SIB Mr Echo

i just wanted to give an update to my earlier post. i took my mr echo back to where i bought it they sent it back to sib and 2 weeks later i got it back good as new.they seem to have had a run on bad switches and even after 5 months fixed for free.it seems the only way to get ahold of them is by the store you bought it at.
sib is a small operation im told.but they do stand behind their stuff.to me this pedal is worth it.the new 2.0 versions are more expensive

The four knobs on Mr. Echo are fairly straight forward: Delay, Repeat, Mix, and Volume. Nevertheless, it takes some time with this pedal before you can really dial into a sound that you like. Unfortunately, there really is only one good sound you can get out of it, demonstrating Mr. Echo's lack of versatility.

No manual came with it either.

I play a Gibson ES-335 through a Fender Twin. My pedal board consists of a Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah pedal, an Ibanez TS-808, and an MXR Phase 90. In an ideal world, I would put the delay at the end of the chain, but Mr. Echo can be really noisy when I put him after ANY other pedal. As a result, I've had to put him at the beginning of the chain.

Another thing, do not let ANYONE tell you this is an analog delay. It is digital, despite the fact that a lot of dealers are convinced otherwise.

This is where the real problems begin. I never know what I'm going to get when I stomp on Mr. Echo's bypass switch. The switch itself is a piece of junk and oftentimes you'll hit it and it will cut out the entire signal! As a result, I only use the pedal when the entire song requires delay so I can get the thing to engage properly before the band starts. Never will I take a chance and try and turn it on mid-song because there is too great of a chance that the guitar will cut out entirely and I'll stand there like and idiot stomping on the bypass switch until it finally obeys. That's too great of a distraction for the band AND the audience.

No way to get in touch with the manufacturer. Not even an email or a phone number where you can find these guys.

Of all the gear I own, Mr. Echo is the only purchase I regret. As soon as I get my hands on enough cash, I look forward to buying myself a delay pedal that actually works.

Way easy to use if you know how delay/echo work.

Truebypass switching.. Totally analog sound.. Love it.. Get compliments from guitar players on the lush repeats. Only thing better would be a roland space echo.. But why spend that much when I have this?

Switch went out.. They've been prone to doing this.. I got ahold of the guy who makes the pedals through old town music in portland... He told me to send him an e-mail and he would send me TWO new switches for FREE. That is customer service man. No other issues besides that.

See Reliability section.

A steal on ebay... This is an awesome pedal for echo/delay... Truly deep lush sounds and TRUE BYPASS SWITCHING... Best one I've owned and I've had a few big names... Let me just say it beats the pants off my old DD-5 in every area except pointless features and tap tempo. Get one and enjoy the sounds.

not as easy as it might seem. this pedal has balls and is sensitive to the touch and thats a good thing in my book. 4 buttons and a slam switch which gives runaway echos in a flash

a bright clear powerful sound easy to get runaway echos .very musical i believe that it also has true bypass.the slam switch is cool but it you have to set the pedal for some feed back for it to sound right.i use it mainly between songs to get everybodys attention!!

this is where i part ways with it.i read the reviews here before i bought it and thought it wouldnt happen to me!.... but........ the on off switch broke after 4 months of use. im not hard on my equiptment either.the switch cuts in and out i took it apart and think that it is a design flaw in how it fits in the case because its fairly large in size and raised up on the circut board

Customer Support?????? there is none. just a dead end web page.i cant believe that sib would sell something with this kind of flaw....oh the screws are hard to turn to change batteries so a power supply is manditory.

this pedal works perfectly with my style of realtime feedback/delay time control for that early pink floyd sound.ive owned 2 boss dd3's (one of which i just wrote a scathing review on),ibanez,maxons,and even a 70's rackmount electra analog delay which was the coolest.the mr echo is my favorite.i've found a guy that mods pedals and this is gonna cost $50 to upgrade which is worth it to me

This pedal is not difficult to get the hang of. The only thing that might be a bit challenging is the "Slam" function. Don't even try and figure it out; it creates such a non-musical sound, I find no need for it in my playing.

