Friday, April 19, 2019

Motorola Vibrasonic, something I don't think I've ever seen, or heard of. They seem to have been used to give a more interesting sound effect to a radio, before Stereo was invented, on vacuum tube single speaker radios





In general the feature seems to give more "distance" and some echo to the sound, and maybe back in the twangy guitar era (Duane Eddy, or slow dance do wop, and the Ventures, surf music, and early Elvis type stuff with a couple electric guitars, and a big ol bass) it made the music really liven up on crummy old paper speakers.

I've read that with the right music, a vibrasonic reverb made it sound like the music was in a church, or concert hall, and up until the 60s gospel sold a lot of records... Aretha and Elvis both were selling gospel albums.

 'Vibrasonic' is just another brand name for the reverb that was popular in that era. Fisher had the 'SpaceXpander'



https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=291446
https://www.ebay.com/itm/163644281526?ul_noapp=true

Hmmmm, I bet Jalopnik, Hagerty, Old Motor, and who ever else are out there aren't doing goofy articles like this about strange old car stuff no one has anymore... but find interesting anyway

5 comments:

  1. GREAT STUFF ----HAD A FEW OF THESE IN THE LATE 1960'S ---24.95 WAS THE COST ..

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  2. I had one that had been factory-installed in my 1966 Plymouth 'Satellite'. Man, what a difference that unit made in the sound of the car's factory-installed AM radio. It truly made the sound that one would hear of music in a concert hall.

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  3. i have a new one never mounted if someone is interested on to buy it please contact me

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  4. My sister put one in her white over red '60 Ford Skyliner. She also changed the interior to black tuck and roll, done on the cheap in Tijuana. What a great car.

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  5. I had a Vibrasonic in my 1951 Ford and my 1965 Ford Ranchero. It was an adjustable mechanical reverb unit. Hit a hard bump and it clang and jangle like crazy for a few moments then recover.

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