Affordable old school Slapback Delay?

JohnnyCrash · January 2nd, 2008, 03:11 PM

To go along with zenacko's Analog Delay thread...

I don't need hardcore, long delay... I need a vintage style, short, slapback (tape style).

I love my BOSS Digital Delay for all kinds of long spacey stuff, but for Rockabilly I need something warmer and perhaps with a feature that dulls the successive playbacks.

Is the Danelectro Reel Echo Tape Simulator any good?

CDKopf · January 2nd, 2008, 03:22 PM

Ive tried the Reel Echo - its hard to dial in a good 'billy echo in my opinion. The echo is too slow for some songs. I got a Dan Echo pedal - PERFECT. You can dial in just the right echo tempo speed has all the adjustments just as you speak of. Works for me...very pleased.

metulmykul · January 2nd, 2008, 03:34 PM

i'm probably not all that educated in the field but the Dano Fab Echo does a decent job for minimum outlay.

cacibi · January 2nd, 2008, 03:51 PM

BYOC delay kit sounds great, very warm and analog sounding digital kit (high pass filter for more analog sound).

bilpfeiffer · January 2nd, 2008, 04:06 PM

I like my first act delay pedal a lot, toys r us, but then I live on the following edge of technology. Check out the review thread here. Bil

kludge · January 2nd, 2008, 04:29 PM

The Rocktron Short Timer is real good for that sort of thing. Kinda big, tho.

spankdplank · January 2nd, 2008, 05:48 PM

The Dano mini pedal, I think it is called a PB&J or soemthing, is pretty good sounding for short rockabilly slapback and to fatten the signal a bit. I'm sure there are better pedals out there for slapback, but they are about $20 on ebay and for that price you can't go wrong.

JohnnyCrash · January 2nd, 2008, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDKopf

Ive tried the Reel Echo - its hard to dial in a good 'billy echo in my opinion. The echo is too slow for some songs. I got a Dan Echo pedal - PERFECT. You can dial in just the right echo tempo speed has all the adjustments just as you speak of. Works for me...very pleased.

I've tried some of Dano's other pedals, namely the plastic housed "budget" pedals and was not too happy... still, this Dano Tape Echo Sim has been on the top of my list for slapback.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cacibi

BYOC delay kit sounds great, very warm and analog sounding digital kit (high pass filter for more analog sound).

It appears to be discontinued. They mentioned a replacement kit coming this month though.

I like the idea of high pass filtering each successive repeat, but a bit more control over that will be necessary since its a short slapback (read: few repeats). A switch might cut it, but since its discontinued I can't build one to try it :)

JimiBryant · January 2nd, 2008, 06:07 PM

the Dan-Echo is, for my money, just the ticket.

I even can deal with the cheap little plastic Dan-O echo thingy
although the purple metal boxes can be snapped up for as low
as $30 or so fairly easily these days.

mikespe · January 2nd, 2008, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spankdplank

The Dano mini pedal, I think it is called a PB&J or soemthing, is pretty good sounding for short rockabilly slapback and to fatten the signal a bit. I'm sure there are better pedals out there for slapback, but they are about $20 on ebay and for that price you can't go wrong.

I have both this pedal and the Dan-Echo and they both sound great...plus you can get both used on eBay at great prices. I use the Dan-Echo for electric guitars and my PB&J for acoustic (well I did when I played at my school's winter concert)...why? because the pb&j is smaller and lighter to transport!

Scottone · January 2nd, 2008, 07:07 PM

I used to have an Arion SAD-1 delay which was excellent for slapback sounds. It's maximum delay time was very short, so it wasn't good for anything but slapback.

teleclarkster · January 2nd, 2008, 07:21 PM

Someone gave me a Danelectro BLT several years ago. I rarely use it but it does what it's supposed to pretty well. It is quite limited though with a fixed delay time. I did notice once after it had sat on my shelf for a few years that it sounded funny. There was a strange faint pitch shift going on with the delay. I popped in a new battery and it sounded fine.

TelZilla · January 2nd, 2008, 07:31 PM

Big ups to the Rocktron Short Timer. Rob D turned me on to it, and I will pimp it to anyone who will listen. Warm, cheap, built like a truck.

It's perfect and can be had supercheep on the bay.

