help: comissioning a delay/boost pedal?

[zerocipher]

Dear All,

Firstly, I know many of you are hobbyists and this might not be the right place to ask... but perhaps you are the guys who could point me in the right direction, or maybe take this project on for a comission?

I am looking for a tap-tempo, true bypass delay pedal. I want the tap to be on a seperate switch to the bypass. I would also like to have a boost control, so that when the delay is switched on, the signal can be boosted by an amount on a 'boost' pot. The only other pots I want are a 'mix' and 'repeats' pots. Ideally it would be stereo in and stereo out, but I could live with mono in mono out. Finally, I want the pedal to be the size of a regular boss pedal (I have a tiny hole in a pedal board to fill), and run on a 9vDC powerbank.

Demanding I know, and my electronics / finishing skills are no way near up to the standard I'd need to get this done! Maybe you know someone who's is?

[Unbeliever]

I want the tap to be on a seperate switch to the bypass.  ... Finally, I want the pedal to be the size of a regular boss pedal

I don't think that sizing requirement is realistic .....

[hairyandy]

I want the tap to be on a seperate switch to the bypass.  ... Finally, I want the pedal to be the size of a regular boss pedal

I don't think that sizing requirement is realistic .....

I agree.  Honestly, I think you should get the Line6 ToneCore Echo Park delay.  I know that the bypass and tap are the same switch but it really is easy to get used to the tap and the thing sounds great.  For what you're wanting, the Echo Park is the coolest thing out there for the money at $140.  I realize it doesn't do the boost thing but there are other ways around that issue as well...

My $.02,

[$uperpuma]

these guys are right about the pedal, you'll need just a little more space... the line 6 pedal is cool and sounds good...I'm using a Boss-dd-5 with a little home-made tap tempo switch but thats two pedal spaces.   I DID check out your band... nice heavy stuff there!@

[Torchy]

Paging Mr. Vex ..................

[DuncanM]

I agree with $uperpuma - a boss DD5, gut it and rebuild it in a suitable enclosure with a minibooster or similar.

You MIGHT get it all in a BB box... Three footswitches though - could be tricky. 

[zerocipher]

Hi everyone.

First of all, thanks very much for all your responses and ideas.

I did buy a line6 echo park, but was really dissapointed, because it was so damn hissy (even using a noisegate) on high gain sounds... so I ended up taking it back to the store. I did try it in different parts of the chain, and with different power supplies and even a 9v battery, but to no avail

I might be able to squeeze an extra inch with a pedal board re-jiggle, I know there are a few different ways to build a tap tempo, what do you recommend for the smallest simplest route?

The other question is, if I take the DD5 and a minibooster, what I am hoping to have is the boost come on at the same time as the delay, by clicking one switch. Do-able, or should I forget it?

Thanks again!

[comfortably_numb]

You could wire the whole thing, delay and booster, to all come on with one true bypass switch, and then wire a toggle to just switch in the minibooster so you have the option of leaving it off. 

So the layout would go - input - switch 1a(whole unit) - switch 2a (boost toggle) - minibooster circuit - switch 2b - delay circuit - switch 1b - output.

So when switch 1 is off, input connects directly to output.  When it's on it goes to switch 2, which means it could either go through the boost, to the delay, then out, OR it could bypass the boost and go directly to the delay and then out.

Hope that makes sense.  The short answer is YES.

[Mark Hammer]

I did buy a line6 echo park, but was really dissapointed, because it was so damn hissy (even using a noisegate) on high gain sounds... so I ended up taking it back to the store. I did try it in different parts of the chain, and with different power supplies and even a 9v battery, but to no avail

I find mine to be quite quiet, although the Tone Core pedals can sometimes misbehave if daisychained with other digital pedals on the same supply/adaptor.  Myself and a couple of others here beta-tested them when they were in development.  A short period after the initial release, we were all contacted and recommended to return our modules for a second release with an improved noise-gating function.  It is quite possible the one you purchased or tried out was some of the earliest stock, but then I've never had the opportunity to compare the two issues, and have no idea what your criteria for "noisy" is.  I'm not saying you have no complaint, merely that you may have fallen through the cracks and bought a module that was less noise-free than it might have been in your context.

Personally, I know of no production delay pedals with anything more than 300msec or so of delay time that has a level preset.  In view of how much current delay pedals in general require, there is also very little reason for any manufacturer to incorporate true bypass since it adds very little usefulness in that context.

I think your best bet is to use a dedicated loop selector box with a separate level control for loop and bypass.  You could use the tap tempo on the Echo Park (assuming the noise issue is overcome for you), and the bypass/engage switch on the loop box.  You could make the delay either louder or softer than the bypass signal.  Like you, I'm not overly fond of the dual-function switch on the Tone Core pedals, but admittedly they provide a lot of functionaity in a little package. If you can separate the tap tempo and switching function into two switches,  you might like it more.  The resulting package would probably still be smaller than a Delay Modeller.

[trevize]

ok i think you want something like the memory lane (429 US $  ).

some say it's like having a memory man that sounds better and with tap tempo.

[mydementia]

I run my Echo Park in my amp effects loop on its own 9V wallwart.  I have zero noise...even running it after my cranked Mesa Boogie sim...  As Mark mentioned - these ToneCore pedals don't like to be daisy chained.  The EP is a VERY versatile pedal...I highly recommend giving it a second shot...with a dedicated power supply.
Mike

[zerocipher]

Thanks guys, much appreciated

On the echo park front, I couldn't try with the dedicated line6 psu because they aren't available in the UK for some reason, as far as I am aware. Can't buy one on eBay either thanks to our 230v mains supply!  It might be we've only got the early units, but I bought it fairly recently (2 weeks ago from Turnkey in London). I did also try it with a battery straight into my amp (two JMP-1s into EL34 100/100 and 1960a cabs - admittedly noisy on its own, so a 3630 comp/gate in the FX loop), and it was still too noisy for my liking. I guess my criteria for "noisy" was "much noisier than the boss analog delay I used to have there"!

I like the look of the memory lane, and also the dls echo tap, both seem to do what I want bar the volume boost, but I think because of a)pedal size and b)my (lack of) skill with a soldering iron, the solution I'm going to go for is a combination of your ideas - a dd-5 with a tap switch and a nobels a/b switcher for the boost, squeezed into the smallest box I can manage!

[tiges_ tendres]

T-rex also make a tap tempo delay with a pretty modest footprint.