6 Essentials Delay Effects You Must Have On Your Guitar Pedal Board

Delay is one of those things that every guitarist has on their pedal board; used to great effect not only as a tool to create bigger sounds and the illusion of more guitars but also as a rhythmic device to create new and otherwise unplayable guitar parts! Are you in a band with only one guitar player, need to make everything sound bigger, try some delay! In this video, I go through 6 essential delay types for guitar.

Slapback – a short delay that literally slaps back at you, the slapback delay is a choice for Country and Rockabilly styles. It works really well to thicken guitar parts too, and works nicely in single. Have a listen to Scotty Moore’s guitar in this classic Elvis track!

Analog Delay with Modulation – The famed Electro-Harmonix Memory Man is arguably the king of analog delays. Analog delay uses analog electronic chips (as opposed to tape or digital technology) to create echoes. These delays are known for having a slightly darker tone that degrades slightly as the repeats happen. The Memory Man also had a beautiful modulation section wherein you could modulate the repeats. This was supposed to imitate tape delay (see below) but has definitely become its own thing! Have a listen to Neil Finn use one at the start of ‘Don’t Dream its Over’ and listen to the beautiful modulation on those repeats!

Digital (dotted 8th) – digital delay creates a much more pristine repeat that can be used in really interesting rhythmic ways as the echo sounds (often) just like the original notes that were played! A ‘dotted eighth’ is a musical term meaning ‘one and a half’ eighth notes. Rhythmically, this creates really interesting musical textures. A classic example of this is the opening to ‘Sweet Disposition’ by Temper Trap.

Dark Analog – similar to the Memory Man, the Boss DM2 and the Ibanez AD80 analog delays are both famed (and well-loved) for their dark repeats, which sit well behind a guitar part or guitar solo without getting in the way of the original note. Have a listen to the solo in Audioslave’s ‘Like A Stone’ for Tom Morello using his DM2 (as well as a Digitech Whammy pedal) to expand his guitar playing.

Tape Delay – The original Maestro Echoplex EP1 and EP3 tape delay units are kind of the holy grail when it comes to tape delay. Made up of a loop of tape, that literally records onto magnetic tape and plays back the recorded part as the delay. Many guitar heroes have used tape delays from Jimmy Page to Eric Johnson and countless others. As the tape got used over and over again, it would slightly warble the sound of the repeats (remember those old VHS tapes from the 80s you had to watch at school where the sound was all mangled?!) giving the repeats a ‘wow and flutter’ effect. This is what modulation on an analog delay is trying to emulate! New tape in a tape delay has a very bright and present sound, and yet sits musically in with the guitar part, hence it being the delay of choice for so many legends!

Here is Andy Summers from the Police with ‘Walking on the Moon’ – check out the tape echo in the main guitar part!

Multi-Tap – is where there are multiple delay lines that can be triggered from one tap. For example, you tape quarter notes, but your delay gives you echoes at both the dotted 8th and the quarter notes. You can also create this effect by using two independent delay pedals. The delays start separately from each other and quickly cross over creating interesting modulations and diffusions of the repeated signal. This effect can almost be used as a reverb without washing out the sound like reverb sometimes can. Allan Holdsworth did this with his clean sounds rather often. Have a listen to Andy Timmons, who is another excellent proponent of this delay.

There are so many delay pedals on the market. Units like the famed Line 6 DL4, the Strymon Timeline or the Source Audio Nemesis provide a convenient way to access a huge amount of different delays, but you will also find amazing sounding delays that are specialists in just one type.

As always, use what sounds best to you! Whatever creates your musical inspiration, whether it is a $50 plastic delay pedal or a $5000 original Echoplex! Having something that can cover a broad musical base, like a modern multi-delay pedal, can definitely offer a variety of delay sounds with the convenience of a single stomp.