Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe Pedal!!!

[Ripdivot]

I removed my switch at one point and when I reinstalled it , it broke. The threaded portion came apart from the housing but I managed to get it back together. Be very careful not to over tighten these switches. They are actually pretty cheap. They should be durable if left alone though.

[modsquad]

Just put a volume pot in between switch and output

[mat]

I bought the cool cat vibe and it sounds really good to me ! The only problem was (as mentioned) the huge volume boost. I drilled and added a 16mm 100k alpha pot on next to the output jack (fits nicely) and it works just wonderfully. What I did was I cutted the shielded wire coming from the circuit board to the footswitch in the middle. Then I soldered the shiels together and that conjuction to the side lug of the pot. The wire coming from the pcb I soldered to the other side of the pot. The wire going to the footswitch I soldered to the middle lug of the pot. I did not have to add extra wire for the mod. Easy cheap and most usefull mod 

[Matt505]

Check this out:
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Danelectro-Cat-Pack?sku=501248
$140 worth of pedals for $99, free shipping...so $33/pedal is pretty good!
Vibe, Tremolo, and Transparent OD

[Ben N]

There are some nice demos of the trem on u-toob. That looks like a great deal.

[DougH]

Check this out:
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Danelectro-Cat-Pack?sku=501248
$140 worth of pedals for $99, free shipping...so $33/pedal is pretty good!
Vibe, Tremolo, and Transparent OD

Thanks for the link! That looks pretty cool!

[obblitt]

Errr.. So about this censored link? Is there a reason? I don't really understand... And I would love to re-house one of these.

Maybe do a two-speed upgrade with a ramp up/down type mod...

[Ben N]

OK, got mine from Instrumentalley.com (thanks for the tip, Doug). First, the vendor: A little slow-moving, but I did order just before New Years, so a little extra patience is only fair. When I asked about it, they responded immediately and refunded me the shipping, and, anyway, now I have it, at what I'm sure is the best price around.
Had it on the pedalboard over the weekend, and I am digging it. To my surprise, I don't find it at all redundant with a P90-style Maxon phaser--actually, more so with the vibish settings on an Electric Mistress, which is for now off the board (not enough space). I think I have to learn to play Cold Shot or Bridge of Sighs or some such thing to really get the measure of this thing. I'm also working on placement in the chain. So far that is post BD-2 (which in general likes to be first) and fuzz (the vibe gets lost in the fuzz), but pre-OD. I do find the volume boost to be, well, startling, so I think I will have to wangle at least a trimpot, or perhaps a fixed voltage divider in there to tamp it down. But for now I am really enjoying it.

[craigjames]

i picked this thing up today for $25 !!!!!! i couldnt say no.. anyways, i want to fix the vol problem with out sticking a pot in there, could i just put a resistor in its place?? and if so what value? yhanks dddddduuuuuudddddeeeeessssssssss

[sevenisthenumber]

just use a trim pot. leave it inside.

[majormono]

As an easy fix for the volume problem, a simple 27k Resistor from the FX in pin on the switch to ground did the trick for me.

[johnadon]

Hope this thread isn't too old to resurrect, but I'm a little bit stumped at something I've done - and probably done wrong.

I wanted to get rid of the volume bump, so I used a meter to find the FX board out to add a resistor. The switch confused me at first because I didn't realize it was installed with the throws sideways. Anyway, I used a pot to find a value that matched the effect on volume and effect off volume. When I measured the resistance I'd inserted to achieve the match, I discovered it was only 300 ohms. I inserted a 300 ohm resistor and the effect was the same with the volume being approximately equivalent. My question: Is this even possible? It would seem to me that the effect-on would be nearly inaudible with such a small resistance to ground. I remetered the switch and board just to make sure, and I'm almost positive I chose the correct pin on the switch as the FX board out. (It was the bottom right one, if anyone remembers their peek inside the casing.) I was expecting to have to use a much larger value resistor more in line with the 27K mentioned in an earlier post in the thread.

If anyone has any suggestions as to why this is even working, I'd sure appreciate it. It works fine as I've got it, but it just doesn't make any sense. Thanks!

[DWBH]

I don't know if I understood you question correctly (I need some sleep), but here it goes:
You put a 300 ohms in series with the output signal?

If you want to decrease the level (volume), you have to use two resistors set up in voltage divider fashion.
A volume pot is a variable voltage divider. What you want is a fixed voltage divider.

You need values for R1 and R2.

