
DBA warps the world of chorus!
Rich, unique chorus tones that evoke vintage tonalities without imitating them. Deep and useful “weird” sounds.
Expensive if you primarily require conventional chorus tones.
$270
Death By Audio Space Bender
deathbyaudio.com
Death By Audio’s most esoteric pedals are regarded by some as the company’s best and most visionary. But some of DBA’s greatest creations, like the Fuzz War, are also its simplest. The new Space Bender chorus lives somewhere in the middle of that complexity spectrum. Its sounds and some facets of its functionality are often unconventional, at times elusive, and occasionally unexpected.
But there are also sounds here that are redolent with moody, familiar vintage chorus and flange colors without sounding precisely like any specific vintage touchstones. This capacity for function, familiarity, and exotic textures make Space Bender a musical mood machine that can make simple ideas sound celestial or certifiably demented.
Rockers Are Go!
Space Bender is another beautifully executed riff on DBA’s retro-future design vernacular. As with most DBA pedals, its graphics and controls are stylish, smart, and make the Space Bender more fun to use. The three rocker switches (which evoke old Mu-Tron pedals—always a cool move) flip between low and high modulation intensity, LFO or envelope mode, or short and long delay times in the modulation line. They also streamline the user’s sound-design experience. A lot of builders might have opted for variable intensity and delay-time knobs for these functions. But DBA’s reduction of those variables to binary choices means you focus a lot more on the sensitivity and range of the depth and speed knobs.
Bent at the Event Horizon
As is the case with many DBA pedals, it’s good to explore Space Bender’s sounds intuitively and expect the unexpected. Though Space Bender generates rich washes of chorus, its basic modulation voice has a perceptibly metallic edge. Lots of conventional choruses and flangers exhibit some of these metalloid overtones as chorused waveforms interact. But in the Space Bender they lend a liveliness to overtones and harmonics as a signal fades.
Working with the pedal is a gas. Though flicking the switches and twisting knobs with reckless abandon is a great way to approach things, paying close attention to how the controls interact yields big dividends and is the key to tapping into the Space Bender’s expansive vocabulary at will.
There are a lot of intoxicating variations on classic chorus themes in the Space Bender. My go-to (hi-intensity, +10 delay time, LFO on, depth around 9 o’clock) produced everything from 12-string-like sounds to thick BBD-style chorus to wobbly quasi-rotary sounds, depending on where I set the speed. Subtle sounds abound, too. Using the LFO setting at low intensity and at shorter delay rate, for instance, produces modulations that sound more like filter effects. They’re subtle shades that shine when driven with overdrive or boost.
Switching to +10 can turn thinner, clanging chorus clusters into an orchestra of heavenly glockenspiels.
It takes just one flip of a rocker switch, however, for mellow modulations to become massive. The delay switch is particularly transformative. Though the snappy echoes you hear in the +10 mode make the pedal sound and act like there’s a separate echo circuit onboard, the “delay” refers instead to the delays among the waveforms that create the phase shift and chorus effect. In +1 mode, modulations sound tightly clustered—even at slow modulation rates. But switching to +10 can turn these thinner, clanging chorus clusters into an orchestra of heavenly glockenspiels.
This is also the ticket to the most vintage BBD-like sounds—particularly at modest depth settings. And the expansive echoic aspect of these voices helps the Space Bender transcend traditional chorus tones.
The envelope function is the trickiest of the three switches to master. It uses your input signal to modify the delay times rather than the intensity or rate of modulation. Merely switching to the envelope settings can make modulations a little hazier and sometimes flangier, and I often left it on for those reasons rather than any dynamic interplay it enabled. Without any gain source in front of the Spacer Bender, envelope-prompted changes in delay time tend to be subtle. Adding gain makes the envelope feel much more dynamic.
The Verdict
The Space Bender, in classic DBA fashion, twists the chorus effect to much more original and often mangled-sounding ends. There are loads of thick, rich modulation sounds that evoke vintage chorus and flange without imitating them, and a cornucopia of textures, from ring-modulated sounds to deep, throbbing tones that sound designers and experimental musicians will devour—particularly when paired with gain, reverb, and delay devices. The Space Bender may not be the easiest modulation pedal to master, but the path of discovering the sounds you want often leads to sounds you didn’t even know you needed. And that’s a lovely thing to experience in a musical instrument.
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Some of these are deep cuts—get ready for some instrumental bonus tracks and Van Halen III mentions—and some are among the biggest radio hits of their time. Just because their hits, though, doesn’t mean we don’t have more to add to the conversation.
