Question for Deluxe Memory Man Onwers

[kingnimrod]

So, I was sitting around playing tonight with my new Deluxe Memory Man, running into a Boss DD-20, and discovered a couple of things I wanted to ask you guys about.

First off, the repeats sound a little noisy - like a really soft static or whoosh attached to each repeat. Rolling off the tone knob on the guitar makes this noise more pronounced. Hard to describe, but imagine whispering the letter F repeatedly, and that's sorta close. I know the repeats are supposed to be dark and mushy, but this staticky noise has me wondering. Is this normal?

Other question - the DD-20 supposedly allows you to dial in your delay down to the millisecond. I decided to compare the 550 ms setting on the DD-20 to the max delay time on the Memory Man. The Memory Man is closer to what the DD-20 says is 450 ms. Is it more likely that the DD-20 is off, or that the Memory Man is coming up short?

What exactly does Electro Harmonix mean by "up to 550 ms" - is that like "some lucky guy will get 550 ms, but the rest of you should be happy with less.

Is there an easy way to measure exactly what the delay is?

Anyway, trying to figure out if I need to send it in to EHX or what.

Would appreciate some words of wisdom from fellow owners

[squidsquad]

I've owned a lot of them...all very old.  There were variations in the amount /type of noise...and a tiny bit in the delay length.  But since you're dealing with only about a tenth of a second...I wouldn't sweat it.  Even if you tried measuring with a stopwatch...your reaction times would vary by that amount.  I WAS able to clean up some of the noise...but tweaking a trimpot. On my old units...(keeping the pots on top as you remove the bottom)...it was the hole on the upper right.  Always mark the original position carefully before mucking about!  And I would'n reccomend messin with all of them...or you may *kill it*.  But I found I could get more high end (and more hiss) or lose the hiss & get more mud.  Analog is just plain noisy...especially in the longer delay times.  There are other posts here about em...do a search.

[kingnimrod]

I will post some soundclips in this thread tonight to demonstrate what I'm talking about

[kingnimrod]

Here is a link to a short soundclip:

Deluxe Memory Man Noise

This is a strat set at position 2 with the tone rolled most of the way down. The high-pitched edge/slight buzz is a recording artifact, but the whooshy repeats are easy to hear.

Also, the delay is set to its maximum length.

normal?
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[squidsquad]

Dude,

You have nearly twice as much delay as I have on my old unit.  Now I'm gonna have to fu** w/it some more...RATZ!

But it sounds *normal* to me.  If you want noise-free perfection...stick w/digital...or shell out the grand for Fulltone's re-issue of the Echoplex.

I would if I had the dough.....had one back in the good old days & LUV'D it!

[kingnimrod]

thanks for the reply. Just trying to make sure it's within spec - just bought it new.

I was surprised that it's noisier than the tokai dl-1 I resurrected...

[squidsquad]

BTW,

The reason I put up w/the imperfections...is I love how you can roll the knobs  w/your toe...go into *runaway* feedback....and change speeds for special FX or a bizzare tune ending (ala Telestar).

I also like the boost...and found that running a Fetzer Valve (simple lovely circuit from ROG) puts some of the lost sparkle back in.  Just don't put TOO much boost into it...or ya lose the echoes.