Electro-Harmonix #1 Echo
Over the years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with delay pedals. My first taste of delay was an analog EchoPlex in the early 80’s. But focusing on acoustic guitar – actually only able to afford an acoustic guitar – at that time, I didn’t see the need for a contraption like that. Then U2 and The Edge entered my musical radar a couple of years later in the early eighties, and I of course had to get a rig where I could use a delay. So with what little money I had, I purchased a 25 Watt Roland amp, a Boss CE-2 Chorus, and a Boss DD-3 Digital Delay.
Little did I know that you had to have some technique to play like The Edge, and I quickly became disenchanted with trying to play like him. I just didn’t have the technique nor experience! So I held onto the amp, kept the CE-2, and sold the DD-3. I’m kicking myself now for getting rid of the DD-3 as it was a “Made in Japan” model that still had some hand-wired circuitry that makes it much-sought-after delay. Oh well…
Fast-forward to today, and I’ve owned several delay pedals. Again, the operative word is “owned,” because I don’t have one now. But I do have the technique, and I’m thinking that some of the stuff I’m writing could actually use some delay. Enter the Electro-Harmonix #1 Echo.
I’m normally a little leary of EH pedals, but this one seems promising, at least from the reviews I’ve read and the sound bites I’ve heard. Reviews are generally pretty good, but one thing’s for certain: All this thing does is delay. It doesn’t do any modulation or phasing. It just delays, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for! I’m going to have take one out for a spin, but it certainly seems like it will serve the purpose. And for a $99, it’s certainly not a huge investment. Let’s look at features:
- True bypass (Yowza! that’s cool)
- up to 2 second delay
- Wet/Dry Blend for blending the amount of dry and wet signal – very cool
- Feeback control – kind of like decay
Sorry, but sometimes I just have to vent. I know lots of dudes who call themselves guitar players who are just wankers in disguise. They’re wankers because they have some kickass and expensive gear, which they don’t hesitate to let you know how much they spent, but they couldn’t play it if their life depended on it! Sorry, but it kind of grates on my nerves because when I run across a wanker, I find myself thinking, “Damn! If I had that guitar, I could make that bad-boy SING!” Maybe I’m crossing the line here of being the supportive web site host, into a petulant and honory SOB, but even though I realize that I’m not the greatest guitar player in the world, at least I can play my friggin’ axes and make some decent sounding music!
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