Controlling the Insatiable Lust: Delay

Due to the growing pedalboard envy (similar to the other type of male envy) of the middle class bedroom guitarist, planks of wood covered in shiny colored boxes have grown to substantial sizes.  It has become a trend for guitarists to spew forth boastful prophecies of the unlimited capabilities of their new noise making spaceships.  Forums once dedicated to making fun of Eric Clapton's latest haircut, are now flooded with threads variably titled "Is X or Y Delay Better For My Niche Use Of It?"  On a few occasions, I have spotted pedalboards in the wild that are completely covered in 5-6 Echo devices.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say, no one will never need that much delay.  Ever.  *waits*


Now that all the Coldplay fans have angrily tightened their scarves and left the room.  If you've got that many echo boxes on a pedalboard, you've either:  A) wasted a lot of money, or B) don't leave the house. Most "textural" guitarists would argue this with me, but I would simply counter-question them if they can actually make a record or move out of their mother's basement.  Every time I read that someone is "needing" a delay for a specific niche function, my brain immediately assumes they are too lazy to bend over and turn a knob.

With that much echo or reverb EVERYTHING SOUNDS THE SAME.  Congratulations, you've made a post rock song, now make another that doesn't sound just like it.  Reverb and Echo can be useful to create depth if you're clever.  Ever notice how dry everything on a Radiohead record is?

 Listen to Thom's voice (pronounced th - Ah - m)  around 1:00.  Next listen around 2:03 for when echo is used on his voice.  It's very subtle but it sounds huge.  Why?, because it's not clashing with all that useless noise you've already made.  As much as we all dream, not everyone can be Ed O'Brien and get paid to stand around, tap delays, and do nothing.

"What key are we in guys?!?!?"

So when you're trying to decide how to fit your M13, Timeline, Timefactor, and Space all on your Pedaltrain Supreme, just remember, you're probably making whale sounds.  So, please stop.  One of the turning points for me in using delay was limiting myself to one that has a limited range (DM3, Maxon AD9) and seeing what cool things I can do with it.  Long quarter notes echoes are boring, and dotted 8th delays should be left to the Edge/P&W guitarists.


You may be asking yourself, "So now that he's trashed everyone, what does he use?".  Well to answer your question:  3 Echoplex's with a single tape being strung through all of the units (counts as one long delay), and a spring reverb tank which I have replaced the stock springs with slinkys.

(I'm just kidding, it's only a double.  The third was photoshopped)

- Stonewall