Electro Harmonix Dealers?! (questions about delay...delay...delay)

[Drazden]

Alright, I'm in the mood for a delay. Looking online, I am currently salivating over the new Stereo Memory Man w/Hazarai. This thing looks freaking amazing.

Now that Songbird's defunct (dammit, dammit, dammit, NO!) where can I go to test one out? We're talking Toronto/north GTA.... I think The Arts in Newmarket has them, right?

thanks!

PS Does anyone have any experience with this pedal? It seems very versatile, and the presets on each mode are really what's doing it for me. That being said, I've never really played around with delay... just a few minutes with a DD-6 that I really thought was cool last year.

[Greenbacker]

I feel your pain regarding the loss of Songbird. Arse!

I think the two big boys (Steve's and L&M) both carry EHX. I can stop in to see if L&M has one in stock tomorrow on my way home if you like. (Literally just around the corner.) Or you could give em a call. They've recently bumped up their stock like crazy: Diamond, Maxon, Keeley, Hao...

Paul's Boutique is also an authorized dealer but his stock is pretty hit and miss I find. Might be worth a call.

Moog Audio on Queen (1 block west of Steve's) is also a carrier. (And now they're our ownly downtown Zvex supplier, afaik) I know you can order online from them but as far as trying stuff out there... There's only one helpful guy there and he's the manager (Francis). The rest seem to be pretty indifferent vinyl snobs who know/ care little about guitar. I think they've got a vox and a perpetually out of tune PRS there or something to try the pedals out with.

[devil6]

I was in Steve's last week and I didn't see the Stereo Memory Man, but I seem to recall them having it at one point.


I'm gonna have to go into Moog Audio, I always walk by there but never went in(which is weird cause I love Moog :tongue: ). I just checked out their website and they have some awesome boutique/weird sounding pedals which is right up my alley....now I just have to work the extra hours to afford them

[mhammer]

For whatever reasons, it may be the case that EHX is starting to show up in more places. A 3rd tier music store in a strip-mall near me (wedged between the bakery and the dry cleaners; purveyors of Samick guitars, teeny practice amps, and lessons to pimply 14 year-olds) now carries EHX instead of Danelectro and weird Chinese pedal lines you've never heard of. So, there may be hope.

As the proud and happy owner of a Line 6 Echo Park, I can also recommend them as a very nifty toy. The stereo in and out offers some truly tasty possibilities, and the "tape" and "analog" modes sound pretty decent.

[Greenbacker]

User 'Tri99er' has one up in the buy/sell forum right now.

[iaresee]

PS Does anyone have any experience with this pedal? It seems very versatile, and the presets on each mode are really what's doing it for me. That being said, I've never really played around with delay... just a few minutes with a DD-6 that I really thought was cool last year.

I have one. It's a love/hate relationship. It's a finicky pedal. There's some sort of mis-match on its input impedence that causes reflections on the line when it's in the loop on my Koch and subsequently I get some weird squelch/standing wave thing going on when it's in the loop so I had to move it out front which really kills the usefulness of the looper.

The delay sounds are all quite nice. The modulation and reverb in particular are lush and musical.

EHX did a bad job of trying to hide its digital heart behind analog controls. The smooth running knobs don't respond like smooth, variable resistors. They respond in steps. I would have liked a tempo display. And one more button to start/stop recording because the multi-function tap tempo can get a little hairy and if you're not careful you can wipe your loop.

The looper itself is pretty good.

If you can find one used in the $180 range (there's one on here now...grab it!) it's a deal. I think they've kept it quirky, but usefully quirky.

Next delay for me is going to be Canadian made.

[iaresee]

and weird Chinese pedal lines you've never heard of.
Shin-Ei? Banzai? Righteous Tones?

[mhammer]

Those would be Japanese. Nah, I'm talking about things like Daphon, Rogue, Johnson, and some of these other things you can buy on websites with atrocious translation and over-the-top descriptions. Keep in mind, there's this whole other segment of the world that also wants effects and doesn't really know anything about EHX, Digitech, boutique stuff, etc.

