Most of us can remember the first piece of
gear that made a lasting impression—whether
it was an old Strat in a pawnshop or a
classic Marshall calling from across the room.
For me, it was an old Ibanez AD9 Analog
Delay—its warm sound and funky look drew
me in immediately. But it was a temperamental
beast, and that’s an understatement.
The delay time was way too short because
of its older “bucket brigade” chips, which
were also used in the other analog delays of
the period, like the Boss DM-2 and Electro-
Harmonix Memory Man. The bucket brigade
term came about because of how the echoed
signal was produced. The signal was passed
from one capacitor to another like buckets
being passed man to man in early firefighting
brigades. Even though these chips
sounded great, the delay time was usually
very short because, as the signal was passed
from one capacitor to another, clarity was
lost. Adding more capacitors would have alleviated
this issue, but at the cost of fidelity.
Strymon seeks to correct these headaches
with a combination of modern and old-school
technologies. Their aim was to design a
digital chip that recreates the entire analog
bucket-brigade chip—tonal nuances and
all—and that drastically increases delay time.
Strymon calls the technology dBucket, and
they’re using it in three of their five pedals in
an attempt to combine the best of the analog
and digital worlds. Here we’ll take a look
at all three dBucket pedals—the Brigadier
Delay, the Orbit Flanger, and the Ola Chorus
& Vibrato—as well as the gorgeous-sounding
Blue Sky Reverberator. Each features an
attractive, anodized-aluminum case, front
panel jacks, and a 9-volt DC adapter socket.
Brigadier dBucket Delay
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Download Example 1
Long Delay, No Bucket Loss, Min Mod
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Download Example 2
Short Delay, 3/4 Bucket Loss, Max Mod
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| Clips
recorded with PRS McCarty DC245 20th Anniversary into a Matchless Avalon
35 combo.
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The Brigadier was designed with the best
analog delays of the past in mind. Strymon’s
dBucket chip is in two of the other effects
reviewed here, but the Brigadier is where it
really shines. But for a pedal with so many
features, the control layout is very simple.
There are two footswitches—one for Tap
Tempo and the other for Bypass—three-way
Mode and Tap switches, and five knobs
labeled Time, Mix, Repeats, Mod (modulation),
and Bucket Loss (which is a tone filter
for the delay repeats). Mode selects between
short, medium, or long delay times, and Tap
selects quarter, dotted quarter note, or triplet
delay patterns. When Mode is set to Long,
the pedal is capable of generating a whopping
five seconds of delay time. Connector
jacks include input, stereo outs, and an
expression pedal input.
To test the Brigadier, I used a Nick Huber
Orca singlecut and a Vox AC30 reissue with
the reverb switched off. With all knobs at
noon, Mode set to medium, and Tap set
to quarter notes, the Brigadier immediately
showed what it was capable of, tonally.
The pedal’s delay tone isn’t a dead-on representation of an old analog delay, but
it has strengths beyond its analog ancestors.
One of the biggest frustrations of older
analog delays is how dull they can sound in
a mix. The Brigadier has that cool, lo-fi vibe,
but with a much stronger, healthier projection
in its repeats. Even with the Bucket Loss
control cranked to maximum, the delay tone
was much more vibrant than most vintage
and vintage-reissue analog delays I’ve come
across. In their quest to craft a delay that
captures prized analog tones while remedying
their faults, Strymon seems to have come
across a distinctive new sound. And the more
I dug into the strings to push the envelope of
clean fidelity, the more I was convinced that
was the case. There are lots of analog delay
modelers on the market, but most of them
don’t provide the feel of playing a true analog
delay. The Brigadier nails it.
you’re in the market for a fantastic
digital delay with a unique
analog voice.
Buy if...
you’re in the market for a fantastic
digital delay with a unique
analog voice.
Skip if...
you’re after a softer analog delay
tone with a mushier voicing.
Rating...
