Ibanez AD 100 Analog Delay

This beast of a machine took me some time to master and even then the ad100 has close to as many variables as a small solar system. I have spent close to seven years with one as a very close companion and can say its more like orchestrating a theremin than attacking your 'average' delay. Once conquered this thing makes you the king and I have scared many an unsuspecting listener by sending it off its dial at some dingy small venue.

Flawless, I couldn't picture a better sound. I like to play very rythmic old time blues, spaghetti western, freak out, psych type rabble and when me and this baby are on, setting the delay tone close to seven and playing a river running J.J Cale type number you can call me the breeze. This thing eats tone and spews it forth with a whole new dimension of sonics you previously thought not possible making for a very rewarding sonic travel

Like a German built tank. You need a heat seeking motor missile to disarm this mother! The input jacks on mine have slightly loosened since the seventys but hey, most people from the seventys arent holding up well as this machine does!

If it falters find a crackpot engineer from back in the day who hopefully knows what he's doing

I never bought this machine I was given it by luck of the gods by a legend harmonica player named Wal who used this thing solely for harmonica!! seriously wild stuff. I produce vintage concept blues type albums, pretty outthere type music while also playing very smooth surf rock rythmic desert blues. I have been able to get this unit to the point where I am able to harmonise tonally to chord progressions being played, not easy but all there notes are in the somewhere, not for the weak of heart for I have near killed myself many times balancing notes on the edge of oblivion during the master record. I have used the ad100 and an old roland space echo on the same song and the differences make them very sweet to accompany one another. I have heard it sparingly on artists recordings but when I do hear it you can tell its the Ibanez from a mile away, very satisfying. Heading into deep space nine with a variable array of very sharp contrast pedals and effects is my favourite and takes quite some time before it becomes tonal sounds over blur of noise. A beautifully unique piece of sonic engineering.
I am in the market for another one, if anyone has one to sell please contact me thankyou.

5 knobs: Input Volume, Delay Time, Repeats, Delay Level, Dry Level

Two slightly tricky things. The first is setting up the input volume so that you get good volume without overloading the unit. The unit has a "peak input" overload LED that flashes when your signal overloads the delay chip, but so far I've never noticed any unacceptable delay degradation through overloading. Apparantly you can't hurt the chips by overloading them but I leave at at about 5.5 anyway. This results in a quiter signal overal than if I was running straight into the amp.

The second is the sensitivity of the repeat knob. Your unit will start feedbacking if repeats are rolled past 4. Even set at 2 it has something close to 8 repeats. Tiny, delicate turns required if you want to dial in a specific number of repeats

Quite a hazy, lo-fi analogue delay tone. Where this unit really excels is in softly blending with you dry signal for general ambience or faux reverb. It's fantastic at this - much better than the highly regarded Arion SAD-1 analog delay it replaced, and much more organic sounding than any digital reverb pedal I've heard. Also functions well for rockability slapback delay sounds. However the unit has neither the clarity of attack or delay time available for use in creating U2-esque rhythmic patterns. 300ms maximum (though there may be internal trimpots to tweak - I haven't investigated yet). You'll need another delay for this purpose.

Because it has separate dry and effect levels you can set it up to have the repeats louder than the dry signal, which is an interesting effect that, as far as I know, very few (if any) stompbox delays can do. Also, by turning the dry level, delay time and repeats to 0, the unit functions as something of a 'lo-fi~ier' - all you can hear is the heavily filtered lo-fi delay signal yet because the delay time is at 0 there is a barely noticeable delay between you hitting the strings to the sound coming out of your amp. Sounds like a vintage analog type recording (like a real-time Zvex lo-fi loop junkie) which has its applications. Also, feedbacks like crazy, which is good for those Karma Police type outros.

Made in Japan in the late 70s or early 80s. Perhaps the renaissance of guitar effect production. Seems quite sturdy, so much so that I've contemplated putting it on my board and putting a few stompboxes on top.

The price of analogue delays has really skyrocketed in the past few years. I paid the equivalent of US$80 for this. I've read the AD100 being compared to the Ibanez AD80 (they're of the same vintage) - if you can find one of these pedals you can expect to pay at least $300 for it. The sacrifices made in terms of bulky size and AC only power restrictions are well worth the ~$150-200 saving in my opinion. This unit has a jack for a footswitch, so can be switched on or off on the fly.

Pick one of these (or a similar Ibanez or Roland "desktop" delay) up while they're still flying under the radar. Fantastic value.

Very easy to use!! I love Knobs on effect units!!!

I own several Strats,1 Tele,2 L.P. customs,2 Heritage Milleniums,and 3 Electra's(Motsomuko/Japan).JMP-1 Preamp,and a Triaxis Preamp.
Very low noise on the AD-100.
I very much appreciate the previous review/reviewers! I had never heard of this unit and I was in the market for a warm,classic sounding analog delay.After reading the reviews I bought one on Ebay.I am absolutely in Love with this delay!! As the other reviewers wrote it is indeed one of the warmest delay I've heard!!
I have owned an RE-201 & RE-501 Space echoes as well as several digital delays including a lexicon PCM-41 and an Eventide Harmonizer and honestly feel that the AD-100 and my AD-202 are my favorites!
Thanks again to the previous reviewers!!

Built very well!