TeleBrew · January 2nd, 2008, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TelZilla

Big ups to the Rocktron Short Timer. Rob D turned me on to it, and I will pimp it to anyone who will listen. Warm, cheap, built like a truck.

It's perfect and can be had supercheep on the bay.

+1 on the Rocktron. I've had mine for a year now (Christmas 2006, thanks to the wife!) and I like it a lot. $59.99 brand new, I believe.

DavidP · January 2nd, 2008, 07:55 PM

nice "analogy" sound from this digital pedal!

garytelecastor · January 2nd, 2008, 07:59 PM

I find the Danelectro Dan-Echo is the closest you can come to that slapback without an echoplex or tubes.

BB · January 2nd, 2008, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottone

I used to have an Arion SAD-1 delay which was excellent for slapback sounds. It's maximum delay time was very short, so it wasn't good for anything but slapback.

A big +1 on the Arion SAD-1. Although this has been discontinued, they do show up quite often. I sold mine to a TDPRI bro a while back and still miss the darn thing. The Ibanez AD-9 is darn good too....Short Timer and Dan-Echo are cheap and darn good for slap back.

CDKopf · January 2nd, 2008, 08:12 PM

One you might also look into is the Carl Martin Red Repeat. I was jonesn' for one of these before I got my Danecho. Anybody have one??? It sure sounded good on the revievs..They were about $110 about 6 months ago..

JohnnyCrash · January 2nd, 2008, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TelZilla

Big ups to the Rocktron Short Timer. Rob D turned me on to it, and I will pimp it to anyone who will listen. Warm, cheap, built like a truck.

It's perfect and can be had supercheep on the bay.

Looks like the right price for sure!

Only thing is, it doesn't seem to mention anything about rolling off highs on successive repeats, or anything about sounding like old tape delays, or anything. The product description was pretty sparse actually...

Hmm, I may have to sit on this for a while :)

klasaine · January 2nd, 2008, 08:50 PM

I would recommend either a Maxon AD-80 or Ibanez AD-9.
They're analog, don't have a lot of delay time (300 ms) and have a nice warm degraded repeat.
Unfortunately they are also not cheap, especially the Maxon - which I think is the better unit.

missfortune · January 2nd, 2008, 09:05 PM

The Rocktron does seem to roll off the highs a bit.

I've had mine for a few years now and it has fended off several challengers for the lo-fi slap/reverb echo. It won out over a Dan Echo, a Fab Echo, and most recently an H2O. Works for me; your mileage may vary.

CDKopf · January 2nd, 2008, 11:14 PM

The Danecho is a far cry from the plastic Fab stuff. It is one of the bigger metal units with 4 knobs. Mix, Speed, Repeats and height. I think the height is the feature youre after..It also has the hi-lo switch for the different style delays-Long or short(slap). They retail for around $100 but I pulled mine off the bay for like $45. like new in the box. Complete with the book and that SWEET Danelectro sticker

Its totally your call man- there's lots of opinions. I play 95% traditional rockabilly-Scotty Moore, Warren Smith, Luther Perkins - lots of SUN records stuff and that ones got the sound for me IMO.

JohnnyCrash · January 3rd, 2008, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDKopf

The Danecho is a far cry from the plastic Fab stuff. It is one of the bigger metal units with 4 knobs. Mix, Speed, Repeats and height. I think the height is the feature youre after..It also has the hi-lo switch for the different style delays-Long or short(slap). They retail for around $100 but I pulled mine off the bay for like $45. like new in the box. Complete with the book and that SWEET Danelectro sticker

Its totally your call man- there's lots of opinions. I play 95% traditional rockabilly-Scotty Moore, Warren Smith, Luther Perkins - lots of SUN records stuff and that ones got the sound for me IMO.

I think I may be givving Danelectro another chance then...

Its either the Danelectro Dan-Echo or the Danelectro Reel Echo Tape Sim (which may be overkill).

I don't need the "warble" function of the Reel Echo, but it too has a high filter on repeates... but it also has a Tube/SolidState switch...

Tim Bowen · January 3rd, 2008, 03:11 AM

Johnny, I have several analogs and digitals, and I do utilize rockabilly slap quite a bit. Probably goes without saying that I prefer analogs, but that's not what you're asking.

