Fly Deluxe hardtail w/Virtual Jeff Vibrato Pedal/System
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2023 11:16 pm
...so...I bought a Virtual Jeff a few weeks ago after @mmmguitar had mentioned it a while back—thanks for introducing me to it, Marc! It's effectively a polyphonic pitch-bend pedal with a controller resembling a whammy bar that you double-sided tape to your guitar. I'm still getting used to it, but I did perform a gig with it the other night—you can skip to about 4:20 seconds in to hear the solo with the Virtual Jeff vibrato:
I have no affiliation with FomoFX. My personal opinion is that the Virtual Jeff is pretty cool and very useful in a live performance context. I set the vibrato upper and lower range on the pedal to a subtle setting—again, I'm still getting used to this. I still prefer the feel and response of a Fly with an actual mechanical vibrato system, but for a live performance, however, it's very nice to have this vibrato system, which I can toggle on and off and beat senseless as needed without having to worry about it ever going out of tune! Also, the detune rates of each string are compensated in the DSP, so it's more like a TransTrem—very cool! And it's got a virtual capo too, so I can step on a switch and drop my tuning down—we're going to work up "No More Tears", so I've been rehearsing with my Fly in drop C# standard—minimal artifacts and with distortion you can't even tell!
There were a bunch of Rush fans at this particular gig the other night (in that video, there's one that came up on stage next to me to say "Subdivisions"!), so—during the set—we decided to add the song "Between the Wheels", which uses a vibrato and is in drop D—I usually bring a second Fly that's already in drop D for that song specifically because detuning the low E to D means I have to re-stabilize the floating vibrato, which takes a little time...which we don't really have in this cover band. However, with the Virtual Jeff, since the vibrato is an effect that's not physically connected to my Fly in any way, I retained all of the tuning stability of my hardtail Fly, so I needed only to tune my low E down to D and I was ready to go whammy-ing to my heart's content (no video of that one, unfortunately)!
There’s a 3.5mm TRS cable included with the system to connect the vibrato to the pedal—there's also a wireless Bluetooth adapter, which I don’t feel comfortable using live. I made this snake from Redco, so I can connect my Fly and the vibrato in the same cable run—works great!
All in all—I'm a fan! I don't see the need to stop our Fly spring reproduction efforts (
), but this is a unique tool for what it is and has unique features; I'm glad I own it, and don't see it coming off of my Fly any time soon 
I have no affiliation with FomoFX. My personal opinion is that the Virtual Jeff is pretty cool and very useful in a live performance context. I set the vibrato upper and lower range on the pedal to a subtle setting—again, I'm still getting used to this. I still prefer the feel and response of a Fly with an actual mechanical vibrato system, but for a live performance, however, it's very nice to have this vibrato system, which I can toggle on and off and beat senseless as needed without having to worry about it ever going out of tune! Also, the detune rates of each string are compensated in the DSP, so it's more like a TransTrem—very cool! And it's got a virtual capo too, so I can step on a switch and drop my tuning down—we're going to work up "No More Tears", so I've been rehearsing with my Fly in drop C# standard—minimal artifacts and with distortion you can't even tell!
There were a bunch of Rush fans at this particular gig the other night (in that video, there's one that came up on stage next to me to say "Subdivisions"!), so—during the set—we decided to add the song "Between the Wheels", which uses a vibrato and is in drop D—I usually bring a second Fly that's already in drop D for that song specifically because detuning the low E to D means I have to re-stabilize the floating vibrato, which takes a little time...which we don't really have in this cover band. However, with the Virtual Jeff, since the vibrato is an effect that's not physically connected to my Fly in any way, I retained all of the tuning stability of my hardtail Fly, so I needed only to tune my low E down to D and I was ready to go whammy-ing to my heart's content (no video of that one, unfortunately)!
There’s a 3.5mm TRS cable included with the system to connect the vibrato to the pedal—there's also a wireless Bluetooth adapter, which I don’t feel comfortable using live. I made this snake from Redco, so I can connect my Fly and the vibrato in the same cable run—works great!
All in all—I'm a fan! I don't see the need to stop our Fly spring reproduction efforts (
), but this is a unique tool for what it is and has unique features; I'm glad I own it, and don't see it coming off of my Fly any time soon 
).