Chorus and delay

[plumptone]

I'm thinking of updating some of the aging pedals on my pedal board, and I'm looking to replace my delay and chorus pedals. Both are run in the effects loop, and I need to be able to run in stereo.

I'm looking very closely at the following:

1. T.C. Electronic Nova Delay ($249)
2. T.C. Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger ($299)

Have not been able to find a store that carries the Nova Delay, nor have I been able to demo the SCF lately. (I tried one years ago and loved it, but couldn't afford it at the time.) Anyone had any experience with either or both of these pedals, both of which seem to have good reviews?

Thanks for any input - and if you have any other recommendations within the same price range, please share. (I'm not interested in the Boss pedals, which I have tried and sound a little anemic to my ears.)

Thanks brothers.

 

[BOOGIE-MAN63]

The regular T/C chorus/flanger for sure.On the delay side,the new Eventide time factor is amazing.5 presets,stereo and transparent.I use a MKIII with a satellite in stereo and it is killer.Hope this helps!!

 

[kennslp]

I don't have experience w/ either of these pedals, but since you're in NJ, you might want to take a trip to LI and check out Pedal Geek's shop. Here's the address info:

EMAIL: [email protected]
PHONE: 866-505-4335 (TOLL FREE in the USA)
STORE: 804-B Jericho Turnpike, New Hyde Pk, NY 11040
STORE HOURS: M-W 12-5| Th-Fr 12-7| Sat Seasonal/Call

I live on the Island, and had NO IDEA they were right in my back yard. Been there a couple of times now... very cool guy runs the place, and you can actually try out the unit(s) before making your purchase. Good luck!

-K

 

[Pinweaver]

AFAIK the initial batch of nova delay's was sold out almost instantly and they are still catching up to fulfill all the backorders.

 

[plumptone]

THanks for the input you guys. I pulled the trigger on the Nova Delay, so I'll let you know how it goes once I receive it. Had to order online - no one has them in stock in retail.

I looked hard at the Eventide, and aside from the price difference, I thought it was overkill for my particular situation - although the reviews on the unit are all glowing.

I'm still up in the air on the Chorus pedals - looking at the AnalogMan stuff as well.

I'll post a review of the Nova pedal if you guys are interested once I've had the chance to run it for a while.

Again - thanks for the replies.

 

[eventide_awakening]

analogman chorus is wonderful. SOOOOO easy to get great sounds with few knobs. i really don't think you'd be disappointed with it. built very solid too.

 

[plumptone]

Following up. I got the Nova Delay. This is a very nice pedal - huge bang for the buck. I spent a couple of hours figuring it out at home, and used it for a gig Saturday night. It looks very cool - solid feeling black metal box, bright red lights.

Tone - pristine. You can dial it in to sound like an old tape echo, with the requisite tape degradation in the repeats, up to analog, and all the way to digital. It's a sweepable knob, so you have a lot of tone control. Original signal remains very true. Noise free.

Cool features: tap tempo is global, meaning it applies no matter what your other settings are, and the light blinks all the time. Love blinking lights. Delay time is brightly lit in ms or bpm. I use the ms setting. Tap tempo is a freaking breeze and can be changed on the fly with or without delay engaged. You don't have to do any of the "hold button down for 2 seconds" nonsense - just tap and play. Can't believe I've lived without tap tempo for so long. Also has audio tapping feature which is pretty cool (you play quarter notes and it figures out your temp for you).

Buttons don't "click". I like this - you just have to tap to activate - it doesn't require a mechanical click to engage.

Spillover delay is awesome. You're playing a solo, and tap the dely off when you come out and the dely rings out until the repeats end - it literally spills over. Very nice.

Chorus on the repeats if you like - this is subtle, but pretty cool. You can dial in how much chorus you want as well as select from three available types of chorus - from light to medium to lush. Interesting trick - in a stereo set-up, set delay time to 35 ms, and crank up the chorus setting, and it sounds like a pretty good chorus pedal with a sort of ambient feel to it. Possible preset for future use.

Multiple delay subdivisions - quarter notes, eighths, dotted egths and combinations of two at a time. This will take some getting used to, but the dotted 8th notes get you into Edge/U2 territory.

Up to 9 presets. I haven't configured it yet, but it's going to be nice to be able to set up presets.

It also has this setting called dynamic delay, which is basically a "ducked" delay. I like this feature too - the harder you attack the strings, the less delay sound is heard; the more you back off, the more delay you hear. This is really cool if you do a fast run and don't want delays interfering, but want something to pop out at the end - like if you wiggle the last note of a phrase.

All in all, I'm very happy with it. It's true stero, which is awesome - you can set it up to pan slowly or ping-pong, and even if not, the chorus is stereo on the repeats, so it's got a very full, spatial character to it.

If your looking for delay, you should definitely check these out if you can find one to audition. I'm very happy so far.

 

[jzerza]

Thanks for the review... I am also in the market for a new delay and have been looking at the nova and the eventide, neither one is sold around here. A few questions on the nova for you.
How easy is it to switch between presets while playing?
How's the "audio tapping" Playing a rhythm to get your tempo?

I'm not a big Boss fan either, I have 2 on my board right now.... An original run ce-2 chorus which I must confess will probably never leave and a dd-20 delay which needs to find a new home - it's so freakin noisy. I guess I'm looking for something as flexible as the dd-20 that can give me good analog / tape / and digital sounds and is fairly easy to use.... and quiet!
Anything you don't like about the pedal?
Thanks
Jeff

 

[plumptone]

Switching between presets isn't too hard - you tap the tap tempo switch once then tap the on/off switch to scroll through. There are 9 usable presets - but you can also limit the number to only 3 so you don't have to scroll through all 9 to get where you want to go. I haven't modified any of the factory presets yet. It's not a problem at all.

