What are some good delay stompboxes?

[mindwave_21]

Hey all!  Haven't posted here in a while, but I came back because of the friendly atmosphere (you should see the Home Recording BBS for hostility  :lol: ).  Anyways, my question is about delay pedals.  I just recently got into playing more electric, and I'm thinking about getting a delay pedal for some spice.  I was listening to Incubus and 311 and dig the mood that the delay creates for their music.  I also think that having an echo would be really cool for some extended jam ambience and such.  Anyways, I'm debating whether or not to actually build a delay, or just sack up and throw down some cash and buy a unit.  I've built a tubescreamer and a Ross compressor in the past, but I think I'd rather spend the upcoming months trying to create music rather than waiting for rare parts to come in stock at mouser... I haven't seen many schems for delay pedals either.  I'm thinking about investing in either a Boss DD-6 or a Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man.  I'm going to use this on a traynor ycv40 (in the effects loop, as I hear that's the way to go...never used the loop before though) with either a JB player strat copy or a heritage h535.  Any advice or experience with these pedals or other easy to find pedals would be appreciated.  Thanks again for the great help!

edit:  I also was wondering how much a non-true bypass pedal will affect my tone if put into the effects loop.  The only pedal I have that isn't 3pdt hooked is my Dunlop Crybaby, which steals my highs so I;m not using it until I can find time to add a dpdt and boost or buy a Teese (haha, that'll be the day when I can afford one)

[Jason Stout]

The pt-80 is a gem!

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pt80.html

[petemoore]

Tapeechoes can be super kool, but aren't exactly user friendly as far as expense and troubles. I've wired tape recorders of different types to get echo, once I draped a 'loose loop', a dangling, turning empty reel as the bottom tension 'pulley' for the spliced tape loop. Used it for a Great Halloween Spook trak.
 That leaves Digital and Analog, digital being easiest to do from what I understand.
 I just buy them, I couldn't compete by building.
 RV3 [Boss reverb echo] I bought new for 140$ ten years ago.
 Art Proverb I got for a rediculously low price, about the amout I'd spend on the jacks 'n switches for it...two separate channels...user presets #'s...can be cool, some of the settings are nice.
 Then there's the SDE-1000 Roland, which is the monster of the three,  superb echoes, and controls, however being a studio unit, I can't drive my amps without a postecho Booster, I believe it's intended for use in an amp/board effects loop.
>>>By the way, any suggestions as to how to use this to drive an amp with would be appreciated, the inputs only take a small signal voltage without redlining,.. running it before the DIST works, but 'differently'./ as does the "PostBoosto" technique..my amps have not effects loops, and I don't want to run it through the board necessarily..my current resolve is that it doesn't work quite right without the effects loop technology, of which I've never had...

[thomas2]

i'd say dan echo!!! that pedal isn't expensive and sounds great with most amps.. (at least sounded good with vintage vox amps).. i gave mine to a friend of mine to try out.. haven't seen it since.. and that was about 2 years ago  :lol:

[guitarhacknoise]

hey,
I bought a dd-6 a week ago and the honeymoon is almost over, it must be the 7-day itch.
it's a good pedal for noise rock and short loops (claims 5.2 sec. but hav'nt seen it happen), the thing that I don't like is it sounds really tinney, which at larger volume really kicks up the microphonic feedback and in turn the pedals feedback control will freak out at a lower setting, but as far as reverb and slapback and other short delays it's great, and if that's all you need, save a few bucks and get the dd-3, hell you can pick up a digitech digital delay for 99.99 at guitar center and get a coupon for a 20.00 rebate!

-as far as plain ol delay goes you cant mess with dod 680 ad.
-matthias

[rogerinIowa]

hey-

I have used 2 DD-3 units for years. I set one for longer delay (for lead), one for a slight slap ( rhythm sound)...If you put them close together you can engage both switches with one foot at the same time. example:I turn on one  delay ( say the short delay) and leave the long delay off, then stomp them both simultaneously to swap delays. pretty cool, and these DD-3s can be had pretty reasonably. for my money they are still hard to beat.

just my 2 cents worth,

rogeriniowa

[LP Hovercraft]

I can't wait to build the PT-80 as I've read some pretty good testimonials on it.  The Danelectro Reel Echo does a pretty good tape echo simulation.  It has a lo-fi knob for sound degradation with each successive repeat.  It doesn'tpitch shift by tweaking the time knob, though.  Do any of you know if there schemos for stereo delays for ping-pong type effects?

