The Quest for Good Guitar Tone

This week I am sharing a new and amazing new pedal, the Dark Echo, made by Jack Deville. This pedal will give you all of those wonderful dark tape delay tones that you have been forever seeking. Yes, think Echoplex, Space Echo, Deluxe Memory Man etc etc…all of the pedals you wish you still owned. Built with the highest quality components, the Dark Echo uses a digital echo processor with a fully analog dry signal path and analog support circuitry.

This handsome, solid, well made pedal (the size of an MXR phase 90) will make a delay junkie out of you in a minute. Retail is $199 (currently on sale) and my guess is that this pedal will be in high demand (can you say “waiting list”?) so I would not be surprised if you see it fetching higher prices on ebay. Well worth the two bills, I just got delivery on my pedal a couple of days ago and I cannot stop playing my guitar through this thing. Prior to this, I was not a delay-pedal-loving-kinda guy. To give you an idea of how sold I am on this sound, I am re-arranging my pedal board around this baby! Many delays are bright and crisp and sometimes make you feel like you are fighting with another guitarist, playing through the same rig. The Dark Echo’s repeats get darker and looser with each generation and, I swear, you can get some very close-to-reverb sounds out of this baby.

The Dark Echo is true bypass. The inputs are at the top of the pedal, another well thought out feature which more pedal manufacturers seem to overlook. (The obvious advantage being better use of pedal board real estate). Lately, I have made “top inputs” a requirement for any pedals that I take out on my smaller pedalboard. You can get as many as 6 or 7 pedals on the smallest pedal train pedalboard with this feature. I dunno, I guess I really don’t like carrying a lot of stuff around anymore…. Roadies don’t like it either!

Four controls on the pedal are:

Blend: Controls the amount of effect that is mixed in with your original signal. Full rotation mixes an equal amount of delay with the original signal

Sway: Controls the modulation of the delay effect. You can dial in anything from a slight watery chorus to a full on warble a la John Scofield. (MXR had a nice thing going with the modulation switch on their Carbon Copy pedal. The dark Echo takes this feature to another level)

Repeat: Controls the feedback of the echo circuit, or the number of repeats. The repeats grow darker, a very nice effect. You can almost get this pedal to sound like a reverb unit, but a little less “cavernous”

Time: This controls the duration between the delay repeats, (50ms – 450ms)

In addition there is an internal output trim providing 0-6db gain from the Dark Echo. The pedal operates on a 9v battery or a center negative power supply input.

Another nice feature is that the echo circuit in this pedal operates at all times even when the effect is bypassed. You can therefore store your oscillations (they will continue to grow and degrade or be affected by the controls while the unit is in bypass mode) and they are available again upon switching the pedal on. Surprise your audience by switching this on at the high point of a solo…! Woodstock! Jimi!

Whether your choice in delay sounds is like U2’s The Edge, or the Police or Elvis or Johnny Cash, this pedal can give you what you need. The Dark Echo can take you from classic sounds to stuff with a more contemporary edge. Moods and rhythms and colors all within a few tweaks of a few knobs! AAAAAA+++

Here are the specs:

• true bypass switching
• power polarity protection
• ultra quiet
• 50ms – 450ms of delay time
• 1% metal film resistors (reduced thermal noise)
• vishay/bc coupling capacitors
• industry standard Alpha potiometers
• Switchcraft jacks
• adjustable output level via internal volume trim (adjustable to 12 db gain)
• socketed ic’s (to allow the user to swap in any 8 pin opamp for tonal preference)
• low power consumption for a delay (35mA on minimal settings-70mA on maximum settings)
• size = 4.5″ x 1.8″ x 2.7″
• weight = 8.4 oz.
• power = 9V negative center pin

For more information or to purchase, check out eclecticsoundspdx.com.

Here is a video demonstration… amazing!! Amazing… amazing… amazing… amazing… amazing… amazing… amazing!