SolidGoldFx Electroman MKII Modulated Delay

The debate over which type of delay is “the best” is one that has plagued guitar shops and internet forums for half a century. On one hand, we have analog purists that prefer the murky degraded repeats of an analog delay, while digital users prefer the exacting repeats of ones and zeroes. Personally, we just like delays that are excellent, and our Electroman MKII is just that: An excellent, feature-rich delay that does everything right.

The core of the Electroman MKII is two cascaded digital delay lines, making bold strides in the arena of PT2399 chips. The PT2399 is a chip developed for DJ rigs and karaoke machines, and when tuned correctly, blurs the line between digital and analog.

The mode toggle takes advantage of that unique dual-line approach, giving you standard delay or one that sends the repeats only to the second chip for a cool half-time sound that will sit front and center on your next ambient or shoegaze record.

The second footswitch of the Electroman MKII retains our warp feature, which sends the repeats ramping up to self-oscillation for ambient textures and spatial soundscapes. But this time, you control the sensitivity with one of three settings on the warp toggle, from gentle nudging into infinity to instant freakouts.

Delay repeats are backed by our extremely musical modulation circuit, which has three selectable speed ranges and a generous flutter control, which increases the depth as you roll it up. This control turns the Electroman MKII into an instant tape echo simulator, where you can dial in just the right amount of digital wear and tear

While the Electroman MKII is equipped with buffered bypass, our tails switch lets you decide whether or not the Electroman MKII chokes off the repeats when switched off, or leaves them trailing into your amp when bypassed. This feature lets you sculpt your sound just how you like, allowing for precision interplay with your other effects by affecting just one passage.

Level, repeat and time controls come standard, with the time control maxing out at 1 second of warm delay. The Electroman MKII’s color knob will settle the debate between analog and digital snobs by shaving treble content from the repeats as the control is increased.

An extra jack on the left edge takes the Electroman MKII to the next level: The fx loop jack lets you connect a stereo Y-cable to as many auxiliary pedals as you like, with the looped effect applying itself to the repeats. Try an octave pedal for true space exploration, a ring modulator for a lo-fi delay and even a volume pedal for swells of repeats.

Tone is always the goal, so if you want an outstanding delay unit that hacks through the vines of tiered menus and other complicated fluff, let the Electroman MKII be your machete.

Knobs:

• Level: Changes the amount of wet signal from nothing at all to highly involved.
• Repeat: At zero, you’ll find the humblest of all delays: the slapback. At full-blast, the repeats will run away and overtake your signal.
• Color: This control takes a little treble off the top as you turn it. Fully left is bare-naked digital, and turning it up increases the murk.
• Flutter: Controls the modulation depth. Keeping this control at zero shuts the circuit off.
• Time: Changes the delay time from a double tracking-esque 70 milliseconds to a full lengthy second.

Toggle Switches:

• Warp (toggle): Changes the intensity of the Warp footswitch across three modes, from subtle (center) assertive (left) to imminent lift-off (right).
• Mode: Changes between standard delay (left) and a special second mode(right), which sends the repeats slamming into the second delay line at half time.
• Speed: Offers three different speed settings of the modulation circuit – slow in the center position, fast when toggled right and medium in the left position. See also: flutter knob.
• Tails: The Electroman MKII is buffered bypass, and this switch lets you decide how you want the repeats to behave with the pedal switched off: choked off when switched left, or trailing when switched right.

Auxiliary:

• FX Loop Jack: This jack lets you attach a stereo Y-cable, allowing you to patch in any number of effects. These effects let you apply external effects only to the repeats, for endless amounts of fun. You can even run a full external pedalboard in this loop. We won’t tell. In addition, the loop also doubles an an expression input to control the level knob.
• Input: Instrument or other pedal goes here.
• Output: Amplifier or other pedal goes here.
• Warp Footswitch: Engaged self-oscillation when and where you want it, and relents when you release it.
• True Bypass/Trails Footswitch: Turns effect on and off.

Power: The Electroman II requires a center-negative 9VDC power adapter with at least 40mA of current (not included). Almost all power supplies meet this requirement, but check yours first.

Dimensions: 4.67″ x 3.68″ x 1.18″ (119mm x 94mm x 30mm)