Delay Pedal suggestion

Fuengi

Andertons have the Alexander Pedals History Lesson V2 on sale for £178. I think it defaults to tap tempo, so no hold-down to apply. 

Sounds fantastic in the demos I've heard, quite tempting....

ab2017

Bit hesitant on boutique brands as might have a limited audience resale value if it doesn't suit. Will have a look at some videos though thanks.

sweepy

I’d buy the Mooer Ocean Machine that’s up for sale on this very forum, if I hadn’t got a Timeline I’d buy it myself 

andyoz

Supa Puss if you like things analogue and bit dirty.  Great with a Les Paul and Marshall!

noisepolluter

Jonathanthomas83 said:

It’s outside of your price range, but a cheaper second hand El Capistan is a really nice delay.

Have to agree with this. Worth stretching the second hand budget to about £180. Sounds amazing, all the features are extremely well thought out, it’s got tap tempo with various subdivisions and multi-tap plus runaway feedback if you hold down the tap switch (huge amounts of fun), and it’s quite small.
As well as shimmery tape sounds it can do a creditable analog delay impression with the ‘tape age’ and modulation controls turned up. (I own a big box DMM and spent some time seeing how close I could get the Capistan - I won’t pretend it’s dead-on but I certainly got it closer than the TC Toneprints I’ve heard - I also own a v1 Flashback)

The only other factor with the El Capistan is you either need an isolated power supply or use the one which comes with it.

Winny_Pooh

Fuengi said:

Andertons have the Alexander Pedals History Lesson V2 on sale for £178. I think it defaults to tap tempo, so no hold-down to apply. 

Sounds fantastic in the demos I've heard, quite tempting....

This is an idea. I have an Alexander Amnesia  (shares some modes but no tap tempo) and it's a Great sounding "analog delay". Bought it after watching loads of online clips and it's replaced an original DM-2 & Belle Epoch.

ab2017

Thanks for all your suggestions in the end I went for a tech 21 boost DLA that @simonk was selling as there were no used rubbernecks around.

ICBM

ab2017 said:

Righto I have been through many Delay pedals over the Years and never found one that I really bond with

Would prefer tap tempo, quiet in operation (power noise etc) either analog or digital. less than £200 new or £100 used. No EHX as sick of the unreliability. Dotted 1/8ths 

Pedals that I have had are

Boss DD-3 (No tempo), DD-5 (1st best mojo and liked external switch but but no analog) DD-7 (Too much), MXR Carbon Copy (muddy repeats no tap), Line6 Echo Park (clunky) and DL-4 (yuck bypass tone), TC Nova Repeater (3rd best), TC Nova (hated tone), TC Alter ego x4 (2nd best but too big), Digitech Timebender (too many options), Dan Echo (nice sounding but no options), Mooer Ana Echo (so so)and Reecho (noisy).

I'm not a fan of single pedals where you have to set the tap tempo by holding down pedal for a number of seconds and then tapping. Liking the looking of belle epoch and mxr echoplex and boss dm-2w or dd-20 or going back to a dd5 n footswitch and finding a small analog tape echo type too. 

Just wondering others i might have missed and or thoughts. Thanks

Just curious...

Why is the DD-7 too much? It's an excellent pedal. I've had one before and I probably will again.

Why does the DL-4 have a 'yuck' bypass tone? It's either true bypass (as standard) or can be set to buffered.

[waffle alert]

I've just done some delay testing along with a couple of friends who each have very specific 'wants', and we had four delay pedals between us.

Boss DD-2 - same as an early DD-3. Best feature: clarity and long delay times. That's it really. Worst feature: very clean but possibly a little 'cold' sounding.

Boss DM-2 - original not W. Best feature: sounds great and self-oscillates the best, very smooth and 'musical'. Worst feature: audible clock noise at longer settings.

Maxon AD-9 Pro - longer delay time than the Boss with no clock noise but a little duller sounding, and doesn't self-oscillate as well. Best feature: dotted-eighth mode. Worst feature: crap switch - awkward to press due to the angle it sits at and can fail to latch.

Catalinbread Belle Epoch - grainy and the repeats degrade very quickly, getting thin rather than dull. It does self-oscillate easily but in a less controllable way than the DM-2. Best feature: into an overdriven amp, it's the best. The thinning out of the repeats becomes an advantage since it prevents 'mud build up' and it does push the amp slightly harder as well (even with the internal gain boost trimmer set to minimum). Worst feature: doesn't really sound very good into a clean amp. Definitely not the right choice if you want a conventional delay.

The DD-2 and DM-2 were mine, and I thought I would keep them since I've used them for years, but having tested them all thoroughly I've taken the Maxon because it does U2/Pink Floyd sounds the best, the friend who wanted just the best-sounding very simple analogue delay (who had the Belle Epoch) now has the DM-2, and the one who uses delay in front of a dirty amp (who had the Maxon) now has the Belle Epoch, and everyone is happy!

Does any of that help?

If you want analogue and dotted-eighths and can live without tap tempo, you should probably add the AD-9 Pro to your list.

In the past I've also had the DD-5 (didn't think it was anything special to be honest!), DL-4 (stopped using it after a software glitch, and it didn't like parallel FX loops), and the Akai Headrush E2 which does a great tape-echo simulation as well as being a very good looper.

JezWynd

A recommendation from @ICBM, what could be better

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/123541/fs-maxon-ad-9pro-analog-delay

sweepy

That Ocean Machine needs to be purchased by someone

ab2017

All sorted now thanks as for dd-7 just too many features for me and it didn't have the same mojo as a dd-5. The DL 4 and MM4 I had did something to the high end of my guitar that I didn't care for. nothing wrong with any of them for features but they just didn't work out for me. Also had the Headrush e2 but the footprint of that was too big and mainly used that for the looping feature which was great.

I was going to go with the dm-2w or similar (belle) after listening to tons of videos but the tap tempo function was a big consideration. The tech 21 DLA looks like it ticks all the boxes and was available. Time will tell if I pulled the trigger too soon I guess.

ab2017

sweepy said:

That Ocean Machine needs to be purchased by someone

Indeed and so does my Way Huge Swollen Pickle Fuzz lol

baggybill

Just been through this, I went for a JHS pink panther got it for £179  in the sales. Not a well loved brand but it sounds lush

Anasounds

theflyisback said:

I get all my tap delay functions from a line6 m5 box and it’s not letting me down.

Best delay pedal I’ve used and heard is the anasounds utopia. No tap function though but it’s easy to adjust on the fly.

Nice to know that you liked it

I hope you have one now?