Naturally, every recording Eddie Van Halen ever played on has been pored over by legions of guitar players of all styles. It might seem funny, then, to consider EVH solos that might require more attention. But your 100 Guitarists hosts have their picks of solos that they feel merit a little discussion. Some of these are deep cuts—get ready for some instrumental bonus tracks and Van Halen III mentions—and some are among the biggest radio hits of their time. Just because their hits, though, doesn’t mean we don’t have more to add to the conversation.
We can’t cover everything EVH—Jason has already tried while producing the Runnin’ With the Dweezil podcast. But we cover as much as we can in our longest episode yet. And in the second installment of our current listening segment, we’re talking about new-ish music from Oz Noy and Bill Orcutt.
A dual-channel tube preamp and overdrive pedal inspired by the Top Boost channel of vintage VOX amps.
ROY is designed to deliver sweet, ringing cleans and the "shattered" upper-mid breakup tones without sounding harsh or brittle. It is built around a 12AX7 tube that operates internally at 260VDC, providing natural tube compression and a slightly "spongy" amp-like response.
ROY features two identical channels, each with separate gain and volume controls. This design allows you to switch from clean to overdrive with the press of a footswitch while maintaining control over the volume level. It's like having two separate preamps dialed in for clean and overdrive tones.
Much like the old amplifier, ROY includes a classic dual-band tone stack. This unique EQ features interactive Treble and Bass controls that inversely affect the Mids. Both channels share the EQ section.
Another notable feature of this circuit is the Tone Cut control: a master treble roll-off after the EQ. You can shape your tone using the EQ and then adjust the Tone Cut to reduce harshness in the top end while keeping your core sound.
ROY works well with other pedals and can serve as a clean tube platform at the end of your signal chain. It’s a simple and effective way to add a vintage British voice to any amp or direct rig setup.
ROY offers external channel switching and the option to turn the pedal on/off via a 3.5mm jack. The preamp comes with a wall-mount power supply and a country-specific plug.
Street price is 299 USD. It is available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Tubesteader online store at www.tubesteader.com.
The compact offspring of the Roland SDE-3000 rack unit is simple, flexible, and capable of a few cool new tricks of its own.
Tonalities bridge analog and digital characteristics. Cool polyrhythmic textures and easy-to-access, more-common echo subdivisions. Useful panning and stereo-routing options.
Interactivity among controls can yield some chaos and difficult-to-duplicate sounds.
$219
Boss SDE-3 Dual Digital Delay
boss.info
Though my affection for analog echo dwarfs my sentiments for digital delay, I don’t get doctrinaire about it. If the sound works, I’ll use it. Boss digital delays have been instructive in this way to me before: I used a Boss DD-5 in a A/B amp rig with an Echoplex for a long time, blending the slur and stretch of the reverse echo with the hazy, wobbly tape delay. It was delicious, deep, and complex. And the DD-5 still lives here just in case I get the urge to revisit that place.
Tinkering with theSDE-3 Dual Digital Delay suggested a similar, possibly enduring appeal. As an evolution of the Roland SDE-3000rack unit from the 1980s, it’s a texture machine, bubbling with subtle-to-odd triangle LFO modulations and enhanced dual-delay patterns that make tone mazes from dopey-simple melodies. And with the capacity to use it with two amps in stereo or in panning capacity, it can be much more dimensional. But while the SDE-3 will become indispensable to some for its most complex echo textures, its basic voice possesses warmth that lends personality in pedestrian applications too.
Tapping Into the Source
Some interest in the original SDE-3000 is in its association with Eddie Van Halen, who ran two of them in a wet-dry-wet configuration, using different delay rates and modulation to thicken and lend dimension to solos. But while EVH’s de facto endorsement prompted reissues of the effect as far back as the ’90s, part of the appeal was down to the 3000’s intrinsic elegance and simplicity.
In fact, the original rack unit’s features don’t differ much from what you would find on modern, inexpensive stompbox echoes. But the SDE-3000’s simplicity and reliable predictability made it conducive to fast workflow in the studio. Critically, it also avoided the lo-fi and sterility shortcomings that plagued some lesser rivals—an attribute designer Yoshi Ikegami chalks up to analog components elsewhere in the circuit and a fortuitous clock imprecision that lends organic essence to the repeats.
