SIB Mr Echo

If you need a manual to work this pedal you're a moron.

Can't beat the sound for the price.

Only had it a month. No problems so far. Play an hour+ every day,
and 2 nights every weekend.

I've had the Bosses, a Flip tube echo, the big blue Visual thing,
Reel tape, an Ibanez and an MXR. Mr. Echo is on my pedal board.
It can get a good reverb sound, A good slap-back rockabilly sound,
and the longest delay setting is just long enough to get Page-type
echoplex sounds like on Zep 1. Great for blues and blues-based
rock. Not for high gain madness. The volume control is like the
vol. control on the old Fender reverb units. It will add break-up
to your sound when cranked. For the money, it can't be beat.

Well, this is the "new" Mr Echo that is supposed to have the noise problems fixed. It runs quiet and the true-bypass works well and has no pop.

However, don't expect to get exactly what you want out of it. I tried getting just 2 repeats out of it, but it wont do that. I could get 2 1/2 repeats or 2 repeats and one quiet repeat, but not just 2 repeats.

Also, the "slam" effect sounds cool, but only works clearly if the repeat knob is up past 9 or 10 o clock.

Sounds pretty good, but...
The slam effect is a "momentary" switch, supposed to cause runaway echos while pressed down--that works fine. However, after letting up on the slam switch, it doesn't stop, but results in runaway echos after you let up on it, even when you have it set to only a short echo. Also, it seemed the unit would occasionally start to run away on itself at random moments.

Also, don't expect to adjust your delay length while playing. Adjusting the delay length results in a farty, pitch-bending sound, so you'll have to turn the unit off or stop playing completely, then adjust the delay knob.

Also, no biggie, but the Delay knob on it's lowest setting sounds electronic and unmelodic.

Other than that, the unit sounds good for an echo type effect, the slam effect is an interesting dive-bomb effect, and the unit runs quietly. But don't expect the unit to be precise or give you exactly what you want!! It seems that it's kind of unpredictable. I felt like I didn't have absolute control over what it was doing.

HERE'S WHERE YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ:

The unit worked for about 10 minutes, then all sound ceased. I changed the battery, but that didn't help. It seems the unit stopped accepting batteries. When it was switched on, all power and sound would just cease.

Still worked with the 9v adaptor, but wouldn't take batteries any more. That's a real pain--now if the power cord comes out during playing, I wont be able to use the battery as backup power. ---> I think a review below also mentions having this same problem.

Can't deal with the company because they don't have info on their website. Also, the pedal doesn't come with a users manual, and their website doesn't give details, so it apparently doesn't have a warranty either.
It really seems that the company has gone out of their way to be hard to reach and distance themselves from the customer. Probably because of these common reliability issues.

Luckily, the dealer I got the pedal is taking care of it.

I think my comments above explain all my thoughts and issues with the pedal. I really wanted to like this pedal. If it would have kept working, it still just wasn't that impressive or controlable anyway.

I'd heard other comments about Mr. Echos being unreliable, but I assumed that since this was supposed to be the "new improved" Mr Echo, it wouldn't be so unreliable and unprecise.

Anyway, sorry for another negative review of this pedal, but I really felt I should warn others about this pedal.

Simple.

Well, this unit has been getting slammed, and I think it's rediculous. I've had a Boss DD-2, DD-3, DD-5 & DD-6 as well as the Digitech X-Series Delay. This unit sounds much better than all of them, much less sterile. The repeats sound like an analog delay; not in a bad way. The slam feature is great, you can get very cool pitch shifting effects, it reminds me of "In The Light" by Zepplin. All in all, a much more usable unit than the comparably-priced units. I can't afford an Echodrive, and this is the next best thing.

Excellent construction, no problems in a year.

I spoke with Rick who is a great guy, but they do have to put contact info on their website.

Definitely the best unit for the money. I can't stand having Boss or Digitech pedals screw with my tone in bypass. This is the cheapest true-bypass unit on the market. This unit does not like to be pushed with a super-hot input signal, but I use it for leads with a Fulltone Distortion Pro or a NVN Dino Fuzz in front of it and it sounds great. If you're into EMG, or other super-hot pickups, this may not be the unit for you; better yet, get those terrible sounding EMG's out of your guitar, and get some real pickups! Ha!

the Slam took sumtime to find out wat to do, but was great!!! easy as. The guy at the showed me a unique feature, were u plug the output of ur amp into the input of the mr. echo, and u can get sum whack efffects out of it

very good. i thougt it was analogue, but was told differently. no tone loss. the volume control allows u to control the volume. one thing i find with other delays is that u lose volume with it in use.

seemed great. tough. i dont use batteries. power input socket was easy to use..............:~

dunno

i play rockabilly/punkabilly/rock and other related types of music. I play in a three piece, and sing at the same time. This is great for adding depth to riffs and solos, or even chords for that matter. i have an epi les paul - crybaby - route 66 overdrive - mr.echo - marshall mg100dfx, but am buying a Fender amp soon. that is wat i used at the shop and use at our rehearsal studio. i highly recommend this over other digital units.

