Carl Martin DeLayla

worked for a few months, then delay just stopped working. two other CM pedals just went out on me. maybe i'm jinxed, but this is ridiculous. don't feel I can depend on it.

warranty service seems pretty good. just got an email it's on its way back.

if you cant rely on it it doesnt matter how good it sounds

pretty easy. the tap control take a little bit of playing to dial in nicely. after that, its pretty much set and forget.

My setup currently is as follows: Hamer Echotone or Memphis Ibanez Artist clone (one of the good memphis instruments from '78-80) into my Echo Twin 45 head (Japanese Super Reverb clone) and matching 1x15 or a Mesa Formula Preamp and Peavey 50/50 poweramp. currently i am only running this with an older Small Stone.
my only issue with this pedal is that whine coming from the clock chips. it doesnt bother me at all really.
This pedal is a little on the bright side too, which seems a little strang considering its an analog pedal. I think the addition of a low pass filter similar to the DOD FX96 would have really added to this pedal's great sound.

extremely sturdy.
The switches have a nice quiet click and the pots have a good resistance to their travel

I have never had to contact Carl Martin for support, but they were pretty speedy in answering some questions i had about this unit and several other. I'll give them a 5 for this fact alone.

I bought this pedal in October of 2002 and from the first moment i decided i would never get rid of this unit. It gives me some very clear slabpack echo as well as nice longer delays without adding any dirt to my sound.
I would love to pick up another so i could dedicate one to short and one to long delay times.
Fits in well with anything from rockabilly to metal.

Very easy to use. It is a plug in and play pedal. I cant see anyone but the most dense person having a problem operating this. Just adjust the delay time to your requirement, and its probably gonna be making a great sound already. The Tap knob takes a little getting used to, but it is a very useful feature. Especially as it is footswitchable. Has everything I expect from a delay, including stereo ins and outs (for which a y-splitter is needed). 30-500ms delay time. Manual is nice too, with snippets from various reviews, sample settings and other product information.

This unit to me, sounds exellent. It is very quiet, when engaged and disengaged. The repeats are not very dark, but no-where near as bright as a digital delay. The repeats tend to distort and get crappier with each succesion. Nice. The max amount of repeats available, are about 7, before the unit is on the edge of oscillating. My only problem with the sound is a quiet whining sound when the time knob is turned down past 10 'o clock (the time knob works backwards). It changes in pitch as the knob is rotated towards the left. Pisses me off a bit, but not noticable when playing. Ive gotten used to it now. Im still unsure as to what the Tap switch is supposed to do. Sometimes it almost doubles the delay time, and sometimes it does nothing. I find it is very reactive to the other controls. With the delay time on full (500 ms) the tone is not as "clear" as at previous stages, but dont let this put you off. I was suprised to find that I only had the delay time at 10 o'clock the most. With the Echo, Tap and Repeat knobs maxed and the ap swith and effect swiches on, the unit does not self oscillate. However, f you play a small chord or phrase, it builds and builds into quite harsh oscillation. Very loud if you have it in a loop (like I do), but you can control the volume with the Echo knob. As the delay time is increased, the oscillation starts to dies at about 4 o'clock, but will slowly start up once you lay something. I dont use oscillation, so this isn't important to me. Overall, I am impressed with the rich, crappy (in a good way) repeats.

Im using this in the following chain:

Maverick SF1 Guitar>Crybaby>Jeckyll&Hyde>DigitechWhammy>MarshallDSL100>Send>Delayla>BossDD3>Return

I find this setup gives a great range of sounds, which the Delaly only adds to. The bypass is not "true", but to these ears, it does not interfere with tone. Although, if you get the unit oscillating loudly, sometimes you can switch the pedal off, and hear the noise still. Not a problem, because I dont use self-oscillation, and you'd be a fool if you bought this wonderful piece of equipment for that.

