Electro-Harmonix Attack Delay

If you are reading this you probably know what this thing does. 5 knobs for your tweaking pleasure. This is the best tape reverse simulator available to humans. Out of the box it will take a little time to dial in what you are looking for...all good things...

There is a dramatic drop in output when you click this thing on. There is no way this thing is functional in a live situation. However, in the studio this box produces the most killer tones. I am using mid-50's Fender guitars and amps (55 Deluxe) with this box. I think this effect would sound better with higher gain amps...but at this point in my failed career, who cares. It's a rare item that was painfully ignored upon it's release in the early 80's.

So impressive is this effect that my first experience with one in 1983 haunted me until I could purchase one of my own. It's one of those "must have" stomp boxes.

Solid construction...no problems.

I just farted so loud that I woke up my dog.

Buy one of the gems now before the asking price get silly. Cool effect and I'll keep it for the rest of my life.

Not too hard to use. There's mix, sensitivity, attack, decay, and harmonics knobs. There is also a switch for "edge." The only thing which is in any way difficult is that the sensitivity knob is sometimes hard to set. If you set the pedal for single notes, a chord will cause multiple triggers. If you set it for a chord, single notes will not come through. A compressor will no doubt help. The rest is easy: mix sets the dry/wet balance, attack sets the attack time, decay sets the decay time. The harmonics knob adds harmonics to the signal. This inevitably becomes distortion, but the distortion is rather pleasing in the classic big muff sort of way. The edge switch enhances this.

I use a 66 Jazzmaster with a 66 Super Reverb amp. This pedal seems to affect slightly the high end of the guitar signal. Don't know if it's true bypass, but I suspect not. But actually, I don't care either. As opposed to my EH Microsynth, this thing actually sounds good bypassed (ie. it affects the sound in a way which is pleasing.) The sound of the effect itself is quite good. What this pedal does is duck your attack when you pluck a note, swell the volume up (attack time), then it swells the volume back down (decay time.) The backwards effects it produces are the easiest to achieve and most realistic sounding that I've heard. During atmospheric swells, the sound is haunting. During fast runs, the unit tracks very well. It does introduce its own playing technique - if you set long attack or decay times, then mute the note, you will be greeted with noise, until the volume swells back down. You must set the attack and decay times shorter, or hold the note longer. In other words, the unit can sense the beginning of your note, but it can't sense when you end it. As long as you keep this in mind, it will work well.

I can depend on it: It has been around for around 20 years. I don't need a backup. Don't know what would happen if it broke.

Never dealt with the new EH/Sovtek, but I imagine if they couldn't fix it, they'd at least try to steer me in the right direction.

This thing is great and nothing sounds like it. You'd be hard pressed to find anything that does this kind of backwards simulation with this much control. I'd buy another if I could find it around the same price I paid. It takes some getting used to though.