ThorpyFX reboots and refines its fabulous articulate ER-2 Uni-Vibe - now in Block 2 Edition with more headroom, better power handling and even better articulation

So my good friend Adrian Thorpe had a tough time of it towards the end of last year - where he was forced to retire several models at the time - owing to the evolving RoHS hard ban on Vactrols - or LDR’s (Light Dependent Resistors) as they contained tiny trace amount of a carcinogenic compound - cadmium sulphide. This applies to Europe and much of the rest of the world, but currently not the Americas. It does mean that pretty much every authentic lightbulb Uni-Vibe is impacted - which is why you’ve seen some of those being taken off the market. We also saw Chase Bliss retire 5 of its pedals earlier this year for the same reason.

The fact that this hit Thorpy in the fall of last year - meant he had more time to get in front of the challenge - so as he retired the old ER-2 he was already working on ways to re-engineer the circuit without those specific RoHS sensitive components. My friend Daniel Thornhill at Fjord Fuzz was grappling with the same problem a little later on. And interestingly - both those geniuses found fairly similar solutions to the challenge. While Thorpy is first to market with his new ER-2 Block 2 by a country mile!

This was still a relatively difficult birth - as removing a core component can have some very far reaching impacts - and whole other related parts of the circuit need re-developing and tweaking too - which typically involved a slew of new and further components. In any case the brief was always to get to the exact same tonality as the original - where the different circuit components utilised here brought interesting advantages in other parts of the circuit and overall function too.

So the ER-2 Block 2 (Aviation Prototyping Speak!) delivers quite a bit more headroom, and also plays even nicer with harsher fuzzes and super high gain pedals. The original did pretty well in maintaining a crisp articulation pretty much regardless of what you threw at it - but the newer one has even higher tolerances. The final bonus is that current draw has been reduced from a peak surge of around 300mA, and idling at 150mA - down to just 50mA!

So the new devices sounds identical to the old one and has some performance improvements. While I’ve still got a soft spot for the original’s artwork - so I’m still happy with my original!

Controls - Intensity (Photocell Luminosity), Offset (Photocell Lit to Unlit / Dark phase Offset), Speed (Pulse / Throb Rate), Volume (Output), Vibrato / Chorus Footswitch, On / Off Footswitch.

The ER-2 Block 2 Uni-Vibe is available from the ThorpyFX Webstore for a crisp £300 near enough, and is circa $325 for our American cousins.

Here are some further notes from my hands-on review of the original :

"The most unique control on the ER-2 is the (Dark) Offset which you can think of as being a little like waveform symmetry or Attack/Release times between the Lit and Unlit phases of the photocell illuminations. So where Speed sets the kind of BPM / Pulse of the illuminations, the Offset allows you to adjust the unlit to lit ratio - which further helps you refine the character of the throb. Ultimate throb can be also found on this dial between 2 & 3 o’c - at least for my rig - where Offset is currently set to just before 3 o’c."

"Interestingly both Andy (Martin) and I seemed to have ended up at the exact same settings for Intensity and Offset - so there must surely be something in that!"
 
"Speed / Rate further impacts on the degree of throb - where I actually mostly have that dial either fully dialled back or at around 3 o’c - which latter position is where I get my ultimate throb - so Intensity @ c 2 o’c, Offset @ c 3 o’c, and Speed also at 3 o’c. You can then adjust Volume to taste - where around 3 o’c is about right for me."