This is a VERY solid pedal. Im not sure what its made out of (my guess is aluminium) but it is very robust. I cant see this thing breaking anytime soon. The two stopm switches are solid two, giving a nice click when engaged. Not as hard to activate as an EH pedal, but still reassuring. The two orange LEDs are very bright too, but only when you are directly above them. Pots are metal shafted, with an easy action. My only concearn is that hey might get damaged, should a way-ward foot swing their way. Pedal is mains powered via a hard-wired mains cable (no wallwarts!!). The plug looks a little flimsy, but I wont be stomping on that...

No need for a back-up. This thing is a metal brick. Having said that, ive only had it for a few days, so we'll see what happens. I will let you know of any problems.

Never required them, but they seem like they would be helpful people. Ive always though of Carl Martin as "Boutique Boss".

I will play anything and everything. This unit does everything I ask of it and more. I have been playing for almost 5 years (come back!), and after joining the HC forums a few months ago, ive become very aware of my tone. I spend hours tweaking my gear, to get the best sounds from it. If it was lost or stolen, I would save up and buy a new one. I love everything about it, exept the little whining noise. If that was gone, this thing would be perfect. I wish it had tap tempo, but what can you do. How many other analogue delays have that feature? It really helps me make the music I love. I had a few clean ideas floating around, that sound absolutely exellent with this pedal. If this pedal does interest you, I can only tell you to find one, and try it out. Im not gonna tell you to run out and buy one, because you might not like it, but im willing to gauge that 9/10 people that try it will like it. A tad expensive, but you get what you pay for. As I was writing this review, I was aware that Maxon have re-issued the AD9 Delay, with a list price of $350! You can pick up one of these for $250 new! This unit is a pleasure to play through.

I had to go to the website to get an idea on how to adjust the settings. Once I tried their settings, I got a feel for it. Easy after that.

I use a CS5 through a TS808,looped to a KOB and a proco rat into a Narrow Tweed Bassman. The pedal does color the sound some, but not that much. You have to understand that modulating the signal is going to color the sound no matter what you do, the main thing is not to kill the tone. It does not kill the tone in my opinion but it does dampen it. What I found is you can put it in a AB-loop pedal and get it out of the signal path when your not using the effect and bypass the untrue bypass (if you will). Also, a tone-boost can be put in the signal path to fight the beast. I play "red house" using the echo and it sounds really close to Jimi's sound. It is worth having just to play that song alone.

I'm not qualified to answer this one because I haven't owned the pedal long enough.

The website was nice.

For rock-n-roll, it rocks. I had a boss DM-2 and it sounds much better.

Bonehead simple. You'd need a labotomy to screw it up.

The overall sound quality is good; It's a very clean sounding delay with a little bit of a "skronk", meaning that it sounds different than the original signal. It has a modest shimmer to it when used with vibrato and has a very clean bypass, although it is apparantly not the much desired true bypass that tone junkies everywhere wet their pants for. As for the butt plugs who end their rants with "tone is everything" and the like, all I can say is relax! The original units that these neo-retro-vintage pieces were all based off of weren't true bypass, in fact, a lot of those classic signature sounds were plagued by noise and hum. The one thing that I am noticing about the delayla is that there's a kind of a high pitched ring-modulatory clang sound on the echo on the higher frets of the neck, which doesn't occur on the rest of the neck when the pedal is on. It might be the dreaded "whine" sound that everyone has been complaining about, or it might be that I need a set up on my guitar. I'm not too sure, but it's not so bad that I find the pedal unusable. One other cool detail is the fact that the delayla does a single repeat better than most of the analog units I've tried. Not a huge deal, but certainly noteworthy in my book. Finally, I like the tap function a lot, but not necessarily for it's intended use. By setting the tap knob at 12 o'clock or higher, you can use it to limit the repeats, in effect giving you the ability to switch from more of an airy sound to a more concentrated sound for leads. Again, not the most important feature on the pedal, and no one else I know seems to be able to tell the difference, but what the hell do they know any damned way?

Yup. Me and Delayla 'been seeing each other for about a year now, and no problems so far. Our anniversary is coming up...

None so far, hopefully none in the future.

