Recommend a Delay and Reverb pedal for 80s metal

jchrisf

jchrisf

Well-known member
I'm ditching modelers and going tube amp. Which reverb and delay do you recommend for the loop of my amps? I've always played them without but discovered I had a cheap Joyo Analog Delay and Donner Yellow Fall that I forgot about. They sounded really good. Would a more expensive delay actually sound better?

This would be for 80s metal like Dokken, Ozzy, etc.
 
The Keeley Halo is an outstanding delay. If you don't need everything it does, they have the core model now. I'm less picky about reverbs as I usually don't set them very much in the mix. Right now I have a Strymon Flint which is very nice. I used an EH Holy Grail for a long time with good results.
 
Last edited:
"Better" is subjective, imho sometimes a cheap/dirty sounding pedal can actually sound "better" than a super expensive pristine-sounding one, especially when talking about delays. Here are my suggestions: for delay, Digitech DL8 - Boss SDE-3000 - Strymon DIG. For reverbs, Digitech RV7 - Digitech Polara - Strymon Flint. These are the best I've tried for my taste and I play the stuff you've mentioned (Dokken/VH etc). Currently using the Digitech DL8 and Polara on my board.
 
Delays-
Digitech DL8 (the actual Lexicon chip that defined some of the 80s sound)
Boss SDE-3000 (it is the 80s)
Eventide H90 (the Swiss Army Knife of effects that sound expensive... because they are...lol!)

Reverb-
The Digitech Hardwire verb... again Lexicon chip
Anything that says Strymon
H90
 
RoccoPezzin said:
"Better" is subjective, imho sometimes a cheap/dirty sounding pedal can actually sound "better" than a super expensive pristine-sounding one, especially when talking about delays. Here are my suggestions: for delay, Digitech DL8 - Boss SDE-3000 - Strymon DIG. For reverbs, Digitech RV7 - Digitech Polara - Strymon Flint. These are the best I've tried for my taste and I play the stuff you've mentioned (Dokken/VH etc). Currently using the Digitech DL8 and Polara on my board.
Click to expand...
SFW said:
Delays-
Digitech DL8 (the actual Lexicon chip that defined some of the 80s sound)
Boss SDE-3000 (it is the 80s)
Eventide H90 (the Swiss Army Knife of effects that sound expensive... because they are...lol!)

Reverb-
The Digitech Hardwire verb... again Lexicon chip
Anything that says Strymon
H90
Click to expand...
I'm curious... These digital pedals like the SDE-3000/Eventide don't suck the tone out of an amp like modelers do they? I assume they are like rack gear in a pedal. I've got the FM3 but I do notice it sucks a tiny bit of tone.. not like the Helix though.

They had the Boss SDE-3 on sale for $150 the other day but I missed it. Is it a good rendition of the 3000?
 
Boss RV-500. Not only does it have an SRV-2000 mode, each patch can also have its own digital delay tacked and you can run two patches simultaneously. So it's possible to run the 400/800ms EVH stereo delays while also having reverbs mixed in series or parallel. It's an 80s rack in a box.
 
For a small footprint in one box, the EQD Dispatch Master. Very limited tweakability, but it works. Most of the time I use a Boss DD-500 on the SDE-3000 mode and it is pretty sweet. I have barely even scratched the surface of what the thing can actually do though.

I would recommend the Boss SDE-3000 from what I have tried overall. Bought one when they were on sale for under $300 a year or two ago and it is great! Easy to tweak and sounds great. Mine has been sitting in the box though because the DD-500 can do the same thing and I already have that one attached to my board.
 
so you ditched all the modelers .. want to go tube ..... but then run digital effects ??

if you want to stay analog ..... any decent BBD Driven delay should be good ( tap tempo feature is always better IMO )

the big analog problem is reverb ........ I searched for a long time for a small " real spring " reverb ..

I ended up with the Game Changer Audio Light Pedal ......... I don't think you can find a better analog option
 
Man I just got the blacked out H90 for my delay/verb/mod needs.

I need to actually dig into it but I’m a big fan of Eventide.

IMG_9348.webp
 
griff10672 said:
so you ditched all the modelers .. want to go tube ..... but then run digital effects ??

if you want to stay analog ..... any decent BBD Driven delay should be good ( tap tempo feature is always better IMO )

the big analog problem is reverb ........ I searched for a long time for a small " real spring " reverb ..

I ended up with the Game Changer Audio Light Pedal ......... I don't think you can find a better analog option
Click to expand...

Surfy Bear

https://www.surfyindustries.com/surfybearmetal

JFet recreation of the Fender 6G15 Tube Reverb

All analog, you can do the "crash" and yes, it will do the dip.

I have had one since back in the days when he was selling them as a Kit on the Surf 101 forum

https://www.surfyindustries.com/surfybearcompact
 
OP mentioned Dokken and Ozzy though, plenty of awesome fx back then were digital. Lexicon PCMs, Eventide, TC 2290, Roland SDE, Yamaha SPX 90 etc... I get why someone would prefer going with tube amps but effects? I just don't get the whole analog vs digital debate tbh
 
RoccoPezzin said:
OP mentioned Dokken and Ozzy though, plenty of awesome fx back then were digital. Lexicon PCMs, Eventide, TC 2290, Roland SDE, Yamaha SPX 90 etc... I get why someone would prefer going with tube amps but effects? I just don't get the whole analog vs digital debate tbh
Click to expand...
Especially when Effects loops usually run in Parallel with the dry signal

99% of people can't hear a difference between analog and digital on their phone speaker
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top