DANELECTRO

DAN-ECHO DELAY PEDAL: £110

These are evil, theres no other word for it. This pedal is the digital delay Satan would use, and thats only if he was feeling in an especially bad mood that day!

dan echo modded

The Dan Echo DE1 is a digital delay pedal based around the PT2395 digital delay chip. It features knobs for delay mix level, delay time, repeats/feedback and a Hi-cut knob that supposedly emulates tape delay FX. Theres also a delay time range switch that appears to extend the delay time at the expense of sampling bandwidth, not that you'd ever really notice with a guitar.

So far so normal, but we have added 3 mods to this pedal that take it for an average bit of kit to something a whole lot more unpleasant.

The new controls consist of:

HOLD / LOOP FOOTSWITCH: This is the big footswitch to the right that grabs and loops whatever is in the sample RAM buffer at the time. The loop speed / pitch can be controlled with the delay time controls. The blue LED above the switch lights when it is active.
Bizarre spliced loops can be achieved by using the delay as normal in x2 delay range mode, then switching to x1 mode while the delay is still making noise. The pedal doesn't empty the extra section of RAM used by the x2 mode when you switch to x1, so if you then use the hold footswitch to create a loop in x1 mode and switch back to x2 mode, whatever was left in the RAM is spliced onto the end of the x1 loop for a weird Frankenloop effect.

FEEDBACK EXTENSION: This switch takes the maximum feedback well over 100% for those rising and distorting dub delay effects.

100% DELAY: This switch removes virtually all of the dry signal from the mix, leaving just the delay sounds. This is not possible on the standard unit, but its very useful when using the pedal in a studio environment

Modifed Danelectro DE1

CLOCK SPEED / DELAY TIME: This consists of a new delay time knob, and a switch to select between the normal delay time knob and the new knob. The new knob directly controls the system clock speed of the PT2395 chip and therefore the delay time, but as the delay time is extended by up to 15 seconds using this knob, the quality drops in direct corresponding to the length. This means the delays are very hifi at the top end, but at the bottom they turn into a huge wall of sludgy sample aliasing noise. Setting a fast delay time, running a sound through it and activating the hold switch, then taking the clock speed down, results in what can only be described as the soundtrack to the apocalypse as rolling walls of crunching noise assault you. The effect is not destructive so when you take the clock speed back up again your held loop will be perfectly intact.

An unusual point about Danelectro pedals is that the effect is always running. All the effect on/off footswitch does is either mix the delay into the output signal or cut it. This means that you can turn on the hold effect while playing, but with the delay turned off, or turn on the hold and then turn off the delay, and it will still keep the loop running even though you can't hear it. Then you can turn the effect on and off with the loop still running.

modified Danelectro Dan echo

Another interesting feature is that you can use it as a kind of bit crusher effect by removing the dry signal with the '100% wet switch' and then playing audio through the delays digital convertors running at horribly low sample rates. Admittedly the output is somewhat delayed but you can use this technique to destroy just about any sound.

The pedal has been used so there are a few small chips in the paintwork here and there, and the plastic is slightly yellowed, but these older Danelectro pedals are unbelievably solidly built and can take a lot more punishment than this one has ever seen. We'd gladly back this pedal in a fight with any Boss pedal you could name.

modified Danelectro de1

The pedal will not run from a 9v battery any more, as the battery compartment is now taken up by the hold footswitch.

Have a listen to the demos below for an idea of what this thing can do.

If you want to buy this pedal get in contact HERE.