My rig consists of a Vox Wah, Ibanez TS-9, a custom Volume/ fat boost pedal, and a Pigtronix EP-1. Usually, I prefer to keep my delay at the end of the chain, but when I do so with Mr. Echo, he becomes really noisy. When I put him at the beginning of the chain, this is not the case.

This really is a hunk of garbage if you ask me. It dies out on my on a regular basis. I even spent $25 to get it fixed, but it started acting up on me again within weeks.
Not surprisingly enough, several other people on this list report the same problem, so it is not just particular to the pedal I have.

SIB has customer support?

It is better to spend some extra cash on a pedal that you know will engage properly when you stomp on it. Mr. Echo works about 50% of the time. 'Nuff said.

The unit has four buttons- volume, mix, repeat, and delay. This is one of the few stompboxes where the effect sounds good with all the dials turned to 12:00. There is no instruction manuel for this unit, so let me explain some of the features.

Delay time ranges from slapback echo to 450 ms, which makes Mr. Echo a good choice for shorter delay times. In my own personal experience, delay times above a half-second are only manageable with tap tempo, not found in Mr. Echo.

Repeat set to the lowest gets one repeat. Above 12:00 the repeats become unstable, and runaway around 2:00. Musical use of this pedal ranges from 7:00 through 12:00, the rest is unusable unless you are trying to oscilate.

The repeat dial directly controls the slam button. I've found the slam button to give off this weird noise despite what note you are playing. A previous reviewer suggested that slam is only useful when the dial above 9:00. Slam is best described as a low-tech sounding of Boss's twist feature on the DD-20 Giga Delay. (Check out http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/fg=142/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/151305/ for an example.) This effect is only useful from the 9:00 to 10:00 position. Afterwards, it makes a farty sound.

The mix switch gradients the dry guitar to wet echo. When the dial is set to 12:00, you get about a 50/50 split. At one other extreme, you get no echo (I guess this unit could be used as a volume booster this way). At the other extreme, you only get the wet signal. I've used this setting to get neat echoed volume swells playing arpeggio lines with complete wet mix, shorter delay times, and longer repeats. This approach replicates the Line 6 analog volume swell (check out http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/fg=142/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/150388/ for a sample).

The volume button is the most egnimatic dial on this unit. It seems every pedal now has a volume booster option (from overdrives to wah's), so why a delay? Even more odd is that the 12:00 position is a 0db increase; left moves toward no volume, and right toward a signifiant boost. I've found that a complete wet mix to have some volume drop, so boosting the volume makes up for this drop. Also I found volume down useful in dealing with farty slams and run away echoes. Oddly enough, the volume dial makes sense on this stompbox.

There is no dry / wet output as in some of the more recent analog pedals such as the ones made by Ibanez, Maxon, and Electro-Harmonix. No loss there, as I don't run two amps or want either the dry / wet output independantly modified.

Like some other botique pedals, Mr. Echo has its share of quirks. I'd say this unit would get a 10 for simple, short delays. Considering all of the other quirky uses previously mentioned, combined with lack of user manual, Mr. Echo only ends up with a 7.

Don't be fooled, Mr. Echo is a digital delay that approximates the sound of analog delays. Each repeat is degraded in tone (trebble and volume), like a true echo. It may APPEAR that the unit cuts out trebble frequencies altogether, this may be especially true if you ear is attuned to the sound quality of digital delays. There is no tone loss on the dry signal, only on the wet (as a true analog should sound). You can always down the wet mix to gain back the trebble, or just purchase a digital delay if you don't like the echo sound.

Since Mr. Echo is true-bypass, there is no loss of tone quality when the effect is bypassed. Additionally, the dry signal sounds just as good when effect is engaged. This was the deciding factor in purchasing this unit. In being a tone hound, I am now only buying true-bypass or having my older pedals modded. I am much happier with the tone I get out of Mr. Echo than the old Boss Digital Delay / Sampler pedal previously used in my rig.

My complaint is that the echoes have some static with each repeat. This can only be detected slightly when on 100% wet mix, volume boosted, and straining the ear. I don't expect this to be a problem playing at a live gig. This may be an issue for the ultra picky listener when deciding to purchase this pedal.

