Electro-Harmonix #1 Echo

No manual required for this one.

Okay, here's what makes this pedal unusable, and why I decided to get a refund - the knob furthest to the left, when all the way counterclockwise, makes it so you only hear the direct signal. When all the way clockwise, you only hear the repeats. I have no idea who would want to hear only repeats and not the direct signal. Any other delay pedal lets you adjust the prominence of the repeats, but doesn't make it so the direct signal is reduced the higher you turn the repeats.

What this does, is when the knob is in the middle you get half volume for the direct and repeats. If you want stronger repeats but don't want the direct signal to go down, you can't do it. I really think Electro-Harmonix blew it on this one. This pedal is unusable because of this feature.

Didn't own it long enough to find out. These newer pedals they have come out with seem stronger and more durable than what they had before. Electro Harmonix pedals are known for sounding really good and falling apart really easily.

Didn't contact them - just sent it back for a refund.

Terrible pedal because of the way that one knob works, as I explained above.

This unit is sort of a double-ended sword with regards to how easy it is to use. On the one hand, there are only three very self-explanatory knobs on it which will regulate the sound of your delay. The manual is great and explains everything perfectly, so there are no problems there. On the other hand, the three knobs used to alter your delay sound are extremely sensitive and so it's difficult to get the precise sound you're after. This becomes very obvious on the 'delay time' setting, which you have to be extremely precise with. Couple that with the fact that moving about on stage is likely to push the knobs around (your foot or a lead, for example) and you have a few problems.

The clean tone sound is on the whole quite good. It's certainly a massive improvement over a standard Boss delay pedal, which I genuinely can't stand the sound of. It also has the added bonus of being true bypass, which at this price is an absolute bargain. I'm currently using it with a Fender Twin Reverb '65 RI with a Fender Eric Johnson Signature Strat. If you've ever heard this combination then you'll understand the importance of a good delay pedal - you just want to hear each sound over and over again!

The thing has something of a lack of transparency. When you engage the pedal, some of your original sound is lost. If you turn down all of the settings and toggle between engaging and disengaging the pedal, then there is a noticeable tonal difference. However, I happen to actually quite like the difference it makes and so sometimes I will just turn all of the settings down and engage the pedal as a subtle change to the sound. It's basically like having an extra 'bright' switch on the amp, which some people may not like, but I happen to. Either way, it seems strange using a delay pedal for a purpose other than delay.

Also, this pedal suffers massively when distortion or overdrive is turned on. It makes the unit basically unuseable. The notes blend into each other and sound quite frankly horrible. So unfortunately it's a pretty appalling pedal to use with a distortion, fuzz or overdrive pedal (I use a BB Tube Driver most of the time and occasionally a Damage Control Solid Metal Distortion, but the last one is just for fun. :-))

I've gigged with it a few times and it's been absolutely fine. It's a very sturdy-feeling metal box that seems like it could take quite a beating so definitley top marks here.

Haven't ever had to deal with EHX.

For the price this is a very worthwhile pedal. Be warned, however, that it sounds pretty nasty when anything other than clean tone is used. I probably wouldn't buy it again if it were lost (although the 'bright' sound that I do like about it could possibly tempt me). As a matter of fact, I've just ordered an EHX DMM, which I'm sure is a much better unit. That said, this is by no means a bad pedal, though not without its problems. For the price, however, I'd definitley consider it.

This is a very simple delay pedal, yet if you tune in just right you can get some great delay's. For the first week i had this i didn't really like it that much, but then i found some really good settings.

It has great delays but it can also do some weird sounds too. The best settings for normal delay are, with blend at 9-11 o'clock, delay time at noon-3, and feed back at none-10. you can also do a looper kind of effect when you have the delay time and feed back all the way up, with the blend at noon, but i don't recommend it it is not very good and gets kind of annoying really fast. You can get a chorus effect with low delay time and blend and feedback at noon. You can elso get some metallic sounding echos with low delay and higher feedback.

It works fine you don't have to worry about it breaking or anything, it's pretty strong. only downside is that it doesn't have a tap tempo but beside that it's good.

Overall good delay for the price, I would recommend it to anyone who want a good delay who doesn't have a lot of money to spend on it. But I think the boss delay it still a little better but it cost a bit more, your choice.

Very easy. Plug it in - adjust 3 dials and away you go

I was looking for a simple pedal which delivers a crisp delay and doesn't alter your volume when switching on and off. This pedal delivers that perfectly. I use it mainly for a subltle delay which doesn't feedback for too long and it sounds wonderful. Granted this isn't as versatile as a boss/digitech pedal but it doesn't cause any volume jump for me, even on a pedalboard which isnt put through my amps effects loop as mentioned in a previous review. I use a TSL60 and this pedal doesnt negatively affect sound quality when using clean and distortion channels.

