Seymour Duncan SFX-10 Deja Vu

Easy to use. No programming (unless you count tap tempo) or storing patches (although the unit does remember your previous setting when you power it on) and its usually a short path to the sound you're after. After all, this is a full-featured stompbox, rather than a "delay workstation" or any such thing.

The Mix, D/A Blend, Feedback and Delay Time controls are self-explanatory. What the Modulation knob does is less obvious as is the Ratio setting for the Delay Time knob (which seems counter-intuitive at first). Happily though, the manual provides a well-written explanation of all of the features of the box and opens the way for a lot of experimentation and custom setups.

Great sound quality. Its dead quiet and does exactly what the blurb on SD's website claims - providing pro-grade digital and real BBD analog delay sounds and the ability to blend these two sounds. The straight-up digital sounds are very clean and workmanlike; maybe a bit more musical than some digital delays, but otherwise not remarkable - think Boss DD-3. The analog end of the spectrum is more interesting and is (lets face it) the reason for buying this box. As you might expect, the delays at the fully-analog end of the Blend knob sweep sound rounder, thicker and a wee bit darker than their fully-digital counteparts, but still with a good deal of clarity and detail.

The modulation knob (which affects the analog path only) is the key to some really cool, organic flavors - providing a subtle (or not so subtle) wobble to later repeats. Much more interesting than conventional chorus and truly inspiring, especially with a clean sound.

The Deja Vu gives you two send/return loops (one of which doubles as a wet-only output), so that you can mess with the wet and feedback signals and then bring them back into the mix. I haven't got into these features yet - but it seems like they would offer a lot of scope for experimentation and be a real boon for recording.

I have only two minor complaints about the sound of the Deja Vu:

(1) The analog delays seem noticeably louder than the digital ones. This could be a psycho-acoustic effect (resulting from an analog thickening of the sound?) or it could be that the BBD chip adds a tiny bit of gain... Either way, I find that the dry/wet mix needs to be re-adjusted with every tweak of the Blend knob, which is a minor hassle.

(2) The overall output seems to step up slightly when the effect is engaged in true-bypass mode. Could be useful in some live applications if you want to draw attention to a new part, but otherwise this increase in level is a bit of an irritation. I should mention that this change in level does not occur when the bypass switch is in buffered ("trailing repeats") mode.

For the record, I'm using the Deja Vu in mono, between the guitar (Les Paul) and amp (Fender Princeton).

I've only had the box for a month or so. No problems so far, but its early days, so "No Opinion" in this category.

That said, its built like a tank - heavy duty metal case, sturdy footswitches and smooth pots - and will probably outlive me.

The only possible "reliability" issue is with battery life; the Deja Vu DEVOURS batteries. But then again, what delay pedal doesn't and SD is very up-front about battery life in the manual. Don't even think about playing a two-hour gig without an AC adaptor.

Not needed yet.

Overall I really like the Deja Vu and its a keeper. I wanted something more interesting and tweakable than a bog-standard digital delay pedal, but didn't want the delay time limitations or (typically) dark sound of a traditional analog delay pedal. This box gives me what I was looking for.

If it were lost or stolen, I would certainly buy it again because there's really nothing else available that does what the Deja Vu does. I also considered delays from Carl Martin, TC Electronic and Maxon; most of these cost more than the Deja Vu and none sounded as good to me or offered the same scope for customized sounds.

I play pop and rock music, with guitar tones ranging from clean picked parts to crunchy rythmn to smooth distortion. The Deja-Vu has something to offer all of these guitar sounds and also the promise of stumbling across a new favorite sound I hadn't even thought of.

I've been playing (on and off) for a long time and I'd like to think I'm fairly fussy about guitar sounds. Over the years, I have assembled a modest collection of really great-sounding gear and the Deja Vu fits right in.

Love: digital/analog mix, modulation, quiet operation, trailing repeats, build quality.

Hate (not really, maybe "dislike"): loudness increase with analog sounds, loudness increase with true-bypass, paint color.

Wish it Had: user-accessible trimpots for analog delay level and overall output.

just received one of the first to the uk.had most delay pedals and this is really simple to use as they advertise!manual is good as are controls

using this in combination with lovepedals and retrosonic chorus into dr z amps.had a major rethink on digital pedals about year ago and went completely analogue.spent ages on getting order of pedals correct with buffers in the correct place etc. i have had every delay pedal under the sun including line 6 modded dl4, tc nova delay etc etc.moved onto mxr carbon copy to get back to a warmer analogue sound as digital stuff sucks tone either due complete D/A conversion or poor buffer circuits. so far this pedal is a revelation!the blurb on youtube seems to be correct. pure sound is preserved and delay is mixed in with dry signal. clear givaway is that you get modulation when using vibrato.selecting bbd circuit gives tue analogue as good as carbon copy and going back to digital gives nice clear repeats with warmth of dry signal mixed in. ratio setting really good and the best bit is the tap tempo which gives you the only analogue delay with tap tempo now that the memory lane is limited in production.other really handy features include the control of feedback repeats with a volume pedal which is fantastic for swelling in infinite feedback on reggae numbers and you can hook up another volume pedal to control delay level in real time as well.modulation settings are nice and work on analogue side only.not totally convinced by the blending of A & D sounds as it sounds best biased to one or the other. also warming up D pedals in the wet loop works by passing the signal through the A side giving a short delay sound.see what you think (you can hear on the youtube demo)
to recap: this is the best yet if you want sound quality and simplicity.

built superbly. solid casing with good battery access

no opinion

very very good unit!
extremely simple to use especially with ratio times and tap tempo.switches seem solid and build quality top notch.
the true test always is transparency of sound and this is spot on as claimed