It's a really simple unit to use soundwise, it's an analogue delay, you know what it will do when you play with the Delay and Repeat knobs. The Mix and Volume take only a couple of seconds to figure out. Volume controls the overall output of the unit and Mix controls how much of the wet signal is blended with the dry signal... you can even drop out the dry signal completely so that all you have is slapback and no attack. The base is a pain to get open at times to change the battery and the absence of a manual makes any troubleshooting you may have to do much more of a stab in the dark than it otherwise needs to be.

It sounds cool. A very watery effect. Sometimes it almost sounds like a dolphin's sonar or like whale songs underwater. It's neat. The slam function is pretty fun if you know how to use it. If you hold it down for a while you can get these screaming oscillations that increase in volume and throb out of your amp... depending on the note you play you can control what frequencies the pedal will oscillate at.

I normally play through a JCM900 half stack for rehearsals and gigs, with my effects in the loop (the 900 has a pretty good effects loop). At the moment I've only tried it in the loop of my shitty 100w Valvestate (I hate Valvestates).

I'm running - Crybaby> NYC Big Muff> Crowther Audio Prunes&Custard(fuzz/ringmod)> Sovtek Smallstone (phase)> ProCo TurboRAT> Boss PH-2 SuperPhaser> Mr Echo> Danelectro FrenchToast octave fuzz> Sovtek Big Muff> Boss BE-5 multieffect (it has a cool '80s digital delay on it with a good balance between sound fidelity and warm break-up at higher repeat settings)> Boss DD-5 Digital Delay

With fuzz and whatever else before the Mr Echo you can get some pretty spacious and ginormous etherial effects. Having modulation before the echo gives even more dimension and frequency sweep to the already wet sounding delay. Fuzz after the Mr Echo can give a really snarling kind of squelchy slapback. Cranking the Repeat controls and then fucking with the Delay knob can take you way off into la-la-land. Once again, adding fuzz at the end will give you some UFOscillations that would make Timothy Leary's head spin... more.

Playing with the Mix knob hard right and then tapping the Slam button will cause the delay time to drop and then rise dramatically, having the Mix all the way up means that you have no dry signal to give away the pure tone of what you're doing all you get is a clitchy Atari/Commodore64, wet, echoey sounding blend of notes and frequency washes. It's pretty cool.

The one I got when plugged into a DC-9 Powerbank hummed like a humming thing. I wasn't even playing a strat. It was very odd. It worked find on battery power though, noise free. The pedal has no information on it regarding ampage (i.e. 9 voltDC, 260ma) all it says is 9VDC at the top... very illuminating. So I had to experiment with all my gear just to diagnose the problem. At one stage I plugged it back into the DC-9 to try various configurations but it was still a hummer. When I unplugged it from the DC-9 it would not switch back on. I thought, "Oh, the battery must be dead. It was starting to run pretty low anyway." So I change the battery, I put a brand spanking new high grade alkaline battery into the bitch and it won't turn on. Great.

It works with the Powerbank still, but it's prone to hum occassionally. So far it hasn't hummed when I've disconnected the DD-5 from the powerbank, so maybe the DD-5 was sucking a lot of the milliamps out of the powerbank and the Mr Echo was running under the required current level, which might have caused it to hum. Who knows.

If I'm willing to sacrifice my DD-5 from the chain I can still run the Mr Echo and get decent sounds out of it. But now I can't run it with batteries regardless of what I do. Short of repairing or replacing my Mr Echo.

I don't know. If you've tried to find any contact details on their website you'll know what I mean. My best bet is to try and call the dealer I bought it from (the only SIB dealer in Australia) the only problem is that they're an 8 hour drive away and spending 50 bones on a plane ticket one way just to replace it and then spend another 40 or 50 just to get it back home only to find it might have more of the same problems is a bit of a non-issue at the moment. It looks like I'll have to bide my time over thise one... or at the very least track down the contact details of the guy that makes these pedals so I can say to him; "What the fuck?!"

If mine wasn't an irritating little bastard I'd give it a higher rating. Mr Echo is like 500,000,000x better than a Boss DD-3. So if you have enough money to buy a Boss DD-3 get a Mr Echo instead because with a DD-3... even if it works, it's still junk.

Simple to use. The 4 knobs are clearly labeled. LED shows you when it's engaged. The only issue I had with using it is getting the back cover off and on. It uses four screws that are not well tapped. They should have added a battery latch.

