Akai Head Rush Tape Echo Simulator/Loop Recorder

This pedal is a loop station, 4-head tape echo and delay pedal. You can run it through one or more amps (max. 4 - one for each tape head).

Very clean, accurate repeats of sounds - this pedal generates no noise or hum.

Manual is detailed but time-based effects are a little more complicated and with effectively three pedals in one there's a lot to explain.

I play a Fender Highway 1 S-S-S Strat through either a Fender Deluxe 85 (solid state) or Fender Pro Junior. The major effects I use are a Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby, Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive, OC-2 Octave and the Akai E-2 Headrush. Sometimes, for a little variety, I'll use my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (when I was younger, I loved this thing... but it's really just too fizzly in most settings... sometimes good for powerchords) or the FZ-3 Fuzz (awesome pedal). Sometimes I run the wah and the gain-based pedals through my Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor.

This pedal sounds great. When I first tried it (in the store), I had to play the start of 'Welcome to the Jungle' with the delay effect... and was it good. The tape echo is cool too. But - the best thing about it is the loop function. Play a riff - a shuffle, a jazzy chord progression, anything - and practice your lead playing. OR - play a solo, then harmonize ocer the top like Kerry King and Jeff Hannemann - that REALLY sharpens your ear and your playing. The loop function also helps you to listen to your music more critically and really focuses you on note choice, timing and rhythm. I'm learning a lot (I'm an intermediate player - 8 years of playing).

I love using it with two amps (with my trusty Deluxe 85). Try them with different settings for a surpise echo. I can be really nice.

The case seems to be fairly solid - relatively think aluminium housing and two fairly robust generic pedal switches.

This pedal is dependable. No batteries, no valves, no fuss. Not as bulletproof as a Boos, however.

I like hard rock (e.g. Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Guns 'n' Roses, Dinosaur Jr., STP, ACDC, The Datsuns, etc.), Blues Rock (Hendrix, Clapton, etc.), Shred (Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani) and Jazz Fusion (Path Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Al di Meola). I incorporate bits and pieces from these influences in my playing. This pedal extends my ability as a musician and so far I am satisfied with my purchase.

I explored it a little, then I checked the manual to find out if there was something you should NOT do and then it was like knife into butter

I have tried it with my three electrics : a 1970 Black Beauty, a Dillion plexiglas and a Mexican made Fender Stratocaster through a Fender Hot Rod Deville on a clean set up and took mightily well the color of each guitar.
Although what I've read in other reviews my unit is very quiet and does not distort the signal.
At the first session with it I was concerned about a little drop on the signal level but it was a matter of balancing the input and mix of it, the delay works as a fine digital delay should and the echo/tape output is really interesting and promising experimentation wise, I really like it. Foolishly I haven't gone for the four outputs yet.
Being a digital delay do not expect that this one will "thicken" your sound out, it just does its digital repeats super clearly. I haven't sense a "tinny" result either.
Worked very nice when rigged up with other effects (MXR Phaser 90, Zvex Oooh Waah, Hot-Tubes, Micro Synth) and when inserted, handled the amplifier overdrive (nice combination) just fine.
The loop feature is nice, does not alter your sound and you can nicely set the level of it, I would prefer a longer sampling time anyway.
Again, the echo tape feature is great and the possibilities of having four outputs add an impossible amount of possibilites.

So far is there, well constructed and solid.

not dealt with this aspect yet.

Generally quite heavy or into noise grounds, I have a very eclectic approach to my music so I need to be able to compose vastly different sound schemes depending on my mood or creation requirements. So far this Headrush has been a good one and quite useful, as I usually let the gizmos to do their own thing and lead me through their own world I can't say that I regret having the Headrush on. Works just great and offers a lot of adventure and sound quality.
If it had that percussive, thick quality of an analog delay and a larger sampling time this would be the absolute king on its field

Easy to use the controls but the oversite of an input control, and limited make this pedal hard to use to it's full potential.

The echo's can distort easily if the input is to high. Since the echo and the dry signal are run in parallel only the echos are distorted. I found myself constantly turning down on the guitar to get the echo's to stop distorting. The second problem i had was the echo/loop not being able to be louder than the input.

