The ongoing quest for a good simple delay: The Marshall EH-1 Echohead

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Enter the vast realm of Pedal Land and choose your quest. Will it be the ever-popular Quest for the Ultimate Reverb, or will you choose an easy side quest like The Best Classic Phaser? How about one of the original favorites: The Quest for Best Simple Delay.

But what do you call simple? Is the lack of a tap tempo too simple? Does it need more than one core sound? What about the delay length? Is the pedal's physical size important? Will you be happy with mono? Is it simple if it had dual-function knobs?

My idea of a good simple delay is a small footprint, good sound (of course), reasonable delay length, tap tempo, and maybe at least one other sound-shaping function. I don't want any hidden functions or mystery knobs. It needs to have just enough features so you don't keep wanting to slide in your big stereo unit instead.

I recently bought the Arp87 delay to satisfy these criteria and it's a good delay. But I don't use it often enough to remember what the "X" knob does and I've already forgotten how to get into the hidden fifth mode.

Enter the now discontinued Marshall EH-1 Echohead. It satisfies all my criteria and is cheap. It's sort of ugly though quirky enough to get a pass. The knobs are unreadable (I can feel a reknob coming) but with a tap tempo attached and the level set permanently at maximum the only knobs to worry about are the delay type and the feedback.

The EH-1 was released in 2006 joining a range of similarly-styled effects that started in 1998. I couldn't find out when they were discontinued so it's hard to know how old my unit may be. I'm guessing they finished up around 2014. Anyone have any info on this?

Anyway it's been flawless so far, no noise, pot crackle, jack issues or feezes and I've had it running for days at a stretch. It's so good I might even let my Arp87 go (but the DM-2w definitely stays).

As usual there is no external processing or limiting. Slight volume changes that happen when I talk is because the music is ducked against my voice.

0:00 Intro gumpf & specs
2:10 Mono test
3:38 The six algorithms
4:44 Tap tempo
6:17 Ping Pong
7:09 Analog
7:28 Tape
7:54 Multitap
8:07 Reverse
8:21 Filtered
8:36 Slow sounds
11:01 Slow tape
12:04 Slow reverse
12:30 Filter blips
13:20 Conclusion

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