SOLID GOLD FX
ELECTROMAN
BY LYLE ZAEHRINGER
Despite qualifying as an ancient relic in the relative terms of electric guitardom, the Echoplex tape unit remains
one of the benchmarks for sweet-sounding
delay. Designed by Mike Battle in 1959,
the Echoplex delivers sounds that the most
advanced digital-delay manufacturers are
still trying to emulate with varying degrees
of success. But while the Echoplex gave
players some of the warmest tape delay
tones ever known, it also had an incredible capacity for weirdness that was, in
many ways, far ahead of its time. With
the introduction of the simple but flexible
Electroman digital-delay pedal, Canadian
effects manufacturer Solid Gold FX demonstrates an appreciation for both extremes
of the Echoplex’s performance envelope,
and the know-how to make both straightforward and unusual delay sounds that are
practical and inspiring.
Effects loop output/input
Tone control
Built For Space Travel
Solid Gold FX makes little effort to conceal
the Electroman’s potential for out-there
sonics. The neon, alien-green-on-black,
LED-inspired graphics give you the sense
this might be an instrument left behind
in an alien abduction (or at least a movie
about one). But the true-bypass Electroman
doesn’t require a degree in astrophysics—it’s
easy to operate and navigate.
There are knobs for Level, which sets
the level of the delayed signal, and Repeat
(otherwise known as feedback), which dials
in the level of an echo relative to its previous
echo. The Tone knob determines the level
of filtering applied to each delay repeat, and
the Time control sets the amount of time
between echoes, which ranges from short
slapback echoes up to 600 ms of delay.
Two footswitches, Bypass and the enticing Warp switch (which induces a self-oscil-lation effect), round out the Electroman’s
controls. In addition to 1/4" input and
output jacks, a 1/4" effects loop jack lets
you add additional textures to the delay via
outboard effects and a TRS Y cable.
Warp switch
Tone Trials
With a Fender Stratocaster in hand, I began
my first investigations of the Electroman’s
capabilities with tweaks of the Tone control.
Rolling off the Tone control darkens successive repeats by filtering away high frequencies. As with a vintage tape unit, this makes
each echo progressively less apparent. But
much to the delight of my analog-synth-fixated ear, it also imparts some qualities of
low-pass filtering that give the Electroman
an individual sonic signature.
Bringing the Tone control up brightens
the delays, but interestingly, I never landed
on a setting that sounded like unfiltered,
mirror-image echoing. There almost always
seemed to be some sort of tone coloration,
which gives the Electroman’s delayed signal
a singing resonance and pleasing harmonic
richness that lends a cool vintage touch and
helps the Electroman carve out sonic territory without getting too muddy.
Toying with the Repeat knob reveals
more about the wilder side of the
Electroman. With the Repeat set to three
o’clock, you’ll get an infinitely recurring
signal and anything higher will eventually
self-oscillate. You can keep this effect mellow and understated, of course. By setting
the Repeat control low and cranking the
Tone control, I was able to achieve a really
convincing 1950s-style slapback echo that
would be great for country and rockabilly.
But inverting the settings of those two
controls gave me a dark and lingering
shoegazey delay that faded very slowly. And
using those settings with the Warp switch
transformed the sound more radically still.
Instead of delicately undulating towards
silence, the echoes gradually become
louder and louder, eventually shrieking
and pounding as if you were concurrently
cranking the repeat and level controls on
an analog or tape delay. And the real beauty