What this pedal does is super cooI so i had to rig up a work around. Here's what you do. put this on a loop of a boss line selector with a cut in front and a boost it with the line selector on the return to bring it back to unity gain. use the other loop for the dry and keed the akia full wet. use the delay out only for looper and normal delay or all four tape head outs into a dod resitance mixer. This also alows you to turn the looped sound up loader than the input wich is very usefull, and gives you mix control over the four heads. another advantage is you can turn the input off and to cut noise while the loop plays, and when you drop overdubs on top of your loop you can keep hitting the button and starting over untill you get it right because it wont appear at the output untill the loop has gone all the way around.

This is lot of crap to use to get one pedal to work well. In my opinion I should be have been able to accomplish the same routing and level options inside pedal. It is worth it in light of what the pedal can do which is ever so cool and easy to operate otherwise.

Would be a ten if not for the lack of delay input level. Very quiet. Not as pristine as the t-rex replica but this pedal sooo much more.

Git used and beat to death, but still works flawlessly. I think it will last a long time.

I love akias u.s. support. If they can't answer your question they will hook the gear up and try it themself and call you back. They are musians who really use the gear so they really are helpfull.

This pedal has allowed me to do things i didn't know a pedal ever could. As i write this I'm listening to a multi layered loop play back over my amp. It sound like a couple people jamming in the next room, not like a recording, but no one is there it's just the headrush jamming away into infinity.

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

There doesn't seem to be anything else like this - four outs and all. Must be brilliant, I simply had to have one!

BUT.

It seems that SolOjaM is right.

Mine turned up in the mail, incredibly noisy, you could hear the bits crunching around (if you know what i mean). It actually sounded like the 8-bit digital delay i once built from a magazine article - only seriously worse.

It was totally unusable.

Before it got mailed back for a refund, I sneaked it open to see if it was just some wire lose that i could just fix and not bother returning: nope, it was appaling soldering, resin all over the board, a very poor job.

SO - if you want one, make sure you try it in a shop first.

I still want one - a working one, please - but they're getting harder to find.

N

This pedal definitely takes some getting used to if you aren't familiar with tape echo units/loopers. The hardest thing to get down is the timing, once that's done it's actually pretty simple to use. Tap tempo for delay and tape echo (although you can preset it on the knob), and a record and overdub switch for looping.

My one complaint is that switching between looping/tape echo/delay requires moving the switch manually, kind of a pain.

I play in a very noisy rock band, I primarilly use it for looping and for short tape echo sounds. Usually I play a heavilly modified Fender Jagstand into a Fender Quad Reverb with PA cabinets.

The regular delay is nothing to write home about honestly, I never, ever, use it, but the Tape Echo can do everything from a haunting short echo type of thing, to long Unwound-esque washes that are really nice sounding.

It really is all about the looper though, near infinite overdubs within half of the timeframe and more loop time then you can shake a stick at without.

The only gripe I have sound quality wise is that loop playback is a little bit softer then when it's recorded, which is really no problem at all.

I play in a very physical, visceral rock band, this is in my pedalboard which has been stepped on, kicked over, rammed into, flipped and generally abused for a long perdiod of road use. Except for a few scratches and scuffs it's as reliable as the day that I got it.

Never dealt with Akai, never had the need.

Again, I play in a very abrasive noisy rock band that tours and makes records (http://www.replicator5000.com), although we are noisy we have some complex parts with looped guitar, where I (the guitar player), loop the guitar parts, put down the guitar and get physical in an Iggy Pop/David Yow kind of way, we also have guitar bits that use tape echo. This is a seriously great pedal that really allowed me to stretch out what I did after I got the hang of it. I haven't found a better pedal for this kind of thing yet.

If it were stolen or lost, I would beg, borrow, or steal another one as soon as I could.

My only gripes are the slight volume cut on loop playback and that the switch between tape echo and loop and delay can't be operated by foot.

The only thing I can compare this too is the line 6 delay as far as versatility goes, and even though line 6 has a few more features, I honestly like this one a lot better. I first saw Ian Williams from Don Caballero using one, and even though i'm not a gear hound, I had to have it.

Very easy to use.

Good enough for ambient wash. 16 bit I think. The main reason I bought this pedal is to have tape echo simulation with 4 outs. I use the pedal for ambient remixes and for that it works excellently. To get this to use as a normal delay is a waste. It serves well as a live loop recorder, but the only real reason to get this is to have tape echo with 4 outs (5 actually if you count the mix out).

