I'm looking to buy a delay pedal but not sure where to start. What features do you look for in a delay pedal? 600ms enough for Gilmore tones or do I need more?

The memory man, mxr carbon copy, and tc flashback look nice. The T Rex Replica sounds awesome but is out of my price range and the Line 6 DL4 looks ginormous.

What features do you look for in a delay pedal? 600ms enough for Gilmore tones? Advantage to analog or digital? Is there a holy grail of delay pedals? etc, including anything else I may have left out.

I cannot answer about the proper number of milliseconds, David Gilmore or anything like that...as a matter of fact, I'm not going to address any of your questions.

All I am going to say is this:

I love my MXR Carbon Copy analog delay.

It gives me every sound I could ever want in a delay--slapback, long/medium/short delay, a faux tape warble "modulation" function that is able to be turned off or on, a nice small footprint size, a good manual with excellent setting suggestions, reliable, replaceable (not too rare to find a new one in case of catastrophic damage or loss), and reasonably priced.

About the only thing it doesn't do is sound bad.

MXR Carbon Copy. That is all.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Can't argue with what Mr Armadillo says - and small certainly is good. However, my Boss DD-20 does all of that plus a whole lot more. Programmable pre-sets, a numeric LCD display (which really is useful), analog, digital, reverse, tape, tap, stereo - and a basic looper, which I must admit is stupid amounts of small-minded fun.

Two crucial factors to consider with this pedal. One is that though it costs more than Boss's compact units (and other manufacturer's equivalents) it doesn't cost that much more, in proportion to all the extra features. And second hand ones on Ebay are very affordable.

The other thing is that just a few months ago mine suddenly sprang playfully from my hand and bounced sickeningly down an entire flight of stairs, in slow motion, as my heart sank with each dispiriting thump. However, one small paint scuff on the outside; but when I plugged it in it worked like nothing had happened.

In other words, built like a tank. Something to think about if you ever plan to take it further than your bedroom.



Cheers - C

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Is there any noticeable "White Noise" with the MXR and Boss when turned on? I like my Boss GE-7 EQ but there is a lot of white noise when I move the sliders.

I just picked up Fulltone's OCD and I love it. Besides the awesome sound there is no white noise even with all the controls dimed. One thing I am looking for is a delay with no or little noise.

Hmm, fair question - and I'm away from mine over the Christmas break so I can't go fire it up and give you a definitive answer immediately. All I can tell you is I've never noticed noise such that I can remember it to tell you now. I think it is very quiet - and I'll be double-checking that when I'm back with it on Tuesday...

Cheers - C

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Oh man Ceri I hope it is. I never noticed it with my GE-7 until I read about it. Now I hear it everytime I turn it on. I hope I didn't jinx you and thanks for your replies.

What about articles on delays? Any recommendations?

I love my MXR Carbon Copy, but the on board delay on my Mustang V blows it out of the water. I am partial to the Boss DD 7 as well.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I went and checked, just to be sure...no noise, white or otherwise.

Ceri's right--there are several delay units that have more features/more flexible...if I were in a cover band or played a more pop/rock format, that would be the way to go.

But for a recovering anti-delayist who plays bluesy Texas Roadhouse Music (such as myself), the Carbon Copy does all the tricks I desire.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I'm very happy with the

TC Electronic: Nova Delay ND1

I was going to get the MXR Carbon Copy, very good pedal, until I got to play around with the nova delay.

There are a lot of good delay pedals out there, youtube has demos for most, but still best to go try out your top picks in a store before settling on one.

Fyi: Gilmour and the Edge use the TC Electronic gear: TC 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay
out of production and incredibly expensive if you can manage to find one.

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Keep on Truckin, Going full speed ahead down the highway to hades.

Oups forgot to add the links for a couple of guide type pages.

Look at the Gilmourish site
Go through both the "Budget rig" and "Stompboxes" sections for suggestions on what to try.

Also Tone From Heaven is a site dedicated to Mr. Gilmour and getting his sound.

And David Gilmour Tone Building Delay section for actual settings to try out.

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Keep on Truckin, Going full speed ahead down the highway to hades.

It's expensive and it takes up a lot of floor space or pedal board space but it's a dream of a delay box. Clean, versatile, accurate, very fast processor. I don't think there are very many delays out there that can touch this thing.

http://www.eventide.com/AudioDivision/Products/StompBoxes/TimeFactor.aspx

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

The eventide is a bit much for me. I'm just playing in the basement. For my whole neighborhood to hear!

That being said, I like quality and prefer road worthy equipment. You never know when you are going to join a band. The $200 mark is about my limit. I don't mind going a little over if it's worth it. I'm not against used pedals either.

So many out there and they are all good but depends on whether you want an easy one to use or something that has all the fruit on it.
Easy to use are are the single stomp box type with just a few knobs like the
DD7, Carbon copy and Flashback. Easy enough sitting in the shop trying them out and getting a good sound out of them.
The likes of the Nova and Eventide take a bit of time and frustration to get set up right but they are more then worth it. With the like of these, you will get all sorts of different delays like ping pong, Dynamic delay, tape etc etc. And sitting trying them in the shop will make you sound like a total idiot as you won't have a clue what all the buttons do. lol
When you get home and really start to play with it, will you get to know you have made the right choice.
imo get one of the later types, you won't regret it but the brand will be your choice.
I, personally, chose the TC Nova System for the Delay, Reverb (My amp doesn't have reverb) and the modulation effects. It made sense and was far cheaper then buying a multitude of decent quality stomp boxes.

Keith

Now I get my brain in gear I guess what nudged me to suggest the Boss DD-20 was the Gilmour reference in the first post. There are points in Dave's repertoire where you don't just want the delay on or off, you want to be able to move through different preset delays at the touch of a toe switch. The programmable memory presets on the Boss, in conjunction with the numerical display, are mighty handy for this. And of course the super glamorous TC Electronics and Eventide models named above would be even more functional in this regard.

Mind you, there's more than just delay settings you want to change quickly as you move through a Pink Floyd number, and that is where floor-based multi-FX can really come into their own. On my trusty old Boss GT-3 I have a row of four patches set up to take me through the sections of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Though that GT-3 saw service in a covers band I've never done Shine On in front of anyone: we're strictly into the realms of middled-aged man cave noodling here.

And in this context it is worth observing that those floor multi-FX boxes that took the guitar world by storm about 15 years ago were originally developed precisely to emulate what the huge custom built stage rigs of the likes of Dave Gilmour and others were doing at the time. We're often fairly snooty about multi-FX these days, but I sometimes imagine how the eyes of Gilmour, Andy Summers, EVH and dozens of others would have watered with delight back in the '70s if they could have got their hands on these schoolboy's gizmos in those days...

Cheers - C

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