So I recently borrowed/stole another vintage Shin-ei Uni-Vibe from the studio where I work part time (equipment maintenance). All I can say is WHOA! My usual setting for Trower/Hendrix (and Gilmour) was waaaaaaay too aggressive and pronounced. Had to back the Intensity control down two full notches to get back to familiar territory.
In comparing this unit with my home-brewed clone (based upon the previous Shin-ei unit I borrowed/stole), the fixed component values didn't seem to be that far off even with 10% resistor and cap tolerances through 40 years of aging. Didn't beta test the transistors, obviously, but I would expect them to be similar. Using a 1 kHz sine wave as a test signal between this unit and my clone, it appears the second-stage phaser is "hotter" as is the fourth-stage phaser/vibrato section.
This reinforces my hypothesis that the LSRs were not matched originally and have gone through inconsistent aging, resulting in some units being "sweeter" than others with more pleasant lumpiness and lopsidedness from the beat frequencies. (Not a surprising result when comparing vintage gear built with looser components and, sometimes, what was available at the time.)
Back to the Lou-nivibe in the ModFactor (which I recently acquired again): in direct comparisons, it's just too "perfect" without the lumps! I don't know how else to describe it. Sure, it gets hippy trippy but no where near the stoner haze of yesteryear. IMHO, having the four stages with "adjustable sloppiness" for the modeled LSRs would provide the characteristic sound of the original and should justify a new algorithm for the H9. Thanks for your further consideration (and putting up with my rants).