Whatever the problem was before, they have fixed it because it sounds great! Not noisy ugly or even sterile. Sounds musical and organic. Playing with the knobs is intuitive and fun. It's a modern digital delay that actually allows you to do what you want, ie feedback, regeneration tones, etc, imagine that! It is a little tricky to get the "slam" feature to be useable, but once you find the sweet spot for that, it can be an interesting option.

The fact that it is built in a thick metal box inspires confidence. So far not a problem.

I bought this because my UD Stomp would not let me play the knobs to get out of control feedback like my previous analog pedals did (AD-9 and DOD AD-80). The only thing I wish this had is a bit longer delay time (at least 1000 ms). Good price for a great sounding and fun pedal.

Very easy to use. Set the length of the delay (easy to change with your toe while in use), number of repeats, mix and volume. I like to be able to fine tune the delay speed while playing. I'm sure that's why the knobs are configured the way they are. Try that with most other delays! I hate to have to bend over while playing and do that, it's embarrassing. I really don't know why the volume is there, unity would have been fine with me. I didn't get a manual. I don't think there is one. I wanted to take out the battery and the screws seemed to be stuck to the paint but I did get it open.

I've used this with a Randall modular RM 50 and an Evans JE 150. Sounds great to me. I don't care for crisp, hi-fi repeats. I tuned my ear years ago with an Echoplex and came to like a wash of repeats without the pick attack being too pronounced. I don't hear the distorted repeats the other guys talk about. It sounds like I expect a good analog delay to sound, even if it is digital. I also like that the delay can run away into feedback just like an Echoplex. The slam feature is not useful to me but it is fun, which is why I think it's there.

No problems so far.

I've met the owner/designer of this pedal several times at different Texas vintage guitar shows. We always have a good conversation and i really like the Sonic machine amps that he helped design also. When I bought the Mr. Echo at the Dallas show in April he gave me an SMF t-shirt. Nice guy. I've read below that followup not his forte'. I have no experience with trying to contact him so I can't say.

I like this peday a lot. Useful for normal blues, rock a billy and jazz applications. I wouldn't hesitate to get another one if the need arose. One thing missing from all delay pedals is the possibility to use a remote switch. I'd like it on top of my amp and be able to switch it on and off with my foot. Another feature that the Echoplex has that I've grown accustomed to. I've used other delay pedals over the years; Dan-echo was good but hard to adjust with the little bitty knobs so I sold it, I have a new Digitech that is nice that I'll keep. It also has little knobs that make it hard to tweak on the fly. I also have a hard time getting the tap tempo function to work for me. I haven't worked with it enough. I'll keep the Mr. Echo on my board.

Four controls, two footswitches. Easy and basic delay pedal with up to 800ms of dealy. No manual so marked down for this.

Played with a PRS Santana III into a Univalve the unit has an annoying distorted sound; not overdriven more like a harsh hi-fi distortion. Slam feature is fun, although not sure how practical in use, especially as you need the mix high up for it to be effective.

Solid build but only owned it for a little will so no real comment.

Not contacted them.

This is a digital delay, not as Calle said an analogue one. Also it has 800ms of delay time. Hey Calle, maybe you bought a different unit which would also explain why you thought it sounded good as this unit sounds like poo. Or maybe you are just a silly sausage.

Easy to use the basic functions. No instruction manual so it took a bit of time to get used to the slam facility. Notwithstanding this, a little bit of fiddling with the controls and all becomes apparent.

I used this pedal in a Tele - Keeley Compressor - BJF Baby Blue - Mr Echo - Fulltonbe Fatboost and out into a Matchless Lightning 212 combo. I have previously submitted a review which really marked down the sound of the unit but this never got published, so I'm trying again with spoof scores to see whether this review gets in. Basically the unit sucks. The wet signal distorts horribly and I cannot use the wretched thing. If you are looking for an Echo, look elsewhere.

Can't really say regarding reliability as I don't use the unti that often.

Tried to get hold of SIB but to no avail. Not good. They have not answered their phone and there are no e-mail details. Still, I have put this experience down to poor product, poor company, never buy any product produced by them again.

Overall, if you want a delay unit with an unpleasant digital harsh distortion on the wet signal, this is it. You can do no better for such a poor sound. Built to last, and as most people will not use the thing it should last a very long time indeed.

Easy. Four knobs.

Excellent analog delay, not a simulation like someone said here. Can be noisy if the MIX knob is set too high. Once you get a nice level it sounds wonderful. True echo and not a delay. The maximum delay time is about 400-450 milliseconds. This pedal was designed for being used live and when your playing that loud, no one notices a tiny bit of noise on your echo

Built very well.

I was looking for a nice shorter echo and wanted a different sound other than the standard digitech or boss. This certainly fufills that need.
I wouldn't recommend this for recording either. A live pedal only. Great price and the botique snob factor of owning this is nice.