Carl Martin Red Repeat

Just a comment on Geno's review below--I wonder if he was using a daisy-chain type power supply? I've had similar problems with a Little Lehle looper popping and have heard that it should have its own separate power supply. Maybe that would help if anyone else is experiencing the same problem...

There is really no "manual" to speak of, but some decent support on the website with nice diagrams and sample settings to see what the pedal can do.

the controls are straight-forward and you need not be a rocket scientist to get the most from the pedal.

I was floored by the musical and warm nature of this pedal. It was tonally outstanding and the range of tones available were just right for what I was looking for (short, slap-back to medium ambient echos, warm and vintage sounding).

I bought this to use at the end of my very short pedal chain (Boss TU2 Tuner - Barber Direct Drive or LTD - RC Booster - Delay). then straight into my amp of choice (Alessandro, Bassman, or Pro Jr).

When I demo'd the pedal it was great. When I tried it out at home by itself into the amp, it sounded even better.

The Problem arose when I added the other pedals... The Red Repeat caused all my other pedal to make extremely LOUD POPPING noises when the switch was activated or deactivated. The Red Repeat also made this noise when used with other pedals.

I contacted a rep of the company about the problem and they told me that since it isn't True Bypass, it could be 'building up a charge on the input' if used with other pedals that are True Bypass. They offered to take the pedal and try to fix it with a new upgraded input switch, but I opted to exchange it for a new pedal (same one).

It worked great for one Gig, then the second pedal started to Pop as well. I gave up and returned that pedal too. I will have to go with a true bypass delay pedal if this is a problem with incompability.

I will still give a 9 in this category for tone/sound. The incompatibility issue notwithstanding.

I will use this category to grade the incompatibility. it isn't a reflection of the workmanship or quality (that seems to be well above average). But the pedal was unuseable in my situation, although not well advertised that it may not be.

I tried email contact from the website, but didn't get a response.

I made contact with a rep via a gear forum online.

That response was quick and professional and helpful.

An 7 will reflect the email non-responsivness that was made up for by the quick courteous and helpful response on the forum, although if I was not a member of the forum, I may have been out of luck.

I am a blues/jazz/classic and southern rock afficianado, but I play in a Classic Rock/Blues/Oldies/Country cover band.

Had it worked out for me, the pedal would have provided everything I needed in a delay pedal and more. I am disappointed that it wasn't compatible, since it was tonally everything I hoped for. The tone control was a huge plus!

I have played for 25 years, rarely use any FX other than overdrive for low volume gigs, but a nice delay now and again helps the tone, so I am going to start using one, just not this one.

If you use NON-TRUE BYPASS pedals, or no other pedals, this delay would be perfect for you most applications unless you are looking for mega-delay times for far out music.

I recommend that you try the pedal out with your own rig before committing to buy it.

The Red Repeat is really easy to use, very obvious what every control does, no clutter.Simple yet effective

I wanted the old rockabilly slappin echo sound and this pedal nails it. I play a Gretsch and Tele through a Marshall 100watt DSL head with a 2 x 12" Celestion Vintage 30 cabinet. It sounds great, big clean delay/ echo

So far, so good, time will tell.

No problems so far

I play rockabilly, country, jazz and even some rockin' blues with a Gretsch and a Telecaster. I've played for 30 years and only used Boss delay pedals, but my old one got trashed , so I tried the Red Repeat and have no regrets. I think it sounds warmer than the Boss delay pedal, sounds like old tape echo. It is reasonably cheap too, so I would have a hard time justifying spending more on a delay pedal as this one has the sound.

super easy to dial in a good delay

Through a twin, totally clean, it sounds incredible. Doesn't color the tone at all. I was going for an Eric Johnson type sound and it's perfect for that. You can also get vintage slapback type delay.

make sure you bring back up batteries or use an adapter. solid.

n/a

i play mostly blues rock, ala Jeff Beck, Hendrix. Use an Eric Johnson Strat and a Les Paul Standard through a Fender Twin and Marshall.

I own a Chandler Stereo Digital Echo. That is hands down the best echo I've ever owned. I tried an EH Memory Man Deluxe, but found it a little too hot in the signal. Also, no real lengthy spacey delay.

The Red Repeat is great value for the money. Most good "vintage style" echoes run about $150 to $300.

Get this pedal, it doesn't disappoint.

The overall sound is very good and tape-echolike when it is working properly. You can really get those Lee Scratch Perry dub sounds by altering the delay time while the repeat is almost at 5 o'clock.
But for the few weeks I've had this unit I've experienced serious problems with it. First of all the delay repeats started to sound distorted and fizzy and not nice at all, after a while I realised that the distorting had something to do with high power consumption of the unit, so I decided to use external power supply and it worked perfectly for one day, and after that no echo at all. The signal comes through very nice and undistorted but there's no echo at all.

Some my favorite artists/bands are Pink Floyd, Danzig, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, King Tubby, The Cure, Black Sabbath, Stumm, Bob Marley, Orbital, Massive Attack, The supremes, Mesmer( mesmermusic.net)

My gear:
Amps: Vox AC-30cc2x, Hagtr??m 310 '68

Guitars: Partially custom stratocaster(Oak body, schaller locking tuners, 2*traditional singlecoils and p-90 in bridge position.
Custom made 7-string by Jarno Salo, Yamaha APX-10, Custom 7-string acoustic(aprox.'20-'30) Maker unknown

Effects:EHX lpb-1('70), dunlop crybaby535, korg er-1 sampler, bel dd-80 studio delay, (carl martin red repeat?)

