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Last Updated: November 19, 2019
Are you looking to spice up your sound with some fancy Delay and Loop tricks? Delay pedals offer very unique and interesting possibilities when it comes to that, while adding refreshment to your sound and naturally enriching it.
Feel free to compare through all the features the pedals offer, take your pick based on what you want, whether it’s simpler or more advanced controls, modification options, time variations – we got it all covered. Let’s get to it then.
The Top 10 Best Delay Pedals:
The Delay Effect
Delay in its most basic form, does exactly what you would think, it delays a sound’s release by storing it for a pre-determined amount of time and then releasing it. The stored signal can be outputted several times or played back in to create an echo-like decay effect. Before there were commercial releases of Delay effect “stomp-boxes”, musicians had to simulate these effects using inconvenient specialized rooms.
The original first releases of Delay pedals worked through Analog and Tape mechanics, however Modern ones mostly use a digital buffer storage to save your signal for future use.
How Practical Are Delay Pedals?
Despite this being one of the oldest guitar effects in circulation, delay is still very much usable. Just like tremolo pedals among others. As a matter of fact, it is one of the most used guitar effects today. If you were to select a random rock song, it would contain the delay effect on one of the instruments. That's right, delay isn't only limited to guitars. The reason why the use of delays isn't always obvious is because it can be utilized in many different ways.
Some artists prefer to go all out and swamp their signal with heavy delay, while others tend to add just a pinch. When we move over to acoustic guitars, delay goes from being one of the auxiliary effects to being the headliner. In all honesty, most pedalboards have started out with just a delay and
maybe overdrive or something similar. Both of these are such simple, non intrusive and easy to work with effects. To answer the question from the title, delays are very practical.
How To Shop For a Delay Pedal?
Much like with anything else guitar effects related, there are different flavors of delay pedals to choose from. Your first task is to figure out what kind of delay pedal you need and what kind of budget you have available. Keep in mind that cheap isn't necessarily bad. A good amount of affordable delays are rock solid in terms of performance. With that said, lets cover three main types of delays out there.
Analog Delay Pedals
Analog delays first appeared back in the '70s as a way to address the growing demand for this particular guitar effect. Keep in mind that back then your options were fairly limited when it comes to tone shaping and delays were a much bigger part of the whole picture than they are today. Most pedalboards back then had a delay and
something such as reverb, both analog. Analog delays use analog circuitry to achieve the delay effect. Most of the time they are fairly simple, extending only the most basic controls. Back in those days this type of pedal was considered to be inferior the moment first digital delays came out. These days, the situation is completely different. There is something about the analog nature of a proper analog delay that you just can't achieve with their digital counterparts.
Next logical question is whether or not you should get an analog delay? If you need just the basic effect, prefer a more organic tone and are willing to pay the price, then this type of pedal is perfect for you. With that said, there are some pretty interesting affordable analog delays out there as well.
Digital Delay Pedals
The advent of digital technologies has had a very large impact on delays just as it did on all other effects pedals. Modern digital delay stomp boxes offer clinical precision at a very low price. These often come packed with various modes, giving you much more room to dial in the perfect tone for your instrument. One issue that people have with digital models has to do with that clinical accuracy. As much as it is good from a practical standpoint, it tends to make your sound fairly robotic. This becomes even more apparent when you really go heavy on the effect. However, digital stomp boxes are cheap, reliable and robust. Those who are just starting out will most likely want to get one of these.
Finally, lets mention digital delay processors real quick. These are your top tier units. In terms of tone, versatility and customization, you simply wont find anything better out there. The only real downside is the fact that you will have to pay a premium even for a mid range model. Then again, if you need a delay processor, you are already at a level where cost becomes less important.
How To Use a Delay Pedal?
The very first thing to know about using delays is their placement in the signal chain. Delays belong to the so-called temporal effects category. In other words, they impact the timing of your signal. Therefore, you should generally put them at the very end of your chain. If you want to learn more about order of guitar pedals,
check out our dedicated guide on that topic. With that out of the way, lets take a look at the most basic controls you will run into on delay pedals.
Level
Level is the most basic control that allows you to adjust how wet or dry the signal coming out of the pedal will be. To put it simply, when the level knob is at its lowest value, you won't hear any delay. When it is on its highest value, the repeating delay sound will be of the same intensity as the source.
Feedback
This knob dictates how many times a sound will be repeated.
Time
Time is where most of the action happens. This knob sets the timing of the delay which is often measured in milliseconds. For example, analog delays generally do go above around 320 milliseconds. On the other hand, digital delays and processors can go way past that mark. Setting the time is what really determines how your delay effect will enrich the overall tone.
Getting Started
Controls listed above represent the most basic layout. There are much more complex control interfaces out there. One of the best advice you can get for delay pedals is to take things slow. Make adjustments to the dry tone incrementally. Timing of the delay is where this comes particularly handy as it is quite easy to get lost in stretching those repetitions out.
Over time, you will figure out exactly how your delay pedal works with your genre of music and playing style. It also helps to start with a pedal that is fairly simple as you can fully explore the far extremes of the basic controls with no other stuff being in the way. Lastly, it's all about having fun. Depending on your taste, moving on to a more robust pedal might be a good next step.
Conclusion
This is what’s on the menu for Delay pedals so far, we covered some newbie-friendly intuitive pedals, and some wealthy and versatile behemoths. They’ll pretty much cover all your needs for customization and/or simplicity, while providing immaculate sound refinement at very affordable prices.
Should you decide to get one for yourself, you might just witness the wonders it can produce, and why it’s such a must have on your pedal board. Feel free to check back here after some time as we will update this list with more Delay pedals suited to your taste. For more great guitar pedals,
click here.