Eventide

118 Guitarist October 2007
BOSS, TC ELECTRONIC, EVENTIDE & DAMAGE CONTROL DELAY EFFECTS
£152-£399
EFFECTS
What, though, do guitarists
want from their delay units these
days? If the answer lies
somewhere between the
extremities of a little delay for
extra ambience to wrap around
solos and the full palette of all that
digital delay-based technology
has to offer as found in a studio
processor then it will likely be
found in one of the four up-to-the
minute floor-based delay units
that we have on test here – each
seemingly offering, in a single
stompbox, a collection of sounds
that you might only have
previously found in a rack or
tabletop unit.
Each of these units is different
in the set of facilities it provides
and the way that they are
implemented, but all have some
features in common like the fact
that they can all be used in a
standard in-line mono in/mono
out situation between guitar and
amp and also be used in stereo
from either a mono or stereo
source. All also have a tap tempo
control which seems an essential
part of the set-up these days so
that delays that suit a particular
song (or a section of it) can be
called up on the f ly.
Another common feature is the
ability to recreate the traditional
sounding echoes from an older
generation of machines. At its
simplest, the role of a delay unit is
to make a copy of what you play
and repeat it as an echo (or
multiple echoes) of the original –
digital technology can create an
identical clone of the original
signal but the way that the
subsequent repeats from tape
and electronic analogue delays
dissipated and degenerated
allowed them to blend with the
guitar signal in a very naturally
pleasing way. All four of these
units have their own take on
emulating that sound and creating
something a little softer than a
mere digital clone.
Those basic echo functions,
coupled with the means to set
them up and control them, might
be all that most guitarists are
looking for in a pedal but delay
can mean more than just audible
timed repeats of the source signal
– modulation effects like chorus
and flanging are all created from
very short delays and two of the
pedals on test are capable of
creating those. Those two also
have a looping facility for
recording a segment of your
music and playing it back for you
to play over.
While delay pedals have always
been available it’s probably fair to
say that, over the last few years,
the choice has been somewhat
limited and perhaps a little
predictable – but that has all
changed with these new releases.
BOSS RE-20 Space Echo
The RE-201 Space Echo was
probably the most iconic of
Roland’s range of tape delays
produced from the mid-seventies
to the mid-eighties and this new
pedal uses the company’s COSM
modelling to reproduce its sounds.
The RE-20 even copies the
original’s front panel with
controls for bass, treble, reverb
volume, repeat rate, intensity and
echo volume.
The original 201 featured a
spring reverb and three playback
heads that could be selected either
The Rivals
Another recent highly-specified
pedal is the Pigtronix
Echolution (£349), a dual delay
with independent tap tempo
and modulation modes for
switching between different
sounds on the fly. Among many
interesting features are multi-
tap toggle switches which
introduce combinations of five
additional echoes at musical
fractions of the delay time.
Older but still extremely popular
is the Line 6 DL-4 Delay
Modeler (£269 ) which uses
digital modelling to recreate
many different delay types and
offers instant footswitch access
to three programmable presets.
If you prefer a smaller footprint
in your pedals but still want
versatility, the DigiTech XDD
DigiDelay (£89) offers seven
different delay types plus
tap tempo.
A no-brainer to set up and use, the RE20
does a great job of recreating the less-
than-pristine sound of tape delay
With 12 mode settings the Space Echo RE-20 is a versatile pedal
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