The purple Dan-Echo will do the trick. The high end roll off works pretty well, and the taper is predictable. The harder you're pushing your amp, the more you'll want to fine tune the aforementioned tone control and the wet/dry mix knob. Cleaner amp likes more highs from delay repeats and wetter mix, and vice-versa for dirtier amp. And by the way, even with an "analog-voiced" digital, I still think it's key to place a delay straight into the amp for this sort of thing, as opposed to inserting within a loop (why am I saying this, you're not a loop guy!).

They're discontinued, but the old Ibanez plastic "potato bug" Ibanez EM-5 "Echo Machine" sounds even more convincing than the Dano. There's no "tone control" but the high end was well thought out, and the decay trail is very natural sounding and convincing. There was a bit of clipping designed into the circuit to promote analog "warmth", which is something not all "analog-voiced" digitals have. These are no pawn shop prize secrets anymore, but they do occasionally show up for stupid bucks. Snag one if you see a deal.

What sort of BOSS digital do you own? I'm sure you're aware that there are mods available to soften the high end on the repeats; notably, Analog Man Mike and Robert Keeley offer mods. These work pretty well into a pushed tube amp. By the way, I read a while back that Scotty Moore plays a stock DD-3. I couldn't make a stock DD-3 work with my rigs, but I'm sure Scotty Moore plays cleaner amps than I do.

Lots of stuff out there, just commenting on some of the more garden variety offerings.

January 2nd, 2008, 03:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
JohnnyCrash Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lost Angeles and Orange County Posts: 7,134 39 Photos	Affordable old school Slapback Delay? To go along with zenacko's Analog Delay thread... I don't need hardcore, long delay... I need a vintage style, short, slapback (tape style). I love my BOSS Digital Delay for all kinds of long spacey stuff, but for Rockabilly I need something warmer and perhaps with a feature that dulls the successive playbacks. Is the Danelectro Reel Echo Tape Simulator any good? __________________ . Learn about safety before building/repairing/modding an amp. When in doubt, take it to a shop. Never drink yellow snow. Have fun.

January 2nd, 2008, 03:22 PM	#2 (permalink)
CDKopf Tele-Meister Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Spokane, Wa Age: 33 Posts: 351 3 Photos	Ive tried the Reel Echo - its hard to dial in a good 'billy echo in my opinion. The echo is too slow for some songs. I got a Dan Echo pedal - PERFECT. You can dial in just the right echo tempo speed has all the adjustments just as you speak of. Works for me...very pleased. __________________ "We been outta work so long...we had to put together some kinda act just to show the promoters what kinda work we're out of." (Johnny Cash 1958 Hadley's Town Hall Party)

January 2nd, 2008, 03:34 PM	#3 (permalink)
metulmykul Tele-Meister Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 270	i'm probably not all that educated in the field but the Dano Fab Echo does a decent job for minimum outlay. __________________ "Amps should have an on/off switch and a fking volume and tone. If you get a really fancy one, it should have reverb on/off..."* S.P Jones

January 2nd, 2008, 03:51 PM	#4 (permalink)
cacibi Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,696	BYOC delay kit sounds great, very warm and analog sounding digital kit (high pass filter for more analog sound). __________________ www.krisgeren.com

January 2nd, 2008, 04:29 PM	#6 (permalink)
kludge Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Minneapolis Age: 43 Posts: 1,013	The Rocktron Short Timer is real good for that sort of thing. Kinda big, tho. __________________ Oz: Well, other bands know more than three chords. Your professional bands can play up to six, sometimes seven completely different chords. Devon: That's just, like, fruity jazz bands. -from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

January 2nd, 2008, 04:06 PM	#5 (permalink)
bilpfeiffer TDPRI Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: hillsborough,NC Age: 54 Posts: 67	I like my first act delay pedal a lot, toys r us, but then I live on the following edge of technology. Check out the review thread here. Bil

January 2nd, 2008, 05:48 PM	#7 (permalink)
spankdplank Tele-Holic Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Houston, Tx. Posts: 530 22 Photos	The Dano mini pedal, I think it is called a PB&J or soemthing, is pretty good sounding for short rockabilly slapback and to fatten the signal a bit. I'm sure there are better pedals out there for slapback, but they are about $20 on ebay and for that price you can't go wrong.

