Grateful Dead Music Forum

My ear hears more use of the delay in the latter years. Any thoughts on when and how much the delay pedal was used? Its actually one of my least favorite pedals as Ive never found one that doesn't seem to sap tone out of the chain. I have tried a few although not the MXR Analog Delay. I have a Aqua Puss right now and although I do think there are nice capabilities like I said there is a noticeable shrillness that occurs when enabled.

I would agree that he leaned on it more in the later years. I use a Carbon Copy and love it. Don't hear any tone loss either.

AD-3208 project from general guitar gadgets is wonderful and will not sap any tone.

+1 MXR Carbon Copy

I found the carbon copy to be bright sounding in my rig...but its a very bright rig generally already. I mostly use a vintage MXR (big green) like Jerry used in the 70's. It definitely affects the tone, but often it adds a nice little grit like quality rather than hurting. I have also used a Boss DD7 and an Ibanez 999 or something (big black with hot pink writing) that I don't mind. I am trying to avoid the modern hi-fi tone of which digital delay is a major ingredient I presume so my experience is limited.

T-Rex Replica - that is one nice sounding delay, not cheap though. All of their pedals are top notch.

Carbon Copy

Carbon copy here as well. I don't notice much if any tone suck with it in the chain. I would avoid digital delays if you are after Jerry tone.

I think he used it more in later years, as well. Things where it is noticeable is the "rain drops" section of Looks Like Rain, the jam on She Belongs to Me, and a lot of the space segments from the late '80s on. He never leaned on it to the degree that he used the Mu-Tron when he first got that.

I have a TC electronics flashback that models a bunch of different kinds of delays from tape echo to digital. I might like something with less options but lots of character better, I never know which setting to pick when there are so many options. I like that I can strum in a tempo for the echo on this unit though...

Perhaps a useful discussion here would be what kind of settings? How much time, repeats and wet/dry mix?

I thought I'd share an example of how I use delay when soloing. This is a quick snippet from a much longer live performance of He's Gone into The Other One with my band, The Thankful Dads. I understand that how I approached my solo and what resulted is not as Jerry would have done so. I wuz just being m'self. But it's at least an example of one such use. The delay is one of the lo-res (low resolution, i.e., deliberately dirty) models on my Line 6 M13. I like the low res ones for soloing, actually.

https://soundcloud.com/gratefuljon/the- ... cerpt-with (open link in new tab)