Marshall EH-1 Echohead

Okay, it's a delay pedal...anything other than a ten here and you really need to scrutinize the review. This pedal is as easy as it gets. Plug it in, choose right (mono) or left or stereo. If in mono, using left channel has a natural decay when you turn it off...right channel gives you immediate delay stop. My favorite patch is the reverse echo.

My set-up is very simple. Carvin guitar> Pitch-Black Tuner> Compressor> Bad Monkey> Regenerator> EchoHead> Marshall JCM 900...all in front of the amp.

It has HiFi, Analog, Tape Echo, a Multi-Tap, Reverse, and a spectacular Modualtion Filter. Lots of choices. The delay time goes up to 2000ms and it has Feedback control and a level control.

The unit is surprisingly quiet. I've had no problems with noise of any type. It does alter the overall sound just a tad but then again I do not try to sound like someone else...I use it to get my own particular sound. As far as the sound quality of the different patches, I have no complaints. Every one of them is distinct and different in it's own right. I'll give it a 9 as it does alter the sound but again, I don't know of any delay pedal that doesn't.

I use this pedal religiously as it is a part of my overall sound. It is always on. It takes to daisy chaining very nicely with your power supply (I use the OneSpot with NO problems at all). I have owned this pedal for two years now and I use it on Sundays at my church for two services, sometimes three depending on Sunday night. We also rehearse for 2-1/2 to 3 hours on Tuesday night and for another 2 hours on Saturday so it gets used quite a bit. It's built like a tank although I'm beginning to notice the actual switch seems to be getting a little loose (but I stomp pretty hard).

Never had to deal with Marshall regarding a failure however, I have emailed them questions in the past regarding some of their other products and they have always responded.

I play alot of classic rock and Christian rock. I have been playing now for 40 years. I use primarily Carvin guitars, Marshall and Carvin amps. This pedal goes well with everything I have. If it gets lost or stolen I will buy another tomorrow. It has a very small footprint (smaller than my Bad Monkey).

This, I think, is a rocker's delay pedal. If you want pristine clean you need a tape echo...but if you're a rocker this is it.

I wish it came with a tap tempo pedal but that would probably drive the price up another 50 dollars.

I'll be real honest about why I chose this pedal from the start. I have an early 90's Marshall JCM 900 and have never had a problem with it (it's now 17 years old) so I just figured with that kind of reliability I would try the EchoHead. I am NOT disappointed. I've tried all the rest of the boutique echo pedals but nothing has convinced me to buy anything else.

My first proper effects review so I might not hit all the necessary points.

This is a fairly simple Delay pedal.
Four knobs: Model, time, feedback and level

6 delay models, choose your model, set the delay time and level, then stomp on it.
Max delay time is 2 secs

Model 1 = HiFi
Model 2 = Analogue
Model 3 = Tape echo
Model 4 = Multi-tap
Model 5 = Reverse
Model 6 = Mod Filter

The only problem I have is that you can never see where your setting is while standing, because the black line indicating the positions of the knobs are virtually invisible on the chrome background.

From my guitar (Ibanez RG/Dean Z79) I go Boss Tu-2 >> Morley Bad Horsie 2 >> Marshall Jack hammer >> Boss Ch-1 >> Marshall Echo head >> then to my amp (Laney lg35r).

This pedal isn't noisy at all, the only pedal that causes hiss is the Jack Hammer when it's switched on. The sound you get is great for the price, I don't use all the models on it, only the first 3, i have no need for extra modulation or reverse delay. HiFi is the standard digital delay. Analogue is a great setting and the one I use the most, the repeats don't break up to much, but just enough.

I bought this pedal just to add something extra to my sound, as I always felt something was missing, it does a great job.

Well I advise anyone who buys a Marshall pedal NOT to use batteries, they don't like it and often fail to output a sound at an audible level, Mine came with the battery already connected, and after a few uses with the battery and power supply the battery was dead, so I took it out and it worked fine. So only use a power supply. It works fine so far in a daisy chain and I don't seem to have any problems.

I would use it without a backup definitely (I cant afford 2 of everything anyway) My other Marshall pedal has done dozens of gigs and apart from a few scratches it's fine. Easily withstand a bomb blast hehe.

P.s Don't put this (or any Marshall pedal) in a bag with other pedals if you don't like scratches. It marks other things easily and puts a great dirty grey mark on most finishes.

Never dealt with them

I play 70's and 80's hard rock, lately having a fad with the Scorpions, so a fairly high gain sound is needed, and it doesn't distort or disagree with the other pedals in my chain. If it was stolen or lost i would buy it again as soon as possible seeing as it does almost everything a DD-6 does, but at half the price. It does have an external tap tempo but i'm yet to buy a tap tempo pedal (there isn't one included). I do wish it had numbers around the 'Delay time' knob so you could see how many MS its repeating at but i can live without that.