I enjoy using Mr. Echo with an Ibanez Stereo Chorus CS9 right after it, as the Ibanez is a slight volume and trebble booster for the right mix. Chorus pedals BEFORE the echo/delay unit will give more of a EH Deluxe Memory Man sound, as the chorus sweep will sound pitch shifty on each repeat, sometimes clashing with one another dependig on the sweep. This doesn't sound bad, just not to my liking.

I am still testing positions with my Analogman TS9/808 silver mod. Traditionally I've run digital delays AFTER overdrive pedals, but I've found that echo pedal BEFORE overdrive gives a more natural tone. The difference is slight, but noticeable in the end mix. With overdrive > echo, the overdrive colors the echo and its repeats: both wet and dry come in with the same level of distortion. With echo > overdrive, the dry signal is louder and gets more overdrive; with the wet signal being softer (especially on successive repeats), there isn't as much distortion on the repeats. Considering the natural tone degradation in echo repeats, this sounded more natural to my ears.

Having made those points, you may understand my effects chain. I play an Artcore AS73 > Crybaby 535Q Wah > SIB Mr. Echo > Analogman Silver Mod Tubescreamer > Ibanez Stereo Chorus CS-9 > Voodoo Lab Tremolo > Peavey Classic 30 watt. I'd also like to point out that I queried the SIB Mr. Echo under gear, and learned that Dean Wareham of the band Luna also plays with similar equiptment, only his effects chain appears nearly opposite of mine. Check out http://guitargeek.com/rigview/636/ to see his set-up. Sometimes pedals are made or broken depending on where they are placed in the chain. You now have two seperate perspectives where to place Mr. Echo.

In the end, I'm afraid that the delay repeat may be too digital for analog buffs, and too analog for the digital crowd. The delays don't have the metallic sound analog users complain about digital delays. At the same time, the repeats don't seem as warm or round as the best analog units (such as Maxon). However, considering the price of approx $90 - $100, you get more than what you pay for: a decently built, USA botique, true-bypass, analog-sounding, digital delay. It is WELL worth the price (see my OVERALL RATING for further discussion on this topic).

So far, so good. The unit seems to be housed in a sturdy metal casing. The buttons and dials don't appear flimsy. My first impression is that Mr. Echo is a sturdy stompbox.

I've read about previous problems with Mr. Echo. From what I've heard at my local botique guitar store, the SMF web page, and Harmony central, the problems appears to be fixxed. None-the-less, the salesman suggested to take the batteries out if you are using AC power source. Having the battery in while using AC power may cause problems. I'm not willing to test this issue.

Based on my own personal experiences (good), and previous history (bad), I'll leave the rating at "no opinion." I'll let future reviewers and your own personal experience determine Mr. Echo's reliability.

There is no contact information on the SMF web page. No email address, no snail mail address, no telephone number, nothing short of a mailto link toward webmaster's email. This would be frustrating if I needed to contact the manufacturers if necessary. I wonder if they are listed in an online phone book.

Fortunately, the botique guitar store where I purchased the pedal could (and has) make contact with SMF if necessary. Again, I purchased the pedal knowing the previous difficulty with the Mr. Echo pedal and SMF customer support. Therefore I rated this category with a 1; I would be willing to at least give a 5 if SMF had listed any contact information.

I am an analog tone hound (on a limited budget- go figure). Herein lays the problem: analog delays are extremely expensive, limited in delay time, and sometimes require more than 9v. My need was to find an analog delay of about 400-600ms, that could work in a 9v daisey chain, and was relatively affordable. After spending the greater part of three months researching and player testing analog pedals, I came home with Mr. Echo- this was the only pedal that met all of my stated needs.

Lets start with the Ibanez & Maxon AD-9. As you may be able to tell, I love Ibanez (and Maxon) pedals. At the time I made previous purchases, I could only afford to buy used Ibanez, but now I have the $$$ to consider making a Maxon purchase. The Ibanez pedal is not true bypass, although is mostly affordable at approx $150. A vintage / botique discussion board tipped me off that the Maxon AD-9 sounds worlds better due to its selection of chips and being true-bypass. Major drawback was the $300 pricetag. Both units were only 300ms long- too short for my needs.

