Delay Pedals

Delay pedals afford the sound referred to as, "slapback," "echo," all the way into "self oscillation."

First called "Vibrato" on Fender amps, we were introduced to delay as distinct echo.
This, to differentiate it from "Reverb," short for reverberation - which is the echo of playing in a large venue. Faint and not to repeat more than once.

Delays can repeat many times, depending on the technology used, digital can virtually go on forever with no degradation in the signal other than what the initial sampling removed.
Digital delays can also be manipulated in many more ways than an analog signal.

In an analog device, a series of capacitors with transistors in strategic places transfer the signal from one group to another in a chain like fashion. The further down the chain, the more noise that has been introduced, and the more of the original signal lost until eventually it is no longer usable.
The name for the technology in the 1960s was aptly put, "Bucket Brigade."

Today, there are both digital and analog delay pedals. There are also hybrids that use analog technology in the signal path but digital to run the show.
It's hard to hold up old technology and find virtues to extol. And the digital world is far less costly. The chips used to make delays are not run-of-the-mill items that are in everyday use. Volume use has not driven the price down.

So when you enter this morass, you find everything is hyped and there are far too many types to choose from. More and more they combine delay with other cousins, such as chorus and phase. All innocuously labeled as "Modulation." In an effort shoehorn even more in, the digital offerings can also function as "Loopers." Pedals that will record short musical passages that can be successively layered upon until a lush song has been constructed by one person.

And these buggers can run from half a hundred dollars to well over a thousand for a tape based, "Echo-Plex." The granddaddy of all separate delay pedals.

While selling a neighbor an unused wah pedal I spied a vintage delay known as the Way Huge (name of the firm) Aqua Puss - who names these things? We came to an amiable exchange - I took cash and the pedal.

We shall see.