-style belt. The motor is what makes the pulleys move and, therefore, turn the rotor.
* The signal comes out through the slot in the drum, dispersing the sound out through vents in the cabinet.
* There are 3 rectangular vents on the side and top. Microphones are placed by these vents to make the effect heard. This can cause many effects to become present including: chorus, flanging, phasing, tremolo, or vibrato.

The footswitch

A double footswitch controlled a two-speed motor and turned the Vibratone on or off. When the Vibratone is turned off, the amplifer's regular speaker signal was switched in; if it was turned on, a special filter sent the highs (treble frequencies) and lows (bass frequencies) to the amplifer's speaker, while the midrange frequencies were sent to the Vibratone.

The slow (chorale or chorus) speed produced a rich, moody, shimmering tone and was measured to be 40 rpm. The fast (tremolo) speed gave a brighter, warbly, more cheerful sound and rotated at about 340 rpm. As the Styrofoam rotor started speeding up or slowing down, the Doppler effect was pronounced. Take a listen to organ players as you can hear the "ramp" of the rotor speeding up or down.

ound and style

The Vibratone can produce a variety of modulation effects. However, the Doppler effect is the correct term for the effect of the Vibratone or a Leslie in general.

Pros and Cons

Unfortunately, even when many consider the Vibratone cabinet to have a pleasing sound, there are good points and bad points in acquiring or owning the cabinet.

One of the major reasons is the cabinet was discontinued in 1972 and no longer made, making it difficult for most to find a Vibratone in a music store.

The rotor's path is sometimes, but not always, a problem with live musicians. When the rotor rotates, the sound travels in a vertical direction, rather than a horizontal path of a Leslie. As a result, the sound is not always projected to the front of a room.

Although the Vibratone has some disadvantages, the Vibratone has changed the sound of electric guitar since the mid-1960s. For one, the cabinet produces a Leslie effect specially for electric guitars. It is also easy to connect, and most of the cabinet is just air, except for the rotor and electronics.

imilar effects

Rotary speaker simulators are an alternative to the Fender Vibratone and serve as a low-cost substitute for guitarists and musicians. Many times, these stompboxes can be just chorus effects.Some major brands of rotary speaker effects include the following:

*Dunlop Univibe
*Dunlop Rotovibe
*Univox Univibe
*Line 6 Roto Machine
*Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
*Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble
*H&K Rotosphere
*Danelectro Rocky Road

ee also

*Leslie speaker

External links

* [http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/vibratone/ Inside The Fender Vibratone] - This web page has everything you need to know and more about the Vibratone.
* [http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/vibratone/Vibratone.pdf 1971 Fender Vibratone Owner's Manual]
* [http://mcmaster.com/ McMASTER-CARR] - An industrial supply webpage that contains parts for the Fender Vibratone