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Best Delay for Bass

#23
Vintage Boss DD-2 with the l-o-n-g chip. It is based around the chip made for the Roland SDE-3000 rack mounted digital delay. By luck, the chip just fits across the width of the compact pedal and for months the design team worked to squeeze the rest of the components on to the printed circuit board.

Link Removed

I also had it modded by the amazing Dan at this1smyne effects (http://www.this1smyne.com/) to install a toggle which gives it a classic "tape" analog sound as well.

In short, this delay offers the best of digital and analog delay in one box.
 
#25
Honestly, there is no "best" delay, and all you've just got out of this thread is 20 different people saying what delay they're using.

As for "best delay for bass", that's really a nonsensical question, because there is nothing about a delay pedal that will effect a bass differently than a guitar. It doesn't cut lows or anything like that. ANY delay will work on bass just as good as it works on guitar.

The real question that everyone before me should have asked before giving a recommendation is: what kind of features and tone are you looking for out of your delay? Are you looking for a dark, slighty distorted repeats or crystal clear repeats? Are you looking for tap tempo? Any other features?
 
#27
What I find interesting here is that there are a lot of folks recommending delay pedals, but the OP did not provide any examples of particular songs or styles.
Are we talking slap-back delay like the Stray Cats? Or more like Pink Floyd?
I'll get back out of the way and let the recommendations fly - but to the OP....you should really tell us what you're after. I think you'd get a better set of recommendations.
 
#31
bigchiefbc said:
Honestly, there is no "best" delay, and all you've just got out of this thread is 20 different people saying what delay they're using.

As for "best delay for bass", that's really a nonsensical question, because there is nothing about a delay pedal that will effect a bass differently than a guitar. It doesn't cut lows or anything like that. ANY delay will work on bass just as good as it works on guitar.

The real question that everyone before me should have asked before giving a recommendation is: what kind of features and tone are you looking for out of your delay? Are you looking for a dark, slighty distorted repeats or crystal clear repeats? Are you looking for tap tempo? Any other features?
Click to expand...

+1 to all the above!
 
#32
best delay with most features for the money: TC Electronics Nova REPEATER
i've played with both the Nova Delay and the Repeater, and the Repeater won. the modulation on the Repeater actually does something! the volume knob only effects the wet signal (so more subtlety to the mix) whereas the Delay volume knob is actually a mix knob where at Noon both the delay and dry are at unity. anything past noon only turns down the dry signal.
As for the presets: i know what each song needs from the delay, so i set it and use the tap tempo. no more than 2 seconds. anyone who whines about this is just b!tching.
the Repeater is simple and easy.

That said, the only thing it needs is a high-pass filter for the wet signal. only one delay on the market has this, the EHX Stereo Memory Man w/ Hazari, but it's friggin' huge and i don't need anything else it does, really.
 
#33
So I was looking for something along the line of ambient, crystal clear delay. Russian Circles, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai. I am looking at the Nova Repeater and the Space Echo, i want to check the that Lunar Echo as well. I am trying to go for really ambient sounds for a worship band I am in. We will see what happens!
 
#34
as someone that is after the Pink Floyd/King Crimson type sound my fav delay is strangely enough a digital pedal.
SUBDECAY ECHOBOX: it has really nice modulation, gets nice and lo-fi at greater than 500 m/s, can self-oscillate nicely, can do tails (with an EXCELLENT BYPASS) and overall its no fluff with all substance.

delays i've tried and failed for me:
Boss DD-3: too digital for me
Roland RE-20 Space Echo: terrible bypass, sold for the hopes of an El Capistan soon
EHX Memoryman with Hazarai: too much fluff
Malekko 600 dark (too dark?)
Memory Boy: just sounded crappy
 
#37
i had so much fun with a strymon el capistan, especially the multi-head mode, cause i can use it on a lot of songs that has quiet parts, and ambient, rumbling lines.

i sold it though, and so far, i am very interested with a catalinbread echo-rec ... i can only find use for multi-head delays
 
#39
No love for the TC Electronics Flashback? You get a handful of delay types (analog, tape, reverse, slap, modulated, and more). Tempo customization. 40-sec looper. TonePrint.

Just make sure you've got a reliable power source. Batteries are no match for this pedal.
 
#40
bigchiefbc said:
As for "best delay for bass", that's really a nonsensical question, because there is nothing about a delay pedal that will effect a bass differently than a guitar. It doesn't cut lows or anything like that. ANY delay will work on bass just as good as it works on guitar.
Click to expand...

Wrong.

There are things in a delay which can impact bass that would not otherwise be recognizable or noticeable on a guitar; just like any other effect.

The additional power needed to push low end bass through the circuit could very well change the sound coming out of the pedal.

A lot of delay pedals have very little head room in the repeat circuit. With a guitar, this lack of headroom may not be noticeable in the repeats; leading to cleaner repeats. With a bass, the additional voltage necessary (and we're not talking much here) to handle the more power intensive bass frequencies can cause more distorted repeats sooner.

Some circuit builders will intentionally cut out lower frequencies from the delay path, sucking out low end. They do this to protect the clarity and quality of repeats when the delay IC can't handle large input. Other makers don't bother and it's chance whether or not you end up with a pedal good for bass or not based on whatever capacitors, filtering section, and delay processor, and voltage regulation the builder used. And some circuits are made with bass players in mind and more filtering goes to the delay, which usually makes the delay "darker", along with circuit components that suit the passing or maintenance of low frequency devices.

All that said, some delay pedals are better for bass than others. I like the Deep Blue Delay (or clone) for bass.
 

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