Keeley AD9

[ChopTart]

Hey, I was looking at Keeley's website, considering purchase of a delay pedal, and I saw his modded AD9. I was originally going to go for a digital delay, but since reading the good words, I have been considering buying his true bypass mod. It has true bypass, enhancement of bass and mid tones and the old footswitch is supposed to be a sustain-like device, which would absolutely rock my world.

Does anybody have any experience with these pedals? I heard it has a delay time of 20ms to 300ms, would this be enough to cover longer sustains or mainly just slapbacks? Would opting for the expression pedal to control the level and tempo be a good idea? Give me your thoughts, eh?

[Ant1981]

Well, a delay isn't going to give you sustain, just slapbacks as some put it, or a delay and repeat as i put it.

As for true bypass, the point being? I don't think there is any point when there is a job lot of cables the sound is going through in the first place, and if you want to truley bypass the pedal when its not making an effect, then you cant like the pedal in the first place enough, as the signal will have to pass through it to make effect anyway.

If you want that satriani/vai touch, then not much more can beat the Boss DD-6 for a pedal delay.

[ChopTart]

Well the description of the feature said: "Just as if you turned the repeat control all the way up, this is great for sustaining notes or adding a bit of craziness to you music" so it sounded to me like it was made to sustain the note.

The AD9 (modified) was about 200 dollars, and I was deciding between that and the Digitech Delay for half that, which had increased delay time (up to 4 seconds), ping pong, reverse and a bunch of other effects, as well as tap-tempo (the real killer). The only thing was, the digitech one is digital. Which would be better? And what options does the dd6 come with?

[Ant1981]

Well with the Boss dd-6, which I can personally reccomend, you can have up to 5.2 seconds of delay, as well as reverse, warp, tempo, hold.

It really is a great pedal that travels with me and my gear in my special back of rock!

[ChopTart]

Sounds good to me, and the price is less than that of a Keeley-modded AD9...tap tempo too! How's the sound quality? And is it nice and quiet? does it tone-suck at all?

[Shredcows]

hmmm.... there's also the Ibanez DE7, delay echo unit. Its an inexpensive unit that churns out great sounding (analog-ish) echo. Cheaper than the Boss DD3. If you like Echo (basically delay + reverb) and prefer longer delays (up to 2.6 sec) the DE7 is a tremendous bang for buck pedal.

Sad thing is you can't control the amount of rever in your echos... a trait which I disliked because, unless you use it for >500ms delays, you can get quite a muddied sound. Only way to avoid that is to lower the delay level.

[ChopTart]

I considered that one, but the qualities you mentioned made me stray away from it. Plus I hear really good stuff about the boss and digitech one. I wonder why the Digitech one is so cheap comparatively for something that's supposed to be really good and feature-loaded...I wonder what the catch is...

[Shredcows]

You know... abt the DE7? Its very sweet for a 70s vibe. Very sweet. I guess if you got a little dough to spare you should get 1 for the nice echo.

I ended up buying an EH Holy Grail reverb... and a Boss DD3 (not a fan of long delays) and getting the DD3 modded with a hi cut switch, so that chops the treble of the delays making it sound more analog as well as less obtrusive to your playing.

[Ant1981]

I've got no complaints about the DD-6, no noise or tone sucking, just pure satriani/vai capabilities.

I'd have it over the DE7, as the DE7 can do 2.6sec, the DD-6 can go up to 5.2sec, and the DD-6 you can control the feedback level, which is how long the repeat or echo lasts, a real sweet pedal!

[Gex]

Well, what are you going to use it for?

If you want a nice ambient sound, something like a Steve Vai sort of delay, your probably going to want something like a Boss DD-6.

If you want to use it for slapback and EVH type of raw, gutsy delay, then a AD-9 would be great.

[ChopTart]

Probably will be using it more for ambience and clearly repeating segments, so I guess digital delay would be a bit more of a choice as you can mod the sound more (even though it does sound quite synthetic)

You guys got me steered towards the DD 6, but the digitech one's price tag has still got me allured Any word on that one?

[Chud]

I'm probably gonna be getting a DD-6 soon (It was on my list of "To gets" haha).

That said, the Ibanez DE-7 is a great pedal for the money, especially since you're essentially getting two effects. Definatly not something you should overlook.

[ChopTart]

Couln't you use the dd-6 like an echo pedal though? just set the repeat times to be short and keep the regeneration rate real low?

[Shredcows]

hey Choptart... you can get an echo effect out of a digital delay but you need a reverb pedal/efx to help. Plus the regenerations of echo should die off ala analog delay and the real thing. So in the DD's case, the regenerations die off via volume drop... so the crispy clean regenerations will not be able to simulate echo's regens which get darker as they repeat and die off.

The thing abt the boss DD line is that the regeneration sounds, well, digital. Its very crisp and clear unlike how an analog delay's regeneration will slowly decay (ala lose treble) until there's nothing left. Some like the crispy regen the DD will provide but some hate it. The DD does it well though...

In anycase, like what I mentioned, there is a hi cut mod available. Involves sticking a toggle switch (2 or 3 way) which allows you to incorporate a hi cut filter, simulating an analog delay's decay. Now that can sound more echo-ish. And you still have (since its a toggle switch) your original sound should you want to go Vai/Satch kind of delays. Oh, the 3 way toggle simply has another value for the hi cut.. so you can have bypass (normal), minimal hi cut, a lot of hi cut. Its a cheap mod too!

[ChopTart]

Sounds good, where can you get directions? (not quite ready to screw up a 200 dollar pedal without some directions) Reminds me of Keeleys mod...but to a better pedal (he mods a dd3). I think I'm gonna go for the DD6 (just need some funds...and to build my pedalboard.