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 As promised last week, the ever-excitable GEARED examines, compares and loves the bejesus out of two super-echoey delay; the MXR CARBON COPY ANALOG DELAY and SUBDECAY ECHOBOX MODULATED DELAY, kindly provided by Ellaways Music.
Delay: where do those repeats stop? The answer is a decisive “never”. Since twangy-guitar king Duane Eddy first played his Gretsch inside an empty grain silo to get the famed “slapback” tone for 1958’s groundbreaking instrumental Rebel Rouser, popular music has never been the same again. That sound just keeps coming back... coming back... coming back... ad infinitum.
From the very first Echosonic, Echoplex, Binson EchoRec and WEM Copicat units of the 1950s to the much-vaunted Roland Space Echo (presently available in the digital Boss RE-20 version) and first stompbox-format outings like the legendary Boss DM-2, the haunting effect has retained its appeal and continues to prominently feature in today’s music. In the 1970s, Jamaican reggae producers such as King Tubby and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry came up with some truly revolutionary tape delay effects that gave birth to dub while in the UK, progressively-minded folkie John Martyn demonstrated what stunning sounds could be obtained from the combination of an acoustic guitar and an Echoplex. Not to be forgotten, King Crimson’s guitar guru Robert Fripp was the one to blame for the ‘Frippertronics’ – super-long delays obtained by simultaneously running two Revox tape machines at different speeds. And what kind of a tape-chewing monster did David Gilmour use back then? A good old Binson – or check your Pink Floyd Live At The Pompeii DVD if I’m wrong.
Come the 1980s, digital echo effects would take over and U2’s The Edge would build his entire playing style on thickly-layered delay, continuously expanding and tweaking his ever-elaborate rig (I vividly remember going “Woah!” at the amount of stacked rackmount Korgs when I saw a photo of his live set-up from 2001 – Geared Ed ). Rackmount digital delays like TC Electronic 2290 and multi-effects units like Eventide Harmonizer and the notorious Yamaha SPX-90 were rife in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, but the last fifteen or so years have seen the resurgence of “warm”, analogue echo boxes among musicians. As of 2010, there are so many of those it’s virtually impossible to track down each single one.
A delay fan since his acquisition of a mint Boss DD-5 nine years ago (and only replacing it with a TC Electronic Nova Repeater a few months back) and subsequently an Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man (also sadly gone these days), yours truly has recently got the chance to play four delay pedals, and the first one to meet the critical analysis is the glossy-finish MXR Carbon Copy.
In the 1970s, the Rochester, New York-based MXR were undisputed giants of the rapidly-growing effect pedal market along with Electro Harmonix and Mutron, with the Phase 90, Distortion+, Blue Box and Dyna Comp adorning countless pedalboards including those of David Gilmour, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Van Halen and Neil Young’s. The next decade saw the iconic company cut its costs and fizzle out with a slew of cheap, unremarkable plastic stompboxes – but the clout attained by the original products was simply too large to allow them to slide into obscurity. Presently owned by Dunlop, the resurrected brand has completely relaunched its trademark units and extensively modernised its catalogue in the past few years.
Looking every bit as cool as the stone-cold classic Phase 90, the Carbon Copy is a pocket-sized alternative to the brick-like old Analog Delay (which are also – according to The Drones’ Gareth Liddiard, who owns several – often quite erratic – Geared Ed.). With a Mod button on top of the three self-explanatory knobs – Regen, Mix and Delay – and a groovy blue LED light (the red light on pedals is kind of ubiquitous, isn’t it?), the stompbox emits requisite analogue warmth, richness and an impressive 600ms of echo. Furthermore, the two internal trim pots allow the user to adjust the width and rate control of the modulation to their liking.
Apart from covering the spectrum from slapback echo to Pink Floyd/post-rock atmospherics, the Carbon Copy contains some prime sonic treats that only pedals utilising the time-honoured bucket brigade technology are capable of doing. Armed with my Strat and incessantly twisting the Delay knob anti-clockwise and then clockwise, I produced a whole range of oscillating noises (getting pretty close to nailing the warped sound at the end of Radiohead’s Karma Police in the process) while further fiddling with all three knobs unleashed an annihilating, “set-to-stun” repeats melange.
As a simple, compact 9V-powered stompbox, the Carbon Copy is ideal for both players seeking a no-frills, classic delay effect and sonic experimentalists. It does the job and it does it well.
 A more recent arrival on the market and a slightly more complex beast than MXR’s little tank, the SubDecay Echobox Modulated Delay is the flagship delay pedal of the Newberg, Oregon-based boutique company. Soundwise, the square-shaped, true bypass unit falls somewhere between a digital and analogue delay – sans the sterility common for digital delays or the scratchiness of some analogue boxes. The tidy, ear-pleasing sound is in part due to a discreet noise reduction circuit while the natural decay mode allows the effect to naturally peter out after being bypassed, leaving a nice sonic trail (by the way – this is where the pedal’s Trails on/off switch comes in handy).
The Echobox’s five controls are divided in two banks: Depth and Speed comprise the aptly-titled and painted Modulate section while Tone, Repeats and Loud are in the nameless grey area – but fear not, a mediocre pedal it is not. Again, fellow tweakers can go nuts with all of those and summon all sorts of sounds ranging from sweet to the ungodly or entirely turn off the modulation
Packing an impressive top of 800ms of delay, the Echobox sounded spectacular with both my 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars (maybe in a not quite John Martyn kinda way, but... close enough) as well as the electrics. The Memory Man-like chorusy, wobbly detune? Tape-like choppiness? Vintage long delays? Infinite repeats? Si, amigo – this baby does it all. Due to the testing taking place in the evening, I didn’t use any distortion along with the Echobox – but if you’re curious (which I don’t doubt, of course), check out the demo vid on the SubDecay site and see how awesome it sounds when put after a grit box.
And on that note, I’m going to call it a feature. Next week, we’re going to look at the fantastically-named Way Huge Aqua Puss and the Holy Grail of modern analogue delay pedals – the T.Rex Replica. Catch you then.
RRP $349 (MXR Carbon Copy), $319 (SubDecay Echobox) www.ellaways.com.au / www.mxr.com/ www.subdecay.com
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