[johnadon]

Well, no... I didn't put a 300 ohm in series. I ran it from the output of the effect (our what I thought was the output of the effect board, anyway) to ground. This really should have made it almost inaudible from everything I've ever tinkered with. I will try a voltage divider to ground, but I think I'm probably overlooking some bigger point. The 300 ohms to ground should have been almost functionally nearly equivalent to a wire to ground from the output if any of the other circuits I've built are any indicator. (Actually I tried running a straight wire to ground from the same point and it did indeed shunt the signal entirely. I'm still thinking I must be missing something about the wiring of the footswitch although I can't imagine what it could be. I'm used to using double pole, double throw in the millenium fashion so maybe there's something about 3-pole switch bypass wiring I'm not following.

I will certainly try, and thanks much! This is such basic stuff, I can't believe I'm having trouble with it. It's probably all those tiny little SMD components making me dizzy when I'm looking at the regular, fun-size parts.

[dubs]

One cool easy mod if you rehouse it would be to add an expression pedal output. That would be nice. I'll do that when I get one.

[64fx]

I have a friend who just got a Mojo Vibe, so of course I had to compare my Cool Cat Vibe to it.  I really like my Cool Cat, but the Mojo Vibe blew it away (which I expected).  The Cool Cat seemed very dark compared to the Mojo.  Any ideas on how to "brighten" it?  I haven't opened mine up yet, but I'm assuming it's all surface mount parts, so I'm guessing that replacing caps and resistors would be a pain.

[DWBH]

There are some normal size electro caps in there, but most of it is SMD.
I just did the delay and blinking LED mods yesterday. It rules.

[DougH]

Reviving an old thread here...

I finally picked up a Cool Cat Vibe last night from my local Sam Ash. I really love this thing- very nice vibe. I played with it for an hour or two last night.

They didn't have any left on the shelf so I bought their display model from them, the one under the glass counter. I stopped by their "demo area" on the way out. They had one set up on a pedal board that I had been trying out. I wanted to make sure it worked. It did, but it didn't sound as good as the "demo" unit. It did not have as much of the phasey "swish" and had more pitch bend. I tried lowering the "mix" but it just sounded weak. So I swapped them and took the demo unit home. I didn't remember the pics in this thread, but figured it probably had a trim pot that could be adjusted, which it did of course. But it requires some disassembly to get to it so I'm glad I took home the "good" one.

Anyway, I found instant Robin Trower sounds by dialing the speed down a little and dialing up the intensity. When you dial up the intensity, you can really hear the "wobble" and it is *very* deep sounding. I was playing through my modded 100W Windsor and the pulsating bass response was just awesome. The volume bump doesn't really bother me. Sometimes, modulation fx need a little bump as they can sound lower than unity as the LFO cycles. In fact, when I built my Phase 90 I tweaked it for a little volume bump as well. The delay is interesting, but doesn't bother me either. Most of the time I turn fx on and leave them on. I don't switch on/off during songs. And if it helps preserve the bulb life, then that's a good thing AFAIC.

Right now I'm really loving this thing. And at $59 I question whether I'm going to even bother with the EZ Vibe, although I may get curious at some point.

[jacobyjd]

Reviving an old thread here...

I finally picked up a Cool Cat Vibe last night from my local Sam Ash. I really love this thing- very nice vibe. I played with it for an hour or two last night.

They didn't have any left on the shelf so I bought their display model from them, the one under the glass counter. I stopped by their "demo area" on the way out. They had one set up on a pedal board that I had been trying out. I wanted to make sure it worked. It did, but it didn't sound as good as the "demo" unit. It did not have as much of the phasey "swish" and had more pitch bend. I tried lowering the "mix" but it just sounded weak. So I swapped them and took the demo unit home. I didn't remember the pics in this thread, but figured it probably had a trim pot that could be adjusted, which it did of course. But it requires some disassembly to get to it so I'm glad I took home the "good" one.

Anyway, I found instant Robin Trower sounds by dialing the speed down a little and dialing up the intensity. When you dial up the intensity, you can really hear the "wobble" and it is *very* deep sounding. I was playing through my modded 100W Windsor and the pulsating bass response was just awesome. The volume bump doesn't really bother me. Sometimes, modulation fx need a little bump as they can sound lower than unity as the LFO cycles. In fact, when I built my Phase 90 I tweaked it for a little volume bump as well. The delay is interesting, but doesn't bother me either. Most of the time I turn fx on and leave them on. I don't switch on/off during songs. And if it helps preserve the bulb life, then that's a good thing AFAIC.

Right now I'm really loving this thing. And at $59 I question whether I'm going to even bother with the EZ Vibe, although I may get curious at some point.

I was really tempted to pick one up last week--I ended up getting an RC-2 instead, but that's a different story.

If I come across a used one, I might check it out, but the allure of DIY will lead me to building my own, eventually. The trick will be deciding among Easy, Forum, or Neo to build

[DougH]

Well I have an EZ Vibe PCB, which I've had for ten years (or since the EZ Vibe was created) and I still haven't built the damn thing.  This Cool Cat definitely scratches my "vibe itch" though...