If your looking for a cheap delay pedal that just adds an extra something to your sound, but at the same time has a fair amount of features, go for this pedal. I don't think there is another pedal that does what the EH-1 does in the same price range. Excellent pedal.

I use a boss fs-5u tap tempo pedal and i'm getting the delay tap I desired from the Marhall EH-1 and that's very easy. Just make sure the polarity is set correctly.

From clean to overdrive/distortion sound, the delay coming out was smooth. When doing some volume swell with the delay, it sounds perfect. I used a yamaha rgx and a line 6 spider amp.

Its solid.

N/A.

Perfect. But definitely need a tap tempo pedal as well. And is affordable compared to other expensive delays.

Standard digi delay layout, so it's easy to get decent sounds from it straight up. Just a stock delay. The six modes are great.

The fact that you can choose whether to make the delays stop immediately when you turn the effect off or let them trail is a bonus. (Only in mono. You choose by selecting the output: left output = trail. right = immediate stop. (I think I got that the right way round. You get the idea anyway.) ) This i a great feature on such a cheap unit. AND tap tempo as well. Great value.

Fender Jag, Mustangs and strat->Boss limiter->Boss auto wah->ProCo Rat->Electro Harmomix Little Big Muff->Boss hi-band flanger->MXR Phase 45->Carl Martin tremolo->Echohead->Laney LC-30 valve combo or Vase Trendsetter Delux valve head and Marshall 212 cab.

The tape delay mode is SO good. Analog is good but not quite as warm as ideal. Digital delay is perfect and crisp. Multi tap is ok but hard to master. I cannot find a use for reverse but maybe that's cause I play mostly rhythm and obviously it's going to have difficulty tracking and reversing six notes at once.

The filter delay is good but frustrates me sometimes. Sometimes you use and it's all up in your face (in a good way). Other times, you can barely detect it. I don't know what it's based: is it strumming volume, like an old envelope filter?? Don't know.

All the knobs work like they should. I made a tap tempo footswitch myself for about $5 and it works fine with the unit. No discernible noise or digi artefacts. No tone suck when bypassed.

At the end of the day, I never turn it off. It's always on, in either tape or analog mode. It doesn't sound perfect but it's a nice, solid tone, especially for a digital emulation.

****PLEASE READ****

I noticed one thing. It doesn't like any kind of short power interruptions or shorts, even elsewhere in your signal chain. It flicks off then on again, the LED comes on but there's no delay. Switch it off then on again at the wall, and you're good to go. I have no idea why it does this but it's like clockwork.

I discovered it because another pedal on my board shorted out sometimes (my dodgey cables). When it did, everything went off then came back on again, except the delay wouldn't work. It did it several times, all under exactly the same circumstances. When I discovered that, it actually motivated me to fix all the dodgey cables on my board, so it's all good.

I'm wondering how many of these (and other Marshall in the same line may have the problem too)get returned because of this. Mine almost did. And the store wouldn't have had a clue and would have just given me a new one. I also wonder how many of the reliability complaints below are caused by this.

Never used, so wouldn't know.

Let's face it, unless you have Dave Gilmour's guitar tech (and money), there's always going to be something you wish every effect (or amp or guitar) had. This does what it's meant to very nicely.

RE: if it got stolen. Man, there are some violent musicians out there. If it gets stolen, go buy another one or a similar product. Don't hacksaw someone's limbs for a $50 pedal. It's only stuff. Get over it.

Great pedal, especially for the price. Solid, nice tones, good variety, good emulations.

When I first tried this unit, I just wanted to replace an old analog pedal which had gone bad... Arion SAD 1, which was ok, warm sounding, but some component had let the "time" fail. Back to the Marshall. I'm an old codger who grew up in the sixties with the likes of the Shadows and the Beatles,and we,[our band] had a Klempt Ekolette, which was one of the better tape echoes at the time, so I was familiar with how they should sound. This story will continue next paragraph, but to answer the main Question...easy to use, except for the previous complaints of hard to see dials, and you must use an independent REGULATED wart like a BOSS. The unit does not like daisy chains or incorrect voltages.