January 2nd, 2008, 06:07 PM	#9 (permalink)
JimiBryant Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Chicago Chicago that toddlin' town Age: 46 Posts: 1,296	the Dan-Echo is, for my money, just the ticket. I even can deal with the cheap little plastic Dan-O echo thingy although the purple metal boxes can be snapped up for as low as $30 or so fairly easily these days. __________________ I am very proud of the fact that I'm so humble!

January 2nd, 2008, 07:07 PM	#11 (permalink)
Scottone TDPRI Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto Posts: 50	I used to have an Arion SAD-1 delay which was excellent for slapback sounds. It's maximum delay time was very short, so it wasn't good for anything but slapback.

January 2nd, 2008, 07:21 PM	#12 (permalink)
teleclarkster Tele-Holic Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: East Bay, CA Age: 54 Posts: 593 8 Photos	Someone gave me a Danelectro BLT several years ago. I rarely use it but it does what it's supposed to pretty well. It is quite limited though with a fixed delay time. I did notice once after it had sat on my shelf for a few years that it sounded funny. There was a strange faint pitch shift going on with the delay. I popped in a new battery and it sounded fine.

January 2nd, 2008, 07:31 PM	#13 (permalink)
TelZilla Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Cleveburg, USA Age: 38 Posts: 1,579 6 Photos	Big ups to the Rocktron Short Timer. Rob D turned me on to it, and I will pimp it to anyone who will listen. Warm, cheap, built like a truck. It's perfect and can be had supercheep on the bay. __________________ Thanks,Nick Witless and Affected. Always.

January 2nd, 2008, 07:55 PM	#15 (permalink)
DavidP Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 475	Ditto on BYOC... nice "analogy" sound from this digital pedal! __________________ too many guitars...

January 2nd, 2008, 07:59 PM	#16 (permalink)
garytelecastor Friend of Leo's Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Minnesota Posts: 3,084 18 Photos	I find the Danelectro Dan-Echo is the closest you can come to that slapback without an echoplex or tubes. __________________ éí 'aaníígÓÓ 'áhoot'é Redd Volkaert is a Jedi Knight at one with the Force!!!

January 2nd, 2008, 08:12 PM	#18 (permalink)
CDKopf Tele-Meister Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Spokane, Wa Age: 33 Posts: 351 3 Photos	One you might also look into is the Carl Martin Red Repeat. I was jonesn' for one of these before I got my Danecho. Anybody have one??? It sure sounded good on the revievs..They were about $110 about 6 months ago.. __________________ "We been outta work so long...we had to put together some kinda act just to show the promoters what kinda work we're out of." (Johnny Cash 1958 Hadley's Town Hall Party)

January 2nd, 2008, 08:50 PM	#20 (permalink)
klasaine Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: los angeles, ca Age: 46 Posts: 1,203 3 Photos	I would recommend either a Maxon AD-80 or Ibanez AD-9. They're analog, don't have a lot of delay time (300 ms) and have a nice warm degraded repeat. Unfortunately they are also not cheap, especially the Maxon - which I think is the better unit.

January 2nd, 2008, 09:05 PM	#21 (permalink)
missfortune Tele-Meister Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Dallas, TX Age: 43 Posts: 193 15 Photos	The Rocktron does seem to roll off the highs a bit. I've had mine for a few years now and it has fended off several challengers for the lo-fi slap/reverb echo. It won out over a Dan Echo, a Fab Echo, and most recently an H2O. Works for me; your mileage may vary. __________________ Peace, missfortune http://www.soundclick.com/professorf...ightycowwolves

January 2nd, 2008, 11:14 PM	#22 (permalink)
CDKopf Tele-Meister Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Spokane, Wa Age: 33 Posts: 351 3 Photos	The Danecho is a far cry from the plastic Fab stuff. It is one of the bigger metal units with 4 knobs. Mix, Speed, Repeats and height. I think the height is the feature youre after..It also has the hi-lo switch for the different style delays-Long or short(slap). They retail for around $100 but I pulled mine off the bay for like $45. like new in the box. Complete with the book and that SWEET Danelectro sticker Its totally your call man- there's lots of opinions. I play 95% traditional rockabilly-Scotty Moore, Warren Smith, Luther Perkins - lots of SUN records stuff and that ones got the sound for me IMO. __________________ "We been outta work so long...we had to put together some kinda act just to show the promoters what kinda work we're out of." (Johnny Cash 1958 Hadley's Town Hall Party)