Evolved Echo Animal
Though the SDE-3 traces a line back to the SDE-3000 in sound and function, it is a very evolved riff on a theme. I don’t have an original SDE-3000 on hand for comparison, but it’s easy to hear how the SDE-3 bridges a gap between analog haze and more clinical, surgical digital sounds in the way that made the original famous. Thanks to the hi-cut control, the SDE-3’s voice can be shaped to enhance the angular aspect of the echoes, or blunt sharp edges. There’s also a lot of leeway to toy with varied EQ settings without sacrificing the ample definition in the repeats. That also means you can take advantage of the polyrhythmic effects that are arguably its greatest asset.
“There’s a lot of leeway to toy with varied EQ settings without sacrificing the ample definition in the repeats.”
The SDE-3’s offset control, which generates these polyrhythmic echoes, is its heart. The most practical and familiar echos, like quarter, eighth, and dotted-eighth patterns, are easy to access in the second half of the offset knobs range. In the first half of the knob’s throw, however, the offset delays often clang about at less-regular intervals, producing complex polyrhythms that are also cool multipliers of the modulation and EQ effects. For example, when emphasizing top end in repeats, using aggressive effects mixes and pitch-wobble modulation generates eerie ghost notes that swim through and around patterns, adding rhythmic interest and texture without derailing the drive behind a groove. Even at modest settings, these are great alternatives to more staid, regular subdivision patterns. Many of the coolest sounds tend toward the foggy reverb spectrum. Removing high end, piling on feedback, and adding the woozy, drunken drift from modulation creates fascinating backdrops for slow, sparse chord melodies. Faster modulations throb and swirl like old BBC Radiophonic Workshop sci-fi sound designs.
By themselves, the modulations have their own broad appeal. Chorus tones are rarely the archetypal Roland Jazz Chorus or CE type—tending to be a bit darker and mistier. But they do a nice job suggesting that texture without lapsing into caricature. There are also really cool rotary-speaker-like textures and vibrato sounds that offer alternatives to go-to industry standards.
The Verdict
The SDE-3’s many available sounds and textures would be appealing at $219—even without the stereo and panning connectivity options, a useful hold function, and expression pedal control that opens up additional options. The panning capabilities, in particular, sparked all kinds of thoughts about studio applications. Mastering the SDE-3 takes just a little study—certain polyrhythms can be dramatically reshaped by the interactivity of other controls and you need to take care to achieve identical results twice. But this is a pedal that, by virtue of its relative simplicity and richness and breadth of sounds, exceeds the utility of some similarly priced rivals, all while opening up possibilities well outside the simple echo realm
Reader: T. Moody
Hometown: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Guitar: The Green Snake
Reader T. Moody turned this Yamaha Pacifica body into a reptilian rocker.
With a few clicks on Reverb, a reptile-inspired shred machine was born.
With this guitar, I wanted to create a shadowbox-type vibe by adding something you could see inside. I have always loved the Yamaha Pacifica guitars because of the open pickup cavity and the light weight, so I purchased this body off Reverb (I think I am addicted to that website). I also wanted a color that was vivid and bold. The seller had already painted it neon yellow, so when I read in the description, “You can see this body from space,” I immediately clicked the Buy It Now button. I also purchased the neck and pickups off of Reverb.
I have always loved the reverse headstock, simply because nothing says 1987 (the best year in the history of the world) like a reverse headstock. The pickups are both Seymour Duncan—an SH-1N in the neck position and TB-4 in the bridge, both in a very cool lime green color. Right when these pickups got listed, the Buy It Now button once again lit up like the Fourth of July. I am a loyal disciple of Sperzel locking tuners and think Bob Sperzel was a pure genius, so I knew those were going on this project even before I started on it. I also knew that I wanted a Vega-Trem; those units are absolutely amazing.
When the body arrived, I thought it would be cool to do some kind of burst around the yellow so I went with a neon green. It turned out better than I imagined. Next up was the shaping and cutting of the pickguard. I had this crocodile-type, faux-leather material that I glued on the pickguard and then shaped to my liking. I wanted just a single volume control and no tone knob, because, like King Edward (Van Halen) once said, “Your volume is your tone.”
T. Moody
I then shaped and glued the faux-leather material in the cavity. The tuning knobs, volume knob, pickguard, screws, and selector switch were also painted in the lemon-lime paint scheme. I put everything together, installed the pickups, strung it up, set it up, plugged it in, and I was blown away. I think this is the best-playing and -sounding guitar I have ever tried.
The only thing missing was the center piece and strap. The latter was easy because DiMarzio makes their ClipLock in neon green. The center piece was more difficult because originally, I was thinking that some kind of gator-style decoration would be cool. In the end, I went with a green snake, because crocodiles ain’t too flexible—and they’re way too big to fit in a pickup cavity!
The Green Snake’s back is just as striking as the front.