[iaresee]

Those would be Japanese. Nah, I'm talking about things like Daphon, Rogue, Johnson, and some of these other things you can buy on websites with atrocious translation and over-the-top descriptions. Keep in mind, there's this whole other segment of the world that also wants effects and doesn't really know anything about EHX, Digitech, boutique stuff, etc.
These could be diamonds in the rough! Are these at Domenic's per chance on Hazledean? Man, that place is a ghost of its former self...

[mhammer]

I don't know that any of these could be any better...or worse....than Behringer stuff. My own feeling about it is that a great many of the basic effects are going to demand the same sorts of circuit designs, no matter who makes them. And if the manufacturer is hoping to market to large Asian markets, then they will likely have a "one-of-each" approach that will include a compressor, overdrive, EQ, fuzz, chorus, phaser, flanger, echo, and tremolo. In other words, whether it's a product they generated out of "inspiration" or not, they feel a need to include it in the product line so that they can fill a pedalboard and a small mom and pop music store that knows nothing about gear can sign up with that manufacturer and appear to have all the effects bases covered. That's what Danelectro did, and what Behringer did, and they're not the only folks who can get surface-mount boards in plastic chassis cranked out for them by eager young Chinese folks.

That's not to say they will be bad effects since they will most likely be clones of stuff many of us have owned over the years. Once you commit to making a FET-based phaser, or an 800msec delay, or a compressor, there are certain component choices and accompanying design aspects that become almost obligatory. Just like the way that if you made a 5Y3/6V6/12AX7 amp in 1957 it was pretty much guaranteed to be almost the identical circuit to someone else's 3-tuber. On the other hand, does the world need another Tube Screamer or Dynacomp?

[iaresee]

That's what Danelectro did
Slight tangent here: I pulled my brother-in-law for Kris Kringle this year so I went to Lauzon to buy him a Dano pedal. He's just getting into the electric guitar so I thought a chorus or a delay would be a nice gift. Budget was $70.

NO DANO PEDALS CAN BE HAD NEW FOR $70. At least not an Lauzon. I was shocked. I always thought these were the little cheap gems you could get for $50 and beat the hell out of. Nope. Ended up buying him an EHX LBM: $65 + tax.

That's not to say they will be bad effects since they will most likely be clones of stuff many of us have owned over the years.
Ahh...well, I was hoping they'd be weird new effects that Chinese pop starts have used exclusively to woo their communist brethren. Like a foreign instrument. Natch.

On the other hand, does the world need another Tube Screamer or Dynacomp?
Some people are making a living on that very notion, right? :smile:

[mhammer]

Danelectro pedals can be had in many places for well under $70. I think you accidentally picked a store whose "budget" items are EHX. If you want a big choice of cheap, try Fleet Sound in Bell's Corners. They have almost the complete Behringer line - no mean feat!

As for upstarts, the odds are much greater that a new product line will be a little off the beaten track if the "company" produces only a couple of things or introduces new products one at a time, every now and then. To whit: Empress Effects, 2 pedals.

If the company has any sizeable investment in inventory (and that will be especially true of companies that produce all the standard effects), they are going to aim for the lowest common denominator so as to assure that they recoup their investment. Maybe once their cash cows have been able to keep the company comfortably afloat, they will start to experiment. case in point is EHX. They have the freedom to make the HOG and Holy Stain because they have been living off the BMP, Memory Man, and Small Stone for years; nice dependable products for which there is always a market. Much the way that the Eagles, Santana, and Fleetwood Mac helped subsidize record companies' interest in indy bands.

[Drazden]

EHX as a budget item?!

Damn. The store I work at used to carry all the little Dano pedals. They were fun to screw around on, but for real useable sounds, only a couple were worth getting. IIRC, the flanger actually sounded pretty decent. Though the knobs kept breaking off... Was that the Dano mini? I think so.

Anyway, as a solution to my EHX problems, I've purchased forumite Tri99er's LBM and his SMMH. I miss my old Big Muff and those Hazarai's are too cool to not get one.

thanks, Greenbacker. I never would've noticed it. Eagle eyes on the classifieds got me a deal for the second time.

[Wheeman]

At one of the local music stores, you can get the cheap cheap dan-o pedals for $30.00. I picked up the Fab chorus just for kicks and its okay, but not something I would recommend.

And no, we do NOT need another tubescreamer or dynocomp...