Seems fairly reliable. I take really good care of my euipment as everyone should.

NA

I love it. Overall, it gets a 10 because no one else puts out such a useful echo unit in this price range (or for much more actually).

Piece of cake. I mainly use the looper. Once you get the timing down it's easy.

OK, here's the deal. You read all these reviews on this pedal and some say it's noisy and some say it's quiet. I believe I've stumbled on the solution to the mystery. Mine was reasonably (usably) quiet for the first 7 months I owned it. Slight barely noticeable hiss sometimes. Then at that 7 months point it developed a whistle. Whoa! Major problem, totally unacceptable. I called Akai, left msg, no reply. Thought I needed to get a return authorization # (turns out I didn't need that). Then I got on their website and found an authorized repair place near me, Pro Audio Repair in Tampa. I e-mailed them and they said sure, send it along. I did, and shipping it to them was my only expense. They opened the puppy up and found over 300 bogus connections inside! Lousy soldering (made in Korea). They resoldered everything and shipped it back to me, no cost. This could be the source of that hiss some of you mention. Mine is back and dead quiet.

Mixed bag isn't it? Unreliable manufacturing, but solid design.

Company wasn't so hot, authorized repair center was great, Akai did pay for thorough overhaul of my 7 month old pedal, can't complain can I?

Great deal, a looping unit for $180! I layer acoustic guitar parts in a samba/nuevo flamenco hodge podge that pleases me. Play an Ovation nylon string 6773. Presently using an Acoustasonic 30 (Fender) that worked great with a steel string but is less than optimum with the nylon string. I'm shopping for a more transparent amp to finish my rig. Really a great little unit (now that it's been repaired!).

The pedal is quite simple to use. It's hard turn the knob with feet but I don't think you'll need to do it (except the level knob, maybe).However, a thing you may need (and you can't do due to the size of the switch) is switching tape/delay/sampler function with feet while you're playing. Never mind...
I give it 9 for these reasons and also cause I'd like to have a switch for keeping or not the tail of delay (but I don't know if any stomp box can do it)
The tape echo and the delay are really simple to use, the sampler a bit less but however is not so hard to use as many people say. I got the hang of it after two or three attemps.

I bought the akai headrush mainly for the sampler but I found out that tapeecho and delays are really cool. To be honest i haven't used tape echo function a lot and tryed to use the four heads output yet, so i can't talk about it.
I like the normal delay mode, tape tampo function works great and the sound is good. Obviously it's not an analog delay but i've found the delay warmer than boss dd3 delays(HF DAMP knob is really usefull).
You can obtain from never ending delays (and they works even with 24 second of delay time : WONDERFUL!) to reverblike-slapback delays : REALLY COOL!
When you switch off the delay the tail keeps on sounding (a thing dd3 doesn't do).I really like this feature even if I would have liked to have a switch to decide to keep or not the tail (in some situation the delay tail is quite frustrating, above all on dynamic critical passages).

The sampler is really great! 24 second are much more than I usually need in my song and with overdubs I can create wall of sound for my psichedelic songs. I give it nine since to obtain a loop more or less at the same volume of the real time playing you've got to turn the level knob completely clockwise and if you mind switching modes from sapler to delay, the effect level gets too loud.

I dind't notice any noise or hiss and I din't give attentions if it's true baypass or not but however my effect chain is so long (AC2-CS3-CRYBABY-SD1-BF2-CE5-DD3-HEADRUSH-JCM800(4210)) that I'had already lost all my harmonics before I bought the akai :)

SOMETIMES I NEED TO PLAY BLUES (guitar-JCM800) to remind me how is a non artificial guitar sound...

I bought it second hands two days ago so I can't say anything about reliability except that it's really solid(boss like)

Never deal, but i found the handbook on the net so i give it TEN!

I really love this pedal and even if I've own it only for two days I've already obtain good results (expecially when used as sampler).
I've bought it second hand but It had never been used and I paid it 140 euro(more or less 140$). In Italy it's priced 220$ so a good affair. I think It really is worth its price and I'm sure I would have bought it even new for 220$.
The sampler is probably the most useful function and IT WORKS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM!
The normal delay mode is cool, and i nearly prefer it on boss dd3.
I haven't use tape echo mode but I think it's cool too!