Keyboards: Eko Tiger('63), Eko K-1 Bass pedal('68)

Never

Friendly but not very professional

I play almost anything.
The effect sounded great while working.

I've played guitar since I was five so that makes 22 years of everydayguitarplaying.

The effect is really easy to use, and not hard to find the sound I am looking for.
Probably with long delays it is a bit useless, but it might be suited for certain genres.

I play with Tele (Van Zandt pickups) and Fender Bassman Reissue.

I love the sound. Probably, the low price depends on the materials, etc... so, it's not really the best unit you can get. However, it delivers THAT sound.
I had a Boss DD6 which is 3 times as expensive, but hated the way it sounded (gummy, killed all the top frequencies, etc...).
This one has a vintage-like sound.
Performs well on country music, psychedelic sounds and vintage pop-rock.
No noise.

Probably, I would like it to have shorter delays too.

It seems well made, but I didn't open it.

However, the battery doesn't last long and you need a well stabilized adaptor to make it work.

Carl Martin people are great!

This pedal gives the perfect atmosphere to the sound. I finally achieved the tone you can hear on the latest Dylan's albums.

I would like to have a second one (maybe with some mods, like shorter delays and a stereo output for the clean signal and the delay).

Totally obvious controls, visible from a good distance (listen up, Marshall!). No manual provided or necessary.

Turning Repeat control to max causes echo to feedback. I believe this is intentional, for way-out effects. It's not for me, though.

Turning Time control while effect is on and audible causes a rather interesting rising/falling pitch. May be amusing on occasion, but otherwise means you can't

No noticable extraneous noise. No pops on pressing switch. Nice natural sound - no digital harshness (even though I believe it is digital).

I am using it with a humbucker Rickenbacker 650 (not a jangly Ricky), a Marshall Bluesbreaker in pure boost mode, a teeny Sheldon TrueTone tube amp and the speakers of an old dead Rickenbacker 2x12 amp. Works well with this setup. If you max the boost from the Marshall, you can make the Red Repeat distort, but it is fine at sensible levels of boost.

I can get a subtle echo for filling out the tone, a short repeating echo for vintage sound and a variety of sillier sounds for occasional use.

Haven't had it long. Looks solid and well-made.

Looks nice. Sounds nice. Works well. Is cheap. Can't complain.

There's no Tap Tempo, which would be nice, but this not an expensive pedal, so that might be too much to ask.

Very easy and simple to use like others have stated

I am a huge fan of slap back and tape echo, sorry this is not it however for the price you get a nice quiet well made delay that can simulate slap to a small degee. It is very quiet and the tone control is a nice option that other delays dont have

hard to say have not had it long but it is solid and well built

none at this time

I am a pro who has been plaing for over 30 years I use a variety of guitars but for the most part a 56 LP GOLD TOP RE-ISSUE G@L ASTAT
1948 Epiphone Regent and a few re-issue strats all plugged into a JUKE 1210 and no other effects. Being that I dont use other effects I am real critical on how they can effect tone, I find this pedal to have great by-pass which is a plus not sure if I would replace it if lost or stolen. I use it for a few tunes if needed so its not a big deal to me if I cant get the exact classic slap sound this is close enough and quiet which is a good trade off thats why I would give it 7.

Just four knobs and voila! If you've ever used a delay pedal before you'll be up and running in seconds.

Pretty quiet even though --to my pleasant surprise-- it has a bit of sonic expansion going on. With the right overdrive/distortion it's not far off from Gilmour-like leads. (I've been using it with my '95 American Std thru an old Univox combo amp. I've yet to try it with my Gibson SG Std but don't anticipate an earth-shattering difference.)

I haven't road tested it yet.

I briefly dealt with NJ-based their American distributor --to get dealer info-- and they were friendly, funny and nice.

I'm a singer/songwriter with a bit of a hard edge, along the lines of Cheap Trick, Weezer, etc. so I need pedals that are expressive but never get in the way. The Red Repeat is such a pedal. It looks great, decently made (the 9v battery cover is a bit on the flimsy side, though) and of course sounds wonderful. Blew me away and made me really glad to have ditched my Boss DD-2.

See other reviews.

Using with a Pro Jr. It's not noisy. It always sounds good. It sounds like the echoplex work on "Fly Like an Eagle", right down to the self oscillation. You can do everything from slap echo to U2 style short loops. High quality sound, warm, not clinical.

Very rugged. Built like a Cry Baby, cast metal with a thin metal plate on the bottom. One of the last things you'd need to backup.

I ordered this because I thought it was analog. Apparently not. However, insisting on all analog may not always make sense with things like delays, flangers, etc. Analog time effects use bucket brigade chips (BBDs), and its hard to find good ones these days. The most negative thing about digital audio is that it samples the audio at a certain speed. If you think about it, so do BBDs, so there isn't much reason not to substitute a modern digital chip for a BBD in an otherwise traditional analog delay, particularly since a digital chip can operate at much higher (better) frequencies and access much more memory. This pedal sounds very good so I think that's what they've done here. I've seen this pedal described as a analog/digital hybrid in some discussions. Who knows: like most pedal manufacturers, they are providing little info about the innards.