This is where the Maxon AD-900 and AD-999 comes in. Hell, if I was willing to pay $300 for 300ms of analog time, why not pay another $60 for double or three times the delay time. AD-900 is rated as the best sounding analog delay and had about 600ms of delay time; main problem is that it is no longer in production because supply of a particular Panasonic chip ran out. I could only buy used on ebay for about $350 PLUS it required an 18v adapter. For about that price, I could just purchase the Maxon AD-999 and get 900ms of time. Although the AD-999 uses 9v, the website warned "Maxon AC210N adaptor (we strongly urge the use the Maxon AC210N only. Other adaptors may trip the internal fuse, requiring professional service of the unit and voiding the warranty)". For $360, I'm not taking that risk.

The Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man and Deluxe Memory Man weren't my cup of tea. The Stereo MM only has 300ms delay time, and was therefore instantly ruled out. I'm sure that someone will invent a mod to increase delay time in the future, but for now, there is no interest in waiting. I didn't care for the effect modulation on the Deluxe MM. The Deluxe needs a 24v adapter, and therefore wouldn't work in my daisy chain. Also, the Deluxe isn't true-bypass, but it is worth mentioning that there are mods to achieve this. In the end, the Electro-Harmonix units came up short for my needs, even though they are the most popular analog delay units around.

I even considered the analog modeled sounds on Boss' DD-20 Giga Delay and Line 6 DL-4, both worthwhile delay units in their own right, but not quite analog. Both units in the $250 price range, and offered more options than I really needed. Hell, for another $100 I'd rather purchase the Maxon AD-999 unit and get the real deal.

It was in quandry when I made this final consideration- am I going to get every $$$'s worth out of an analog delay stompbox considering what I am willing to pay for it. In all honesty- the answer was no. Even though I play some Radiohead and Pink Floyd, my delay needs were very limited when playing original songs. I considered getting the best VALUE for my buck.

SIB Mr. Echo was the only choice left, taking my needs- 9v compatable, 400-600ms delay time, analog sound, true-bypass, and affordable price- into consideraton. Hell, my wife bought me Mr. Echo as a surprise present, and she was rather happy doing so (considering all the $$$ I could have spent if I had settled on something else). Mr. Echo is the perfect unit if you have similar needs, otherwise settle for a digital delay or more expensive analog delay.

In the end, this stompbox deserves a well-earned rating of 8. I reserve higher marks for the more versatile (Dl-4 and DD-20) and more elite (AD-999) units.

It was very easy to use before the reliability problems. Now if frustrated and wondering what will happen the next time I turn on the pedal

It is the most noisy pedal currently on my board. My others include MXR Phase 90, TS-9, and a Boss CE-2. This is my first Delay pedal, so I don't have another one for which to compare it.

I really like the analog tonal quality of this digital delay. That was what sold me on this pedal.

This is why I'm sending it back. I turn it on, and sometimes it cuts my volume to a faint and barely audible level. I never know when I turn it on, whether it is going to function properly. Maybe jsut I got a lemon. I'm going to try the EH Deluxe Memory Man. The Mr. Echo for $110 seemed like the best deal going, but if I can't count on it, I'll pay a little more for a reliable pedal.

Never dealt with SIB. I contacted the dealer and they're going to swap it out for another pedal.

Overall, I really like the sound of this pedal when I works. The construction is rugged looking, for what little that is worth. The bottom line is that it stopped functioning properly after a limited amount of use. This is a deal killer for me. Back to SIB and on to the next delay pedal

Well...it's not easy to use at all. Not that it's complicated...it's just worthless. Two switches..on and off and an aberation called SLAM. When I step on the on/off there is a good chance nothing is going to happen. I have to step on it three of four times to get it to work....and when I finally do get it to work...don't think about turning it off unless you want to be assaulted by a super loud piercing squeal.

