The greatest delay moments of all time: 25 classic guitar tracks elevated by echo

[L-R] David Gilmour, Eddie Van Halen, St. Vincent and Brian May
(Image credit: Getty Images)

In 2021, the delay pedal is a pedalboard essential. But how did we get there? That there are so many flavors of delay is testimony to the ingenuity of the pedal-building industrial complex, but also to the creativity of the players who have found new ways of using the effect. To paraphrase Isaac Newton, we are standing on the pedalboards of giants. 

The evolution of the delay pedal has been underway almost as soon as the electric guitar was first recorded. In the beginning, echo was used in much the same way as reverb. Set short, to slapback, it added a sense of depth and space. But soon players realized that it could be more than that. 

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Gear pick: JHS 3 Series Delay
Slash packs a Boss DD-3 on his rig, but if you're a light user of delay and looking for an even more budget-friendly unit with switchable digital and analog-style delays, this is ideal.

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Gear pick: Catalinbread Belle Epoch
Run this EP-3-inspired digital tape delay into the front end of your amp – via a compressor for good measure – and keep the delay time short and play around with the repeats for some off-the-wall sounds.

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Gear pick: Strymon DIG Dual Digital Delay
As you might expect from the titan of digital effects, the DIG is eminently tweakable, and allows you to layer two delay engines in serial, parallel, or ping-pong – perfect for Let’s Dance.

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Gear pick: Catalinbread Echorec
Offering all 12 head configurations of the original units, this compact digital replica is hugely versatile, easy to use and totally nails that old-school analog Binson magic.

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Gear pick: Strymon TimeLine
If you want to play Alice to Gilmour’s white rabbit, the industry standard for feature-packed digital delays will stand you in good stead.

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Gear pick: Mooer Ocean Machine
The Ocean Machine lets you choose from 15 types of delay and run two independent delay lines, run it with reverb, through the looper, and go full-on Devy and run your rig in stereo.

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Gear pick: Dunlop EP103 Echoplex Delay Pedal
A compact and effective Echoplex clone, the EP103 has simple three-knob setup with a push/pull function on the volume control for “aging” your repeats.

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Gear pick: Empress Effects Tape Delay
If Brian May’s live rig is a little impractical for the home, a fully featured tape echo should at least give you some joy for recording your own overdubs, and this from Empress makes an incredible launchpad for your own adventures with the effect.

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Gear pick: Line 6 DL4
There are any number of “Edge presets” on digital modeling amp user boards but the DL4 remains an industry standard, and has all the tools you need to get creative with rhythmic repeats.

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Gear pick: Eventide UltraTap multi-tap delay
No, it’s not cheap and you’d lose a holiday weekend just to fathom half of its functions, but Eventide has put together something very special here, ideal for those epic Holdsworth tones and a lot more.

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Jonathan Horsley

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to publications including Guitar World, MusicRadar and Total Guitar. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.