The audio tapping feature is cool - but I prefer the standard tap tempo which you can do on the fly - that switch is always active so even if you don't have the delay activated, you can still tap your tempo so it's there when you need it. The one thing about audio tap - it's not really the rhythm you have to play - you need to do steady quarter notes at the tempo you want the song to be in - if you start doing a funky rhythm it's not going to understand.

As I mentioned, this thing does really cover the tape/analog/digital spectrum really well, and it's a very quiet unit.

The one thing it doesn't have that I wish it did have is a dedicated "hold" or "loop" function. Those features weren't critical for me, but they are fun to play with once in a while. The workaround on this unit is that you can effectively get a decent loop/hold going if you use a nice lond delay setting - and play a phrase with the repeats set at 100 (which seems to be an infinite repeat - and if not infinite, then very long. Play your phrase, then hit the on/off button. Because of the delay spillover, it will keep repeating the phrase for you, so you can jam along.

I should mention, I use this delay in my loop - and it works great there.

Oh - also be aware that the input/output jacks are not on the sides of the unit left and right, but on the side all at the top. My right angled patch cables don't quite work right - but once I get the TC chorus box, they should all line up right.

I didn't demo the eventide, but based on reviews and research it just seemed to have more than I needed and was quite a bit more expensive.

I'd recommend this. I'm using a DC-3 too.

 

[jzerza]

Thanks for the info...

What kind of guitars do you mainly play through you dc-3? I was playing a PRS SE, but just finished parting together my American Deluxe strat with vintage pups and WOW!!!! (Sold the PRS) These pickups are not hot at all, but have made me love my amp more. Before I could only set the gain on my lead channel at 3 and still it was too muddy for me. Now I can crank it to 7 or 8 and get a great smooth overdrive all the way to a humbucker type sound using my volume knob. My buddy plugged this guitar into his 100 watt carvin tube amp and it would barely breakup on his lead channel..... but it's a perfect match for my Boogie! Belltones and harmonics galore..

 

[eventide_awakening]

just thought i'd throw in that i love my t-rex replica. no preset capabilities like the nova, but then again you wouldn't have to cycle through them to get what you wanted. not bashing the nova, just take it into account to decide for yourself. it's got true bypass (if you're into that kind of stuff) and the subdivision switch for dotted eights. a brown switch reduces the highs in the wet signal to give an analog vibe...and it does it well. tap tempo is also included and was a major selling point for me.

only issue here is the price tag as they recently upped it by ~$80 so that it's now ~$480. i got mine right before the price hike.

i too looked at the eventide delay but it was just too much for what i wanted. less extra options (that i would have never used) equals less confusion. i like simple and practical setups.

 

[plumptone]

jzerza: we're on similar paths, I think. I use either a 1988 strat plus with gold lace sensors, a 1999 American deluxe with stock nioseless pu'ps, or my american standard tele bone stock. They all scream through this little amp. I usually run the gain on 7 or 8 as well, and get great lead tones. With the clean channel I'm usually pushing the gain at about 5.5 or 6.

I had a PRS CE-22 for about a year and a half, and I ended up selling it. Nothing really wrong woth the guitar's sound in general - alhtough the neck pickup I found to be way too boomy. That guitar looked cool as hell, but I just couldn't get used to the wide/fat neck, or the way the neck got sticky on me. Also, being a strat player for all my life, I'm used to resting my arm on the body contour while I play. Whenever I'd use the PRS I'd end up rubbing the skin off the inside of my right forearm on the "lip" of the edge of the body of the guitar - to the point where I'd actually be bleeding by the end of a 4 hour show.

I agree with the "belltones and harmonics galore" comment - that's a great way to describe the DC-3. I think of it like a Vox on steroids. I also use an F-50 which has a completely different character, but is (for me, anyway) just as versatile and has a bit more headrooom on the clean channel. That amp lets the specific tone of my guitars shine through really well, and it LOVES my telecaster. I often use both amps together in a stereo rig.

I actually bought an old style "Boogie" logo for my DC-3 (I ordered my wood & wicker F-50 with the same logo), and it looks totally vintage and very unassuming. People's heads definitely turn when I fire up those amps.

 

[jzerza]

Alright, I sold my DD-20 Yesterday and ordered the Nova Delay. Should have it Monday or Tuesday....I'll let ya know how she works for me. I'm also exited that I only have 1 Boss pedal left on my board , but that ce-2 is staying!
As far as pickups... I think we are going for a similiar sound. When I put my axe together, I tried a lot of different pickups. I did like the lace. I tried the vintage noiseless and sc noiseless, and in my opinion they were noiseless but sacrificed tone. ( no offense to you or your American Deluxe noiseless) If you haven't yet and get a chance, check out the Fender custom shop '69 pups. I think you would really be amazed at how great a match they are with the dc-3. I think they go for about $150.00 on Ebay, but are worth every penny!

 

[plumptone]

Definitely post back after you've spent some time with the Nova - I'd like to know how you like it.

The vintage nioseless pickups are a bit under powered in terms of output, but it's not a huge deal for me - it's a slightly different flavor, but I like it. I can get a really nice Knopfler and old school Gilmour sound. The noiseless feature is a must for me though. I'm the only guitar player in my band, and we're a trio, so it's really important that the sound I'm making is as noise free as I can get it. I run some potentially noisy effects up fromt, so anything I can do to minimize any excess is good for me. When I want o get masty and griyyt I use a tele with bone stock pickups.

Let us know how you liked the Nova.