Re: I'm fessing up... I don't know squat about Delays.
I use delay in one of three ways: to thicken up the sound, to give a subtle slapback effect, or for slightly more lengthy delays. I prefer analog delay to digital, so I'm limited to 600 ms of delay time. That's fine with me, as I'm not the type of person who needs ten second delays. If I want to thicken up the sound a bit, I set the number of repeats and delay time very low, and then adjust the level until it sounds good. This produces a subtle delay, good for thickening up the sound and making it seem like two guitars are playing the same thing at once. This is particularly useful in a band with only one guitar player, although a chorus pedal could also be used to achieve this effect. If I want a slapback, I'll turn all three knobs up a little, but I still keep them relatively low. This will provide a slapback feel that trails off quickly after the note is played. If I want longer delays, I increase the number of repeats and the delay time, and then adjust the level. One really cool trick you can do with an analog delay is set it to self-oscillate. This is done by cranking up the knobs as high as they'll go. It gives some crazy sounds that are typically described as "ray gun/UFO landing." It's useful for intros and really wacked-out sounding stuff, and unless they're guitarists themselves, the audience won't have a clue how you're getting that weird sound out of your guitar.
Ryan
