There were my beautiful jewels lined up on the floor beneath me: the DigiTech Bad Monkey Overdrive, the Boss BF-2 Flanger and the MXR Phase 90 Script Reissue. I was virtually staring down at Edward Van Halen's effects chain!
Except...no "Echoplex." I have a DOD FX90 analog delay from the early `80's that's actually a collector's item now, but I found it to only be good for slapback rockabilly echoes, not the long, mountaintop variety favored by Mr. Van Halen. So...here was an excuse to blow more money.
At Ken Stanton Music the DigiTech X Series digital delay had caught my eye because of it's sparkle-silver casing. I spotted one for just $50 (+$7 for shipping) on E-Bay. Without hesitation, I bagged it.
Just three days later it arrived. Oh, boy! Then I plugged it in. Oh, shit!
Right away the power LED came on, but no echo effect came out. The light wouldn't go out no matter how many times I pressed the pedal. I took out the battery and put in a new one, and it worked fine for 15 minutes, then it did the same thing. As I tried to switch out for yet a third battery one of the battery snaps came off in the top of the 9 volt battery I was removing. No matter, I tried it with an adaptor and now it wouldn't come on at all.
This really sucked because it was sounding pretty good right before it crapped out. Oh, those wonderful 15 minutes! Well my head was now dead set on hearing some echo before the weekend was up, so I went down to Guitar Center to look at the most comparable pedal, the Boss DD-6.
The Boss DD-6 was $159.99. Yes, $159.99 just to make an echo sound! You can nearly buy a PC for that, so is a microchip that echos really so valuable? Well, however big a ripoff it might have been, I was determined to hear echo. So against my better judgement I plunked down the Visa for the DD-6.
I still have not plugged (Saturday) in the DD-6 because I'm wondering if I shouldn't return it and get one used for $50 less on E-Bay. On the other hand, maybe having the 5-year warranty is worth it?
Anyhow, so I wrote to the guy I bought the DigiTech from that the pedal was acting nuts and got...no reply. So I stepped it up and opened a PayPal dispute. Finally I heard from him that he'd refund my money, no problem, just mail it back. So today (Saturday) I'm going to the UPS store to send this other one off.
My DigiTech Bad Monkey and Hot Head pedals have worked great, but there are reviews of those digital delays going nuts and dying within minutes on Harmony Central, Amazon and Musicians Friend, so...maybe their analog stuff is good, but not the digital.
Anyhow...I'm pretty excited about echo pedals.
Epilogue (Sunday):
Just came upstairs from cranking the Boss DD-6. I think I deafened myself, but I've got an amazing sound dialed in. The Bad Monkey lifts the ol' Music Man HD-130 just out of Angus Young territory into Eddie V-H territory, and with the phaser and echo...look out. Now I think I need to try to snare a MXR Flanger; this Boss one is a bit tinny and I don't think it "wooshes" quite like a MXR, though maybe a fresh battery would help. Anyhow, I also responded to some ads on Craigslist today. Time to put on my footy pajamas.