Overall worth the money. If you are afraid of squeals, hiss and other non digital traits, than don't buy this pedal. While these problems are there, they are so incredibly minimal that few people will notice them unless you point it out to them. The choice is yours: live with analog noise or be one of the many souls who have gone the way of Digitech. You don't see anyone trying to "recapture the magic" of those pedals, now do you? If you need a good sounding delay that has more tone and soul than a boss dd-5 this is an excellent candidate. While Carl Martin is, in essance, the rich man's boss pedal, there is oh so much more than what you bargained for.

Easy to get a sound, no probs with that - if you stay around the "noon" position . Manual is not that good - mind you, mine came with a slip of paper explaining that "in case you use it in 300 - 500 ms mode you might hear a 16 KHz clock pulse in the output" - the whining many others have noticed. And, yes, it is there. DO NOT BUY THIS WITHOUT CHECKING IT IN YOUR SET-UP. It is a prizey piece of gear, remember.

Sound is OK, as analogue goes. I can get the sound I want out of it - short slapback. Do not compare it with digital - it is not far. It takes some time for your ears to get used ot analodue delay.

It also has a problem if placed before the 63 Tube Reverb in the effects loop of my Mesa Boogie MKIII. Makes a crushing sound, even if the level is set low.

Yeah, I think it is hard to destroy one built like this. Apart from the switches.

N/A, thank God.

I play rock and blues and variations thereof. For me, it is good, yet expensive albeit limited in it's use. Not excellent, though - specially that whining, once you know it is there can drive you nuts.

This is my first delay pedal in about 15 years of playing (I've never really been into effects), and I found it easy to work out. They give you some sample settings in their pedal catalogue. No manual required. I wanted an analogue delay before they went the way of the dinosaur. The digital ones seem too sterile to me. CM get bonus marks for having a built in power supply, which does make the pedal bigger than average. Also, an extra switch for tap (2 leds) is worthwhile and something no other analogue delay has. I believe you can hook this up in stereo to two amps if you use a single stereo cable (one stereo jack). THIS PEDAL IS NOT TRUE BYPASS as the the previous reviewer states. Its a buffered passive bypass with problems (see below). Also, CM told me about 3 months ago they were still making the Delaya and didn't mention finishing it, so check around. I guess they have a good supply of B'o'B chips.

I've had it for about 6 mths and I don't go through 'honeymoon' periods; a piece of gear has to grow on me to get praise.
I'm using a handmade hollow body tele equiped with Kinman pups (AVn-60's I think) into and Allen Old Flame (BF style 40w). Also, have a strat with Kinmans. This pedal has a real transparency about it which I prefer over the thicker 'lusher' Ibanez's for example. I think it has 500ms of delay but from 6:00 to 9:00 (ie slowest) it gets pretty noisy so I don't use it that slow mostly. It also gets squealy if you go above about 3:00 on the level knob, and as others have mentioned, if you go too high on the repeats it goes bananas. You expect some noise from an analogue delay but I find that the full range on 3 of the knobs is not very useable especially for practice and recording applications, so points off for that. The biggest fault of this pedal is that when the delay level gets high it bleeds badly over into the bypass signal (someone else noticed this below). This to me is totally unacceptable for such an expensive supposedly handmade, thoroughly researched pedal. I almost wanted to return it because of this but will avoid using higher delay levels, further limiting the pedal's usefulness. THIS DOES NOT DESERVE A 10!!! It is a fair way off being perfect and I'm holding it to a much higher standard because of its price and proclaimed quality.

No problems so far but I'm careful with my gear. The switches do seem a bit weak but hopefully they've been tried and tested for reliablility and longevity.

Not bad. I've emailed CM directly and you usually get a response from the guys that run the show within 24-48hrs which indicates they're keen on service. Of course a true test of service is when something goes wrong after they have taken your money. Time will tell.