[bwanasonic]

For many players, the DD-3 and DD-5 are fine *meat & potatoes* units. From most accounts I have heard, the DD-6 blows chunks and is considered some kind of horrble mistake on BOSS's part. The music store near me gets many people returning DD-6s for DD-5s. If you can stand the cheesiness of the Dan-O stuff, the Dan Echo gets some good reviews sound-wise.  I prefer analog delay for the bulk of my slapback and short delay needs, but these have gotten expensive, and are not to everyone's taste.  Speaking of expensive, the T-Rex "Replica" sounds great if you have $400 to spend.

Kerry M

[Lonestarjohnny]

One of the best Pedal's you can find is a Vastex, they made the Roland delay's so you can tell what your getting, Mine is busted and i'm looking for someone that would like to tackle repairing it for me, if anyone is interested in repairing it for me give me a email ,
I also like my old AD 99 by Ibenez.
JD

[space_ryerson]

I use an old analog Tokai delay, which sounds really warm, and sounds pretty interesting. It does lacks some of the flexibility of digital units  though. I have a schem, but it is untested.

[mindwave_21]

Hey roger.  I've heard that the dd6 is better than the dd3 (100% wet signal on reverse, which eliminates analog mikes kill switch mod for the dd3 and dd5), but what makes you think that the dd6 is worse?  They seem to be the same pedal but the 6 has stereo outputs.  I don't plan to uses these stereo outputs yet, and I have heard that the B output introduces way too much noise.  What kind of complaints have you all heard?  I also here you can swap out a cap in the dd's to make the treble reduced (ala analog reverb).  Thanks for all the responses guys!

[donald stringer]

dan echo can be had for very little, it is hard to compare to anything else for the sound you get per dollar. It has verb qaulity echoes/ sets in an effct loop well/ and once you find the sweet spot  you can forget any adjustments. At least it would be worth the purchase while you figure out which schem you want to build. I have a dd5 and its worth the buy just for the tap tempo.. If you are familiar with the dm-2 disc. boss delay, the dan has similiar [what I call verb qaulity] echoes but you get longer delays just as good sound without the rediculous price attached. Yes I like the dan better than dd5 for delay [dd-5 has a delay sound qaulity and dan has echoe sound qaulity if you  catch my drift. Hope this has been of some help.

[octafish]

I've been using a Rocktek delay. Best bang for your buck. Same circuit as the Arion, or so I've been told. Cheap! Cheap! Cheap! Just don't step on it too hard.

[Ed G.]

I love the PT-80. Everytime I use it while jamming with friends, it always gets compliments.

[Gilles C]

I heard my friend play some Pink Floyd with a Dan.

It sounded very good, and hard to beat to the price they sell it.

I would buy one if I needed to use delay.

[freebird1127]

I kinda like that Dan-O mini pedal they have there... not the Dan Echo but the little one... it's super cheap, like half the price of the echo but still sounds pretty great...

it's true that some pedals are just better to buy, plain and simple.  Dont let that statement stop anyone from trying to build one tho!  Props if you have a schem of DanO pedals, let me know???

[jimbob]

I vote for the DD-3--best bang for the buck!

[remmelt]

hurray for the DD-3!

although tap tempo would be nice, i think the DD-3 is a great sounding unit. plus i got it second hand for 200 guilders with a CH-1 thrown in!

200 guilders would be about 100 USD, at the time.

[casey]

the boss dd-5 with tap tempo is a gem.  ive used it for a while now...
and it's a great pedal.  ive heard nothing but bad about the dd-6.

[Mark Hammer]

Delays fall into two broad categories: under 400msec and over 400msec.  The reason is that traditional analog delays like the Memory Man and the DM-2, Tokai, etc., used a 4096-stage delay chip, which can produce decent bandwidth delays out to about 330-350msec, but have to sacrifice mids and top end if you want to have more delay than that.  Where extending delay in a digital unit may only mean adding more memory, extending delay in an analog unit involves adding another expensive chip, and often some trimpot tweaking, which adds more to labour/production costs than its digital equivalent might.

One of the things that the overwhelming majority of delay lines share in common is that they tend to aim for maximum usable bandwidth at any delay time as if it is some sort of holy grail.  While there are certainly some circumstances where you want the echo-repeat to be as close to a perfect replica of the original as you can get, there are probably more circumstances where you want the repeats to be more muted so that they actually CAN recede into the background and produce ambience, as opposed to the impression of a second player.  Regrettably, few commercial units include much control for altering the tone of the delay signal, whether it is the delay signal overall or the tone of the regenerated signal.  The switch on the Dano unit that was described certainly points in the desired direction, but usually you'll have to spend a lot more money and move beyond stompbox territory to get something with that sort of control.

On the other hand, I imagine a fairly wide number of commercially available pedals could be customized to deliver such tonal shaping by the inclusion of a few part value changes or an add-on toggle or pot (assuming you have the panel space).  The question you need to ask yourself is whether you are content to work within the <400msec zone or whether you need more delay time than that.