Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Echo Drive


I got asked recently about delay pedals, so here's my two cents.

I've been playing through the Big Green Monster for over a year and I still love the beast. Initially it was the looping function that sold me. Fourteen seconds so it says, but really it can do 28 when you record on half time. Not enough for a slow 12 bar blues but still adequate to get a nice rhythm line down. And the looping is dead easy to use, and has that nice fade out overdub thing. Check the manual to see how easy it is.

I thought once I got the Jamman I'd phase out the DL4 maybe sell it and replace it with a sweet analog delay. EH Deluxe Memory Man is the standard, used famously by the Edge (although you'd need two to get his sound, for one slow and one fast delay - or just one DL4 set to stereo). The Fulltone tape delay would be really ostentatious, but it was Diamond's Memory Lane that I thought was really sweet. Analog, but with tap tempo (I haven't found that anywhere else), and modulation depth and speed, to get the chorus like effects.

But I haven't turfed the DL4 yet, and don't know that I will. It's still really handy as a looper, nice to do something really quick, but also as an additional track on top of the Jamman's infinite overdub, but linear undo/redo capability. And also its a smorgasbord of delay flavors. Granted I'm not sure I can even tell the difference between four types of tube/tape delay, but they sound cool. And its the other functions that you can't really get without multiple pedals, to get say the Edge's stereo setup or the one I was playing with recently I liked, the auto-volume echo, for sweet sweeping swells.

Side note: if the looper is of no use to you (but frankly I'd find that hard to believe) you can get the Echo Drive scaled down version for a fraction of the cost. And check out the video demo and sound samples for a feel for its capabilities.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Evolution


Dave Hunter's guitar book raved about Yamaha's SG 2000, what at first glance looks like a nice Les Paul/SG knockoff, but really is a rock machine, the progression and development of the instrument. Neck-thru body and a brass bridge sustain plate? Hellsyeah! Especially considering Gibson's lackluster quality in the late 70s and 80s, and the inflated price they demand, this axe is the shit.

And there's even one in 'Town. I wonder how it'd look with a gold Bigsby.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Blogosphere


I didn't get a passing nod in a NY news montage (new cabinet for the 18watt looks great by the way), but my questions do get answered.