14-15yrs playing, blues, rock, intrumental, experimental. Prefer cleaner tones which the CM works well with. The best feature of the Delaya is the transparent sound, tap feature and built in power supply. Main weakness is bleed over on higher delay settings.
OK, I'm giving this an 8 (a rating of 8 or more is excellent on my scale) despite the pedals limitations. I think its a well featured pedal which doesn't quite live up to its own potential, BUT for value it destroys the Maxon AD900 which was retailing for about $400+ when I got the CM. CM gets bonus points for not being greedy bastards ala Maxon. Here's why:
-The maxon only has 2 or 4 defunct BoB chips whereas the CM has 7!!!;
-The maxon required batteries or WW whereas CM has built in supply;
-The maxon is not a two in one pedal with a Tap switch unlike CM;
-The maxon is not handmade unlike the CM;
-I don't think the maxon can opperate in stereo and mono unlike CM (correct me if I'm wrong).
AND YET SOMEHOW THE MAXON-900 WAS SELLING FOR NEARLY TWICE AS MUCH AS THE CM PURELY BECAUSE THE BoB CHIPS USED IN THESE PEDALS HAVE RUN OUT AND THEY KNOW THEY CAN!!!!! = PURE GREED BY MAXON/IBANEZ etc. The Maxon would have been overpirced at the same price as the CM! I think you can still get the Maxon900 in some places for its rip-off price mainly bc Maxon is releasing them in small trickles to bleed as much out of people as they can. If your dead keen on an analogue delay and you don't want to donate a kidney to Maxon, get the Delaya (contact CM) which overall all is a much better deal and that's assuming that the Maxon has no squeal or bleed over problems which it probably does on high settings.

This is a very simple pedal. Turn the knobs and listen whats happening.The manual gives you a couple of settings to0

I normally play with analoque tape-echo's and that's the real sound but they are very fragile too.I have an original echoplex and a Dynacord Echocord Super but for live gigging the Delayla is the best
match there is for a stompbox. It's not noisy . You got Ventures,Hank Marvin, convincing Rockabilly ( especially with a tele )out of it.
I use this in front of a Fender Twin Reverb or for a smaller gig I use
a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. A Tip : Do not set the echo volume too high because you get a squealing tone out of it

This is solid as a tank and it has true bypass.
I would use this without a backup

Never used Customer Support

I play Rockabilly,Surf,Hillbilly,Country music and this is a analoque
delay stombox I thought I never would find.I'm playing for 15 years and I'm gigging frequently so I know what I'm talking about.If it was stolen I would buy it again but CAL MARTIN DOESN'T MAKE THEM ANYMORE !! So if you find one....buy it.
you still cab get one....buy it.

Easy to use since I only use the classic slapback setting (or a variation) that is stated in the manual.

Excellent. I play Rockabilly and Country and this pedal is an essential part of my sound. I used to play with a DD3 by Boss but found the sound of that one too metallic. This Delayla is a nice, warm and fat sounding delay.

I don't expect any problems.

Never dealt with them.

Excellent pedal. Excactly what I was after. Not cheap but the Boss DD3 is almost in the same pricerange nowadays so the Delayla definately gives you more value for money.

This unit is easy to use when adjusting the basic delay settings, the tap function which simulates a second head on a tape delay requires some experimenting to understand how it works. There is not much in the manual to explain how the tap function works. Although with only 4 settings echo, tap, time and repeat - it doesn't take long to figure out how to get a good sound out this unit.

I'm using this unit in the effects loop of a Rivera KHR55 amp, this unit is very quiet for an analog delay and best of all it does not color your sound. I have not experienced the problems mentioned on the previous posts regarding high pitched whine on the higher delay settings or hearing delay when in bypass mode at higher echo settings however for the most part I am not using settings that extreme and I'm not using the unit in a studio environment. There are analog digital delays on the market that have more character in terms of sound quality however they tend to color your sound and add more noise. The Delayla gives you the warmth of an analog delay with the clarity and lack of noise you get with the better digital delays.

Built like a brick shit house - I don't anticipate any problems.

Never had to contact them.

I play hard rock and country music - this unit works for both. The only other effects unit that I have is a TC Electronics SCF. I compared this to the Line 6 DL4,Maxon AD80 and Electro Harmonix (can't remember model)- all of these units have pros and cons however the reason I purchased the Delayla was 1)It does not color your sound, 2)It is quiet, 3)Has true bypass and 4)There is no external transformer (it is built in). Yes I would replace this unit with the same if it went missing - although these units will become increasingly hard to find as there is only a limited number left.