N/A

I play all styles,but mostly classic rock (led
zep,Hendrix,Trower,etc.)I've been playing for 25 years.I own several Strats,1 Tele,2 L.P. customs,2 Heritage Milleniums,and 3 Electra's(Motsomuko/Japan).JMP-1 Preamp,Triaxis Preamp,Roland VG-8/GR-09 Synth.And several stomp boxes.If the AD-100 were lost/stolen I would be really SAD!! and would absolutely try to find another one to buy!I also bought (buy a previous reviewers recommendation)an AD-202 which as he stated is another INCREDIBLE delay!! I sincerely thank and agree with the previous reviewers!!!

Not only easy, but a lot of fun. Totally dial in whatever you need.

Oh my God, this thing is IT!! Burned thru many analog delays in my time, and this is the only one that I can really count on to do it RIGHT besides my AD-202 of course which is also pretty fantastic!

Indestructable. Not cheap plastic. All metal & heavy duty! Works like a charm without problems year after year.

I dont know.

If you want analog delay, dont fool around with crap. This baby is what you want. If you get one, you will never crave a better one.
This one and the AD-202 are just awesome in my opinion. You cannot go wrong with the AD-100....but finding one is a tough job, so be prepared to do some hunting. You will be very glad you did.

i too was having trouble with the unusable REPEATS knob, but once i figured out how to adjust the micropots inside (thanks to the previous post) all was well! i bought a BOSS FS-1 footswitch and now it is as easy to use as any delay stompbox.

this is the nicest delay i've ever heard, and keep in mind that i also own a BOSS DM-2, an IBANEZ AD-9 (also sweeeeet!) and an SIB ECHODRIVE. it almost has a tape-loop sound to it. one of the coolest things to do is to turn off the 'dry' signal completely so you just hear the delays. as i said, nothing compares so far.

i can't really say so far, as i've only had it a few months, but i am going to treat it like it's the last one on earth. the box is metal and the frontplate and knobs are plastic. it seems sturdy.

this thing is SO nice that words can't really describe it. i had been in a real musical slump for a few months and buying this unit has made me want to play again. what more can i say? pick one up if you see one!

dead simple analog delay. c'mon, guys.. open it up, there's a micropot that'll adjust the repeats how you want it.

had mine for a week now - I'm pleasantly surprised by how little line noise this unit has.. it sounds like it's got less high end to it that i remember analog delays (been digital for awhile..)

opened it up and discovered big cabinet analog delays are fun to mod.. mine's about to get gristlized.. detune the finetune micropot for the delay time and everything goes good and haywire.. just an awful sound. yep, I'm a tweaker.

can't say yet.. looks plenty solid and still ticking..

i'm using this thing for electronic project studio, so i'm going to play it like i play any other piece of gear.. take the plastic frontpiece off and there's room for 1/2 dozen more switches and knobs..

For a "knobs on face" device, this old Ibanez delay is harder to use than it looks. It has the normal set of delay length and feedback dials, but the killer (and it is either a monstrous plus or a major negative, depending on what you want it for) is that it does the analog-delay feedback "flying saucer" effect anywhere between 4 and 10 on the dial for feedback on most delay settings. Curiously, this vanishes if you throttle the delay time to maximum (and only to maximum).

In other words, don't expect to sit down with this unit and have great sounds that you thought would occur right out of the store. Take some time and play with it, though, and you'll be rewarded.

Even after persistent use, the level at which the delay turns into a feedback loop varies from time to time, based on input signal from what I can tell. That said, it is a wonderful unit.

I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality on this unit; it has a sound very similar to my old RE-301 tape echo, without anywhere near the background noise or hiss. It is particularly sensitive to output volume as far as boosting noise, but that may also be because I'm running it in a sensitive effect loop on my Fender Deluxe 112.

It has that beautiful analog delay tone you'd expect; repeats don't sound thin or distorted or anything but good.

It's lasted 15+ years from date of manufacture. What more can I say?

I doubt they'd know what it was.

If you're looking for the beautiful echo of old albums and shows, this unit has that perfectly. It won't do the 800+ ms long echoes that digitals will, but it is absolutely stellar at what it does. It doesn't suck tone; if anything, this is an effect which actually adds it. Assuming you take the time to learn the beast, it won't disappoint.

i was looking for an analog delay, an old boss or ibanez AD9, and up pops this unit. it's the same circuit as the AD9, but much larger and with more controls for fine tuning. specifically, it's about 2 rack spaces high and about 2/3 the width, so it fits quite nicely on top of my amp; the controls are: input level, delay speed (down to about 300ms, i think), delay intenity (or feedback), and both dry and delay output levels, along with a remote bell-type footswitch. spin the knobs and go go go daddy! please be careful with the feedback knob, though. unlike most delay units (analog & digital), once you get past about 6 or 7 (depending on the delay level), it just GOES....... fun, but not real musical.

i use a custom jazzmaster w/real hot p/up's and an ES-335 copy through a handful of old distortion and modulation boxes, into the ibanez unit, into a 70's fender pro reverb, so there will obviously be some signal noise. the ibanez unit doesn't add much noise, in comparison to other analog delays i've used, probably due to the large size. it works wonderfully as a slapback unit or faux reverb; i can get the edge's early u2 sound out of it, as well as sheets of sound ala low's "do you know how to waltz?" or flying saucer attack. it won't do long, crystaline delays, but, that's why i bought analog to begin with...

bulletproof... but i treat it carefully, as i have never seen another and would hate to try and replace it. i do use an AD9 as a backup (or as a 2nd delay for more fun), but i picked up the AD9 for $25, so of COURSE i have a back-up...

no clue. none at all...

if i ever have to replace this, i'll die... i tried the new AD99 as well as the dod echoplex emulator, and COMBINED i could get enough delay out of them... this is the single best effect i've ever tried...