Strymon has just announced a preview of a new delay pedal on their web site blog. It’s called the BBD and is a DSP based implementation of an analog delay with true bypass and tap tempo.

from the site: “BBD takes the compact aluminum chassis and form factor developed for the OB.1 and crams in a TON of DSP horsepower … more than has ever existed in such a compact pedal. We love analog delays but at the same time they pose some serious limitations. So, we decided to take a super powerful SHARC DSP and dedicate to doing one thing and one thing only … delivering the best analog bucket brigade delay sound ever.”

Click here for the strymon blog

Moog has combined the guitar and bass MuRF pedals and added a full midi implementation in the new MF-105M. At $479 it’s definitely not cheap but it is very cool sounding.

The new Strymon OB.1 compressor is quiter, more transparent and better sounding than my old compressor pedals, which have included an old MXR Dynacomp, a Boss compressor, and a couple of BYOC (Build Your Own Clone) compressors.

Here’s the signal path: Strymon OB.1 > Korg Pitchblack tuner > Fulltone Deja-Vibe > Xotic BB preamp > Xotic AC Booster > Loop-Master > Xotic X-Blender > Fender 65 RI Twin Reverb.

The Loop-Master has a master bypass that eliminates all of the other pedals and wiring attached to it.  Loop one has an Electro-Harmonix micro POG, and loop two has a Boss CE-5 chorus.

The Xotic X-Blender has the Boss DD-20 delay in the loop.  The DD-20 is set to 100% wet, and the echos are added back in to direct signal path with the mix knob.

The whole thing runs off of a single 1-Spot power supply.  The other power supplies are for other pedals (such as a Digitech Talker or a Boss GT-6) that I sometimes add and switch with the Loop-Master.

The OB.1 gets along great with the BB preamp and the AC Booster.  There is less hiss than I had with my old compressor pedals, and the the boost is great.  I can use the flat boost for more gain, or I can use the treble boost for a Brian May kind of tone.  I’m loving this new Strymon OB.1 compressor!

This is always great fun to look at: “pedal guts pics thread”

Beware, you can easily spend hours on this thread!
The pics with big ugly globs of goo are no fun

Not yet shipping but this looks interesting from the German company SM Pro Audio. This box acts as an embedded host for VST plug-ins that normally run in a DAW on a PC. A 1.5 GHz CPU and 2 gigs of flash memory are included to host your favorite VST plug-ins on the floor. No word on pricing as of yet.

Here is a link to their site.

The Line6 Tonecore SDK is paying dividends today. PsiKTrOn from Belgium did some really creative work to develop a custom tonecore module using the Tonecore software development kit. It’s quite impressive … check out the video below.

Damage Control has just posted a new 2009 promo video for their well regarded TimeLine delay. The video goes through some, but not all of the features … dotted 1/8th, modulation, multitap delay, pingpong and reverse.

Internal wiring isn’t quite as neat as it could be but…oh well. All of the guitar signals are made with shielded cable. The cabling for the pots, toggle switch, power supply and tap footswitch are unshielded since they are all DC control voltages or DC supply.

Mounting the module pcb to the main pcb is the most difficult part of the conversion. It’s hard soldered so if this baby breaks, it’s pretty much game over.

Line6 Echo Park delay pedal in a custom enclosure. The pedal has been modified to include “true bypass” and a carling tap tempo footswitch. The power supply was also modified to accept either 9VAC or 9VDC …and it also has BIG KNOBS!

I’ve been using it this way for a few years with no labeling (I finally memorized the controls after a while) and no switch for the analog and tape emulation modes. It has been permanently set to “digital” for a long time.

The picture below shows an added toggle for delay mode select (analog/digital/tape). Finished this yesterday.

After I added the toggle, I decided to finish the job and label everything. Done!

Looks like Damage Control has re-launched their website and are now selling their pedals direct to customers. Good news for those eagerly awaiting the TimeLine and Glass Nexus pedals as they have been unavailable for some time.