Continuing the saga. I'm mainly talking about instrumental songs here, for I've found that a little echo in a vocal is ok but gets too cluttering if used too much. Guitars and amps are mostly immaterial here but it goes without saying that a good valve[tube] amp is best. If you are after instrumental quality sounds, the single coils probably rule. Now to the nitty-gritty. Firstly, the Marshall does thin out the core guitar sound, but this can be adjusted with eq on the amp. My wart does seem to produce some hum [someone else mentioned this],but in a band context, it doesn't matter. Now here's the good bit. Everyone else has dismissed the multi-tap setting and I can only conjecture it's because most guys haven't ever used genuine old tape echoes, because maybe they are a bit young to have seen the early sixties. The old tape echoes had the ability to have the tape heads switched in or out as seen fit, unlike delay pedals which will only give you regular spaced repeats. The multi-tap setting is the only sound I've heard that comes close to old tape settings. On a clean note it will stretch your sound without that annoying repeat breaking up the note. On a palm muted note, you will hear the way tape echoes used to sound, a la Hank Marvin. Naturally you have control over repeats and timing. Without going to the extremes of complicated downloads of "echoes of the past" or whatever, and the expensive hardware associated with it, you can get a very good facsimile of the bygone instrumentals. I love it.

So far it has not given trouble. I was initially baffled when it wouldn't work daisy chained, and when the voltage from a non regulated wart wouldn't work it either. The instructions mentioned none of this.

Never tried to get in touch, but I'd like to buy another as a spare.

My style of music, if you hadn't guessed, is a bit old fashioned, and mostly clean stuff. Started playing in the sixties, left it all alone for a long time and got into it again five years ago, and what a ball I'm having. Smorgasbord with gear and information, and new songs. Anyone ever remember how hard it was to buy a guitar back then? And then try to figure out how to play the latest surfing hit played on your auntie's scratchy old HMV? I guess I like this pedal for it's one particular feature, which I might have mentioned, but the other features are quite usable also, just like a regular delay. I have never heard another delay with the multi-tap feature, except for a vintage[as digital goes] rack mount Boss unit.

Is easy of use i havent any problem with it

Its only one bad thing this stompbox is not transparent especially when I use it with 3rd chanel in my Marshall 6100 sound become plastic tranzistor i really dont like it.
My second guitarist have a boss delay and I can compare it to my marshall, boss was better, now I buy Akai headrush and this stomp have better transparency of sound than marshall too.

for this price i want better sound not only beauty design

very easy to use. Buttons are little too shiny, therefore you cannot see very well the level mark on them. Beauty has it's cost over here:)

Ok. This thing really blows away. Tape delay and analog mode are one of the best i've ever heard (except original tape delays - their warmth is unbeatable... but it would be unfair to compare this stomp with em, right?).
If you need delay and dont have money to spend, GO FOR IT!
It will get 9.

no problems for me.

not needed

I play rock and blues. Strat, Tele, SG - works fine with all of them.
Really nice pedal:)

This is a basic delay/echo stompbox. Good, solid design and not a real estate hog on the pedal board. Easy to use. 4 knobs. Mode, Rate, Feedback, and Level. Simple and straight forward operation. My biggest (and only) complaint is on stage, it is almost impossible to read the settings because the knobs are so shiny. I haven't come up with a fix for this yet, but Marshall should take note. Several other reviewers have made suggestions, I just haven't figured which to use yet.

There is also an input for a tap tempo. This requires a separate switch and the Marshall switch advertised on their website is not available in the US. I use a Boss FS-5U and it works just fine. The tap capability makes this pedal MUCH more desirable than non-tap and even those such as the Boss or Digitech where you have to hold your pedal down 3 seconds and make a wish or something. Here, you just tap away and it works great.

Also, there are two outputs. One standard and the other allows for natural decay of the effect. When you turn the switch off, there is no abrupt shutoff. Only a nice, natural decay. All delays should have this feature.

I don't notice any tone changes with my setup. When the effect is off, signal is good and no noise.

Sounds:

HiFi - Typical digital delay accurately reproduces what goes in.
Analog - Warmer sounding. This is my favorite.
Tape - Also a favorite. Electronic simulation of old style EchoPlex or other tape machines. This setting sounds good with distortion.
Multitap - OK. Don't use this one much. Too much going on here for me.
Reverse - Interesting and I've actually incorporated this effect into 2 or 3 tunes. Fun for an occasional solo, but once or twice a night is plenty.
Modulation - Sounds fine. I never use the setting, though. A bit of a chorus type effect with delay.

My favorites are the analog and tape. They are the most natural sounding with my setup.

Pedalboard setup is: BuddaWah > TS9 > Marshall Regenerator > Ernie Ball Jr.Volume > Echohead w/tap >

Guitars used are American Strat with Roland synth, Gibson ES-335.
Amps are Fender Vibrolux, Fender Blues Jr., Tech 21 Trademark 60 with additonal PowerEngine cabinet.

Overall, I love the sound and playability of this box. It was exactly what I needed.

