DELAY- ELECTRO HARMONIX Slap-Back Echo .... all you need & cheap? or? even cheaper

ECHO-HARMONIX 

SLAP-BACK ECHO 

$81.00 USD

The first effect used on recordings was Reverb. It was done on the cheap. They put an amp in a small room with hard surfaces, like concrete often a basement or a bathroom with tiled walls to protect from slashing water and then mic the room. You could then blend that in the studio with another mic on the guys amp. These rooms were virtually small and the sounds would decay very quickly and one could easily hang some curtains to suck up any extra decay. The results were effective and because you did not get any multi repeats or long sustain you couldn't muddy the sound. 

In the 70's a very simple analog chip came along where you could record 45 mili-seconds and then play it back as one repeat.

With a knob to blend the clean guitar signal with the delayed one you now had this same effect in a pedal.

So E-H brought back a mini pedal version. The unit is simple with a wet and dry knob and a switch for the delay times of 45, 60 or 100ms. In general short times work best with fast tempos and long times with slower tempos. 

 

CONCLUSION ___

$23.00 USD 

Yes there is the obvious. Pretty much any modern digital or analog delay can do a slap-back. 

The big BUT! Besides the convenience a separate pedal for the effect, it is ideal as go to from your all purpose delay. If you have huge sound for a lead and click it off to go back the verse on a tune it is better to have something less drastic and unpleasant as a dead dry sound. 

It works so well that many guys for decades have used it as their always on sound just like a guy with a spring reverb in his amp. Analog sounds very warm and can rival a pricey reverb for a pleasing always on, and for dead cheap.  

For dead cheaper the Rowin LEF-314 is a Mooer Analog Delay re-branded. Zero difference but paint, logo and price. Other brands boldly write analog on their cheap pedals but it is total BS ..they are digital inside. This is a full on Analog delay that can of course be set to a single repeat on the F.back knob and the Time cut back to very little.

the fine print

With a delay the devil is in the details. Many delays are thin sounding or will fight for attention instead of lay back behind your guitars like a frame around a picture. In otherwards they want to be the painting not your guitar so move over, lol. With Electro-Harmonix they have a rep of making pedals that simply do the jobs even with warts and all. 

Mooer/Rowin are sometimes very good but others squeakers who barely sneak by. I have an old Mighty Sound M5 mini Analog delay with a nice fat sound used as a slap-back. If you push it into multiple repeats it is pretty trashy.  But I ONLY use it for slap-back. The Rowin could well be similar ??