Can't really comment as only had it a few weeks

not used it

I prefer this pedal to other delays ive used and it looks cooler and is cheaper than alternatives. There are no gimmicks on the pedal but it is reasonably versatile and gives a great delay sound without affecting your tone.

very easy to use ,only 3 knobs

i love the sound quality. i didn't need something with 400 different delay settings. so this was perfect..
i hooked it up 2 different ways..
1st way: guitar to pedal /pedal to amp,,sounded good on clean channel, terrible on over drive channel..till you readjust your settings then it was tolerable.
2nd way: ran the pedal strictly through the effects loop, and guitar direct to amp input.. sound was wayy wayy much better on both clean and dirty
if you have an FX loop on your amp run it that way, if you dont have an FX loop it still works just doesnt sound as clean

so far so good, just bought it today but EH makes good stuff from what i know of them

havent had to yet

i play jazz, blues, metal, rock, pretty much everything except country..
been playing for about 20 years. owned lots of different gear..
but right now my rig consists of a jackson usa custom shop,,peavey valve king 112 combo a dunlop wha and this EH delay pedal

for a hundred bucks you cant go wrong, plus it sorta has a boutique look to it which i kinda like ,not your typical boss or digitech look

i compared this alongside the digitech digidelay,,ugggghhhh the digitech is absolutely horrible sounding at least to me, ive never been a digitech fan in the first place, but i gave their delay a try and it was the same price as the EH,, the EH smoked it..
digitech sucked 20 years ago and they still suck today

Easy to use and setup, 3 knobs....

Its clean.
bit boring to my ears but for $100 who's complaining?

Repeat its pretty good, sort of self oscillated but not like the out of control delays out there. Never gets painful.

The Delay time knob only really has 3/4 of its range thats useful.
Capable of chiming and weird synthy sounds but what I find lacking in this DDL is that its time control doesn't really alter the pitch in the way that a BBD(even a cheap one) will.

Now when I buy a delay thats what I want to do. I generally mod my pedals to be CV controlled and since this one doesn't do that sort of business I guess I'll be saving for a Malekko 600ms Analogue Delay dark.

I've owned EHX(well sovtek Big Muff v2 & small Stone v2) for about 16 years and they are reliable(ok so I broke a plastic input socket in a punk rock fit, but who hasn't?).
So I guess this one would be fine, metal case and jacks.

I like noisy junk to make sounds on guitar and synths. This one is capable of getting some interesting overtones but typical of an EHX pedal its a wee bit lackluster and a one trick pony(POG anyone?).

3 knobs ,no prob,in fact the only thing that threw me abit was the blend knob ,most delays just have a knob that just adjusts the level of delay ,this actully blends the dry with the wet ,if this knob is off you only hear the delay attack ,no original attack whatsoever,kinda kool.

the best delay soundwise i've owned,the only thing that came close,was a old boss analog delay i had many many years ago ,and we had that thing tweaked to the max,it was too good though for that time ,got stole pretty quick.I personally did not notice one bit of tone or volume change when i engaged mine,that right there made it well worth the money,at this time i don't have a set effects chain i use,but i will say this is always gonna be in it from now on,my amp is a old musicman 100rd(looks like new though).

looks tough ,standard metal case construction.

have never had to deal with anything yet with electr-harmonix

well,if you are one of those who only find this thing for $150.00,its worth every penny.but most are around $100.00,so yes i'd say its a monster value.might even lower the value of some of those overpriced analog units.oh,and buy with the adapter,its not a big thing but most dealers are throwing those in,and its the oddball negitive tip 9v adapter,same as boss.

It's only three knobs, so it's not rocket science in the least. The rate knob is a bit touchy, because there's 2 seconds of delay stuffed somewhere in this box. I pretty much only need 500 ms of delay, but it's nice to know that I have more if I need it. I love the design of this pedal. It's so simple and effective. Way to go EH!

I'm very torn on this box. I wanted a new delay, because I was using a Boss PS-2, and I felt it was too noisy and sucked tone. I used to own a Memory Man, and that was THE best delay ever. Unfortunately, I can't justify the pedalboard real estate for that thing. So, I sold that and bought this, thinking it may just be a simplified approximation of the Memory Man. Much to my chagrin, I was wrong.

As far as digital delays go, this is pretty nice. Doesn't sound analog at all to my ears, it's WAY too clean. Repeats on this thing are crystalline, and fade quickly to my ears, even with the feedback control pretty high up. No mud to be had here.

I notice a significant volume loss when this pedal is kicked in with my setup, which is a major bummer for me. I also notice that it does not like distortion too much at all, and makes the repeats sound (dare I say it) even harsher than my Boss PS-2 did. A major bummer. The effect does seem weak to me. I don't think the pedal is broken or anything, but maybe I got a dud, because the reviews below are so glowing.

This pedal isn't noisy at all in my setup, and from what I can tell, it does not suck tone. My setup is Ernie Ball volume pedal > Peterson StroboStomp > Line 6 FM4 > Boss PS-5 > Digitech DigiVerb > MXR Blue Box (volume fix mod) > Arion Phaser (great for weird phase sounds!) > Boss CE-2 > EH #1 Echo > Keeley modded Rat (GREAT pedal) > Akai E2 Headrush > Boss mini Loop Station > Morley A/B switch, which all goes to 2 amps: a Peavey Road Master and a Peavey Rock Master. I always set my pedals in this configuration, so it's a bit unusual to me that this pedal sticks out as the weakest link.

