Analogue delay round-up

Echo units are one of the most important categories of effect. As significant as overdrive and distortion in the broadening of the electric guitar’s sonic palette, delay and its cousin reverb are essential to players in genres as diverse as post-rock, rockabilly and shoegaze.

Analogue delays are the missing link between faultprone magnetic tape delays like the Roland Space Echo and modern digital delays. Instead of a digital sample, a capacitor chain passes the delayed signal, hence the name bucket-brigade device, or BBD, a reference to a chain of firemen passing a water bucket down a line. Modern advancements have led to feature-rich BBD pedals that compete with reissued classics, but is it still the case that less is more? Let’s find out...