After you get used to the timing of the foot switches, it's fairly easy to use. The manual is no help what-so-ever.

This is one of two areas that this unit falls short on. It adds a hissing, "frying" sound that could only be reduced, not eliminated, by turning the treble all the way down on the amp, and this kills the tone.
My setup used was guitar->headrush->amp. Guitars used; Fender Jazzmaster, Strat and Tele. Amps used; Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue, 65 Twin Reverb Reissue and Fender 8 channel power mixer PA.
The unit produced the same 'noise' with any combination of the above.

I wasn't able to use it long enough to find out if it's reliable.

This is the second area that this product fails in. It took three emails to get any response back from Akai when I asked for help/support on this BRAND NEW unit. It was only after the third email, where I told them that if I got no response that I was going to post the problem on the Internet, so others would know about it, that I got an answer. The answer was, The Akai Headrush isn't noisy and to send it off to one of their service centers, in some other state, and they would 'take a look at it'. Totally unacceptable! This is a BRAND NEW piece of equipment and a reputable company should have replaced it!

Style of music doesn't matter here. This thing adds noise to any and all. The worst part was the company's response. Anybody can make a mistake and sometimes a 'bad one' is shipped, even from the best. But to say that there isn't a problem, when there is and that "they'll take a look at it", the implications being that, when they get around to it (months - years??) they *MIGHT* do something about it!
I don't need those problems! Life is hard enough as it is and there are MANY other companies to pick from. I bought a Boss RC-20 Loop Station and threw this thing in the closet with other useless junk. Problem Solved!

The Headrush takes a little tap dancing to get used to, but it's not just a Delay pedal. Really, it's pretty straightforward for a Looper. The Manual is pretty lean, but everything you need to know is in there. A little easier to use than the Line 6 Delay Modeler pedal.

I play mostly mahogany planks (a Santana SE and a Les Paul Special SL) with a pile of effects, including a JamMan, a Line 6 Delay Modeler, and a Boss Loop Station. Yeah, I'm really into layered Loops and Delay lines. I usually use a Boss GT-3 instead of an amp, but when I use an amp, I use a Roland JC-90. I listen to all kinds of weird guitar music, but I'm particularly into players like Robert Fripp, Bill Frisell, the late Sonny Sharrock and Vernon Reid.

The Headrush doesn't seem to add any noise to my rig, but I was kind of disappointed with the Output level; I'd like the Delay level to match the Dry level. Otherwise, this a very useful toy. Neither the Line 6 nor the Loop Station will let you choose between Looping and long Frippertronic Delays. The Headrush will let you get really long Delays, and still give you control over Feedback. A fully loaded JamMan will give you almost ten more seconds of Delay, but you'll pay a lot more for a used JamMan than a new Headrush. Also, there's a dirty little secret about the JamMan; it's not exactly a true stereo unit.

It seems sturdy enough. I've been told that the box is metal, not plastic, but it felt pretty light to me. I almost always have at least two Loop/Delay effects in my rig at any given time, so I don't know about needing a backup for the Headrush. Really, considering the cost of replacing it, I'd rather take the Headrush out than my JamMan, so in a way, the Headrush is my backup unit.

Not a clue; bought it used, and it works fine.

I play some pretty weird music; think King Crimson meets Nine Inch Nails, filtered through a bit of The Residents. If all that means anything to you, you've probably locked yourself in a room full of noise, the same as I have. May "BOB" help you. The Headrush is certainly a worthy addition to my pile of gear, even with all the other Delay/Loopers.

I've been playing for too damned long, and I have an oddball collection of effects boxes and synth modules. I'm particularly fond of Delays, Ring Modulators and Pitch Shifters. If something happened to my Headrush, I would probably get another one because it's a versatile box for a low price. My least favorite feature is the low output; my favorite feature is the long Delay. I haven't gotten to try the multiple Outs yet, but it looks like a fun feature for multi-track recording. I do wish that it had stereo In/Out jacks, like the Line 6, and a Reverse switch would be nice, but I don't know how much those additions would raise the price.

Considering the price and the simplicity of the Headrush, there isn't really anything to compare it to; the Line 6 Delay Modeler and the Boss Loop Station are very different from the Headrush. The closest thing in operation is actually the JamMan, but for the price of a used JamMan, you could buy the Headrush and the Line 6, and still have $100 or so left over.