I imagine it's a dependable pedal, but I've had mixed luck with EH pedals. I personally have experienced two Holy Grails die on me, and a friend of mine had a Micro Synth which crapped out on him. However, EH kicks ass and fixes pedals for cheap, so that's really cool. I plan to gig with it extensively, unless I figure out a way to buy something better before then.

I've never dealt with them personally, but from all accounts they do a kick ass job of fixing broken pedals, with quick turnaround and low repair rates. I'm pro, pro this.

I play post rock/metal in a band, and have an ambient guitar duo with a friend. Delay is a huge part of my sound, and I'm very picky. This pedal may grow on me, we'll have to see. I've been playing for 14 years and have owned just about every piece of gear imaginable. If this got stolen, at this juncture I'd probably buy something else. I wish EH could build a Memory Man that was stompbox sized. That'd be the most amazing pedal probably. But, for now I'll settle for this.

Very simple 3 knobs. One for delay sound level, one for delay time, and one for delay feedback (or repeat). It makes this unit very intuitive.
This is probably one of the easiest to pedals to get a good sound out of EVER!

There is a little bit of tone sucked by this thing, but it's barely noticeable. The only thing that I don't like about it is that when you turn the delay time knob below 10 o'clock, you can't even tell that the pedal is on... I was expecting a chorus type effect... but oh well.

The long delay on this thing KICKS BUTT! On full feedback you can make this lil pedal repeat indefinately. Creativity is freed again!

There is no battery... just an included AC Adapter. It seems very solidly built.

NA

This has very quickly become by far my favorite pedal. By reading the below reviews I was expecting a nice delay, but this thing blew me away! (factoring in cost, it is an actual 10!) If it was lost or stolen I would get a new one right away.

I've been playing on and off for over 17 years now.

My setup looks like this:
Cort Z42 with stock neck and EMG HZ bridge pickup ->Rocktron Black Cat moan wah -> MXR Super Comp -> Bad Monkey -> #1 Echo -> Fender Blues Jr.

Three knobs...very intuitive use, I found it easy to use first gig
out and make changes on the fly to adapt to various tunes/styles

R7, PRS Santana III, Or Am Dlx Strat>EH Small Stone>Modded Vox wah>
#1 Delay>Mesa Lonestar or Heartbreaker

We gig heavily, semi-pro, and play a range from Clapton to funk and disco, Floyd to Motown.


I am very picky about tone, and delays. The thing that prompted me to write this review, (may be first time I've ever submitted a review, or at least it's been years), is that there was nothing on HC about this pedal yet, and I wanted to let you know how good this thing sounds.

First delay I have ever liked out front, rather than in effects loop.
Great, warm tones. No noise, loading, and it's true bypass. And it's small!

I wanted to quit gigging my beloved '69 tube echoplex. I have tried:
Keely modded Ibanez AD, Ibanez Modulation delay, Ibanez AD 909, Dano
Dan Echo, Bodd dd-3, dd-6, and back before the Echoplex I owned a Chandler Digital Echo, and I sprung for a Full Tone Tube Tape Echo for a while.

I love my echoplex, but the sound has weakened over the years and it's just not practical to keep having it repaired. I think the Chandler is awesome as well, and had decided to buy another one, but I kept getting outbid on them, so when I saw this new one from EH, a company whose products I really like since they went all true bypass, I decided that at $99, I had to try it.

I have already played two gigs with it and it's stunning. Sounds very much to me like the Chandler. I've used it for Stax/Volt and rockabilly slap back to big long delays, from sputtery noisey repeats like old Neal Young records to Pink Floyd-y and
many points in between. can go from in your face to subtle and
the greatest thing is that it's easy to set where it sounds good on both your clean and dirty settings. This is often a problem with delays for me, if I get analogue warmth, it usually comes with some wool on the tone, and many of the tunes we play need pristine, direct to board percussive cleans, with a repeat, this thing nails it. But it's not glassy, spiky, or sterile like most digitals. Finally, one thing I've always thought about EX stuff is that
it sounds as good with humbuckers as single coils, and to my ear many pedals only sound good with singles. This one likes both.

Well, I've used Small Stones for years. They have never 'quit' on me, since they went back to manufacturing in New York. I don't expect this to last forever, but at the price I can buy a back up
and still save hundreds versus the next option of this quality.

I bent the input jack for the 9v input for the Small Stone nano I bought when they came out. I called and they did offer to warranty it. before going through the hassle of sending it back, I opened it up and realized I really hadnn't hurt anything and didn't send it. but they were great about it.

I have played for 25 years. I plan to buy an extra, and if it were lost, yes, I would replace it.

I would add that the manual warns that you have to use a particular adapter. I ignored this and used my one spot on it and so far no trouble at all. I will add to this review if it should suddenly go up in smoke due to my use of the alternate power supply.

Let me say this in closing...I hate the glut of sunshine, all 10's uncritical reviews on HC, and this is not one of those. This product just really deserves it, in my opinion.