Delay-Swell Effect

[MDWood]

Perhaps someone out there can help me. I am looking for a processor that will electronically provide an adjustable delay-swell effect (much like the note swelling of a volume pedal or knob). I have a problem doing this well--especially when trying to play a series of notes in rapid succession. And if I am chewing gum, everything shuts down!

Actually, the POD Line 6 has a respectable delay-swell setting and when tweaked just right with appreciable compression and a touch of drive, I can get a decent "bowing sound"--violin, viola, chello-like. Problem is, the POD does not have a true bypass and interferes with that pure guitar-amp interface. In such instances, I either reroute my cables to bypass it or devote a separate guitar and amp to the POD for that that one effect--our sound techs really "love" me when I do that.....

Any advice?

Thank you,
Mark

[sylvanshine]

I get that effect with either a Line 6 DL4 or an Adrenalinn II. DL4 is supposedly true bypass, but no way the Adrenalinn is. I use a splitter to take it out of the loop.

What does that vintage Boss pedal Slow Gear do? I thought it was swells.

Good luck.

[pluto]

As sylvanshine said, the DL4 does the swell effect. But, it's a pretty expensive swell effect if all you're going to use it for is for swells. It's of course a cheap effect if you're going to use the delays as well. It is true bypass too. Guyatone has a swelling effect too (it's purportedly based on the Boss Slow Gear). Here's a link:
www.guyatone.com/microeffects/sv2.html
I bought one of those a couple of years ago when it first came out. It's pretty good-just don't try to do fast runs with it like Yngwie does on Echo Etude! You have to play slow to get the effect going. To me, a volume pedal and a simple delay pedal at a 400-500ms setting works way more effectively than either the guyatone or the dl4.

[MDWood]

Hello Jay and Mark,

Thanks so much for the valuable info. I really appreciate your thoughts. You both nailed it for me.

I tried the DL4 and although it was not as user friendly as the POD version, it was usable--and provided for true bypass. The problem I experienced was that Line 6 engineered it with the same dial location as another effect. Consequently, I had to go through a number of gymnastics to get it there and then was unable to save it into a memory location.

I heard about the vintage Slow Gear pedal by Boss but could not find one. I looked up the Guytone link you provided Mark and I believe this might work very well for me. Again, thank you for the tip and web link.

In the future, I really need to work on my coordination and practice on the manual swell process.

It is currently snowing here in Kalamazoo, Michigan and when my new TA HDT arrives, I am thinking that the guitar and I need to board a plane to Hawaii and see about getting some needed lessons--perhaps a warm Hawaiian trade wind will help my feeble efforts! How much do you charge Mark? (I lived in Kaneohe for about three years)

[pluto]

Originally posted by MDWood
Hello Jay and Mark,

Thanks so much for the valuable info. I really appreciate your thoughts. You both nailed it for me.

I tried the DL4 and although it was not as user friendly as the POD version, it was usable--and provided for true bypass. The problem I experienced was that Line 6 engineered it with the same dial location as another effect. Consequently, I had to go through a number of gymnastics to get it there and then was unable to save it into a memory location.

I heard about the vintage Slow Gear pedal by Boss but could not find one. I looked up the Guytone link you provided Mark and I believe this might work very well for me. Again, thank you for the tip and web link.

In the future, I really need to work on my coordination and practice on the manual swell process.

It is currently snowing here in Kalamazoo, Michigan and when my new TA HDT arrives, I am thinking that the guitar and I need to board a plane to Hawaii and see about getting some needed lessons--perhaps a warm Hawaiian trade wind will help my feeble efforts! How much do you charge Mark? (I lived in Kaneohe for about three years)

Believe me, I'm the last guy anybody would want lessons from! There are guys who suck and then there's me! Kaneohe, huh? How did you get from Kaneohe to Kalamazoo? I forgot to mention, I think Danelectro have two pedals that do the reverse thingy. I used to own the Boss DD-5 which had a reverse feature but there was no way to cancel out the original note before it reversed. Analogman put a switch to take out the dry and only give the wet. I'm not sure if the DD-6 has a reverse feature or not. The Boss DD-20 also has a reverse feature too. These are all non true bypass if that makes a difference.

[MDWood]

Thanks Mark. I was an Air Force Brat in the late-1960s--Hickam AFB. I moved to Kalamazoo, MI shortly after the Gibson Guitar plant moved to TN. A number of the original LP luthiers are still in the area and offered to make me a guitar to my specifications; nonetheless, I had my heart set on a Tom Anderson. So, after reading everything I could find and a thousand questions to Tom (who was very patient with me), I finally placed my order and can hardly wait.

Yes, the Boss pedals seem to do a good job with the reverse thing. It appears I am becoming a big fan of true-bypass these days--which has changed my pedal selection/desgin/approach significantly--not to mention the whole amp compatibility thing.

Based on the information you provided, I will try the Guyatone SV2 to see how it works and keep you posted. Again, many thanks for taking the time to share your experiences and helping me find some needed tone diversity.

Mark

[pluto]

Mark, the Guyatone doesn't have true bypass in case you were wondering about that. That being said, I didn't notice any difference in tone with or without that pedal or the Guyatone MD2 that I used to have. I don't know if that makes a difference or not, but I thought you should know that.