On to the SLAM. Step on this an the thing goes crazy. Supposely this is a switch that only works as long as you have it depressed.....WRONG!! Step on this and it's over...be prepared to disengage this pedal to stop the carnage.

Sound quality would be decent if not for the aforementioned problems. It is a little hollow sounding and a hi-cut would have been useful. However due to the other problems...I'm scared to hook it up.

I'm using it for a doorstop now.....guess I could give it a 10 for that, but I bought it for a guitar pedal and for that it gets the big fat 1.

No way to contact them on their website. If this is representative of their products.....I don't blame them.....I wouldn't want to be contacted either.

I've been playing guitar for 40 years. I mainly play blues. I own a ton of gear...it's my only hobby...the kids are grown and I can afford what I want. I bought this pedal just for a little low delay slapback to use with my Matchless amp which does not have reverb. It was a mistake. I have had many guitars, amps and effects pedals over my 40 year musical journey. Some that just wore out, some that I tired of, some that I traded to upgrade, and some I just plain didn't like. But this is the first pedal in all those 40 years that I wouldn't get rid of because someone else does not deserve this curse of a delay.

Certainly a no-brainer to get a good sound, has the standard delay time, repeats and mix controls as well as an overall volume control with some boost on tap if you want it. The "slammer" effect is a cool little feature, gives you self oscillation without having to bend over and twiddle the knobs...The mix control is very effective, setting it at around 9 o'clock gives you a good echo/dry mix, and you can set it for total wet (repeat only) as well.

Allright, if you've read the reviews on this board and elsewhere you know that the early history of this pedal was not good, apparently there were some noise and reliability problems. Mine is definitely a newer, improved model-not noisy at all, the repeats soud great, very organic and natural sounding. It's a digital unit with not very much delay time (about 450 ms), but it sounds very analog, doesn't have a tone control for the repeats like a lot of digital units that are attempting to sound analog, doesn't need one IMO...the repeats sound not too muddy, not too clear-no digital metallic "ching" at all, just right-very, very nice. The delay range is limited, but enough for my needs, don't miss tap tempo as I use delay mostly for ambience and not for synchronized parts. The volume knob is a nice feature, gives you the option of a boost when engaged. I have not had any problems with the "slammer" feature remaining engaged after letting up on the switch, but you do need to have the repeats at around 10 o clock or more for this feature to work. Very easy to get runaway repeats even without the slammer switch, have to be careful as anything past 2 oclock wants to go into runaway mode. I think this is a great sounding unit, the price is great, just make sure you get a newer model.

No problems yet, I have an old DOD FX90 on my board for shorter delays, could use as a backup if needed.

Bought used, no experience with them.

This pedal has some great features, seems well built, and sounds great. I have been playing for almost 30 years and have owned lots of delays: tape, analog, and digital...this pedal is reasonably priced, is versatile , and sounds great. The delay range might not be enough for you, but for what I do (roots/alt country/ambient pop) it is perfect. Again, be wary if buying used, there were some problems with the earlier models, not sure of the "safe point" when you can be assured that the model is newer, but even new these are very reasonable.

Easy peasy plug in and play. I had a great sound in minutes. It is very fat once your ear gets used to it you cant play without it.
no manual but its a no brainer. I dont know what revision or if its an upgraded unit. howevr my switches are layed out in reverese of the advertised units

I am using a schecter strat and a heritage archtop L5 and es 175 style guitar with a matchless or marshall amplifier. its fairly quiet with the humbuckers. the single coil strat pickups are a bit unruly. i attribute that to the stage lighting in the theatre we play in. Thers probably 70 lights overhead.
I try to get a sound similar to JohnNy A. It makes me happy.

so far so good 7 nights a week for the last 4 months. no backup.

not yet.

Currently working a show in vegas. Classic american music. It works great for me.
I have been playing professionally since 1974.
I own a lot of other gear. Really who cares.
I would certainly replace it.
I did not really compare it to anything else. I plugged this in and it sounded great so I bought it.It seems to meet my needs for a delay pedal. the sound is so fat. It helps my playing by making me get a better sound and inspiring me to want to play better. I get bored playing the same shit night after night. I look forward to using the pedal every night.