DeltaLab Effectron II ADM 256

one effect at a time,I was using this effectron unit with my PA but have recently joined a one guitar band and need to thicken my sound.great flange,chorus and echo effects...thought the delay time is relatively short

sounds great,enuff said

so far I have had no breakdowns,and Im a guy that has had something in the "chain" quit working in mid set a lot of times.

I recently joined a band that has a lot of diff guitar sounds in its music,the EFFECTRON II matched most of them,and they were made from a line6 POD unit.

I picked up my ADM 256 on Ebay. When I first plugged it in it made horrible static. I cleaned up the pots and jumpered across the 256 (ms) selection switch and... lo and behold... the nicest delay I've ever heard. Mind you, I had the top off and guitar picks stuffed behind the faceplate to keep the static from returning. Patches are easy: There aren't any! Everything is knob selected or pushbutton. If you like a patch you had better write down the settings. The manual is very indepth but has no schematics. Once I fix the control panel it will be extremely easy to get all the sounds I want without the current problems. With all vintage effects there is a bit of caveat emptor so I'm not too upset with my gear. If you have a chance to get one in good repair you should jump at it because they sound wonderful. Unless you are handy on a technical level stay away with ones with apparent problems.

I'm using a Gibson Les Paul through a Vox Pathfinder amp with the Effectron. I also use a Realtube overdrive, Vox wah and an Akai Intelliphase analog phaser. The effectron does comb filtering, flanging, flanging with feedback, doubling, slapback, tuned resonance, pre-reverb delay, infinite repeat (64-256 ms) and vibrato. It has an onboard modulator which in certain settings can really whack out your sound to the point where notes become totally unintelligible semirandom sequences of burbling cacophony. The unit makes a great flanger, excellent chorus and a great freakout anti-music device. The sound quality is really perfect as long as you don't turn the input pad up too high -- my Les Paul causes a bit of clipping above "7". That's about 2 o'clock on the dial. Artists? Galaxie 500, Cocteau Twins, Pink Floyd, Cure, Police... any band that uses shimmery delays. The infinite repeat is a bit short on the 256 but I'm looking at ways to mod that and increase the delay time.

Rating: 6 before I fix it and 10 after. The unit is built really well and as soon as I replace the dirty potentiometers and switches I'd feel totally comfortable taking it out on a gig... it's rackmount and the bypass control can be footswitched. The delay factor can be controlled by a 5 volt expression pedal. I plan to mod the unit to give an infinite repeat foot pedal as well. So, it will be pretty much set and forget operated by total remote control.

Good f**ing luck. As far as I know DeltaLab folded or was swallowed up so good luck on repairs. I might start repairing them myself if there is a demand. It will be really hard to find the original style latching pushbutton switches. I don't even know if I'd trust taking the unit to someone for repair. I typically repair all my own equipment.

When I play guitar it's pretty much space rock or ambient anti-music. I've been playing guitar at least 10 years. If the 256 were stolen or lost I'd probably get a Blacet Research Time Machine kit and turn it into a stompbox. I love the freakout modulator. I hate the short delay time. My favourite feature is the strange stereo simulation. I didn't compare this product to anything else. I have a friend who played me a tape he had made with just an effectron and drums and I fell in love with the sound. I wish all the front panel controls jacked out to expression pedals. The effectron really helps me out as delay is one of my favourite effects.