Built solid. I gig without a backup, but I have backups. Just don't take them. If it goes out, I'll take it out of the chain until the end of the night, then go get another off my shelf.

Sent an email to the company asking about the tap switch shown on the website. Got a reply in about a day that they weren't available in the US. Bummer about the switch, but the response was good. This is the only experience I've had with CS, but I was impressed to get a quick answer.

I play classic rock, blues, jazz, and have since classic rock was the "new stuff". Began playing at 9 years old. Now 50+. If stolen or lost, I'd buy this again. Nice features, sound and value for the money.

Once I get a mix and a feedback setting, I'm good to go. Tap out the rate depending on the tune and there you go.

I really don't like the fact that the knobs can't be easily read. That, IMHO, is the worst thing about this pedal. Otherwise, a great little box.

I'm going to vary a bit from the guidelines a little bit and give a review based on just the equipment I use. When I read some of the reviews, they come across a little as bragging...ie 'I use PRS custom guitars, several other effects, a super distorto nut cruncher amp and a kazoo....well maybe not a kazoo...anyway, I'll tell you what I used this effect with and how it worked, I'm not going to go on about what I own but rather what I tried with this unit.
This effect falls in the category of pretty easy to use, but don't buy this if you like to change settings 3 times during a tune. Little turns make a big difference, and this pedal will go into the noisy endless repeat mode if you let it....in other words if you turn the knobs too far in that direction.
They gave this pedal 6 modes, I think it would have been a better design if they stayed in one mode and it had a more 'open', less intense sounding delay. I guess it was a business decision in that regard as it is a minor cost to include that feature in the circuit card.
However, because an idiot cannot deal with these added features I give it a non-idiot proof 8.
The same guy can't slow down on the highway because there's a gas pedal in the car...but we won't have to worry about him for long will we?

This is where the rubber meets the road....the bullet hits the rhino...you get the picture... I have tried this with only my amps, not at some music store with a bunch of people in my face trying to sell me something while the guy in the corner plugs into a Splawn an cranks it to 11.

This is what I tried:
Guitar>effect>amp-Marshall 1977 JMP...result: didn't like it, neither did the amp.
Guitar>effect>amp-Mesa DC-5...result:didn't like it
Guitar>amp with the echohead in the send/return of the DC-5...liked it
Guitar>effect>amp-JCM 900...result: didn't like it
Guitar>amp with the echohead in the send/return of the JCM..it was Ok
Guitar>effect>amp-Blues Deville...didn't like it...

sooo the trend was... I didn't like it in the front end of an amp. The reason is it changes the voicing of the amp slightly. On the DC-5, which has a higher gain, it seemed to overwelm the preamp with artifacts. It also made a very odd (but low level) electronic noise as you could hear the oscillator in the pedal cycling.
The noise was less pronounced in the return loop.
Because of the noise I gave it a 7.

Lucky for me I have other pedals to use and also a multifunction pedalboard (which I won't get into here), so as far as reliability it's not an issue, my amps are all tweeked to sound as good as they can and a lot of times that's all you need.
Guitars used were:
Fender strat with SA EMG's
Schecter with humbucking EMG's the 60 and 81
Gretsch hollowbody anniversary
Ibanez RG with the stock INF's
As a sidenote the pickups all the way open tend to drive the effect in an undesirable way when going into the front of the amps.

Never talked to them, sent them an email once but they never responded. That was 4 years back, maybe they have the internet working now.

In between loading up the elephant gun and duck hunting, I play jazz, classic rock, original music, blues, weird sounds...etc.
I have been in many bands and have played semi-pro for 30 years, on and off.
I bought this without even trying it out as I have a Marshall compressor pedal and a Marshall chorus pedal. I don't think as highly of this pedal as the other Marshall pedals mentioned.
What this is good for is a basic step on step off, fatten the sound and sh*t simple thing-a-ma-jig. I like the pedalboard going into the back of two stacks, but it's a pain in the buttocks to haul that rig to a gig ...especially a bar gig, it's just not worth it. I can speak from experience that the other Marshall pedals never failed me, and I was able to cover a variety of songs with them. When playing live, simple is always better and the most frustrating thing for me is when someone brings a pedalboard in and the volume levels from each patch are different. So there you go, simple, sounds good if you know how to keep your foot off the gas, actually a good buy for what it is, handles a basic function if your amp doesn't have reverb, get a little slapback to boot.

Additional tip:

For a very cool, very usable vibrato effect (with no delay), use these settings:
Mode = Mod Filter
Time = 0 (knob turned far left)
Feedback = 12 o'clock
Level = 12 o'clock

There ya go! You can adjust the Time knob only a fraction though, otherwise you start to hear a delay on shorter notes.