Vapor Trail Review

[Scott_F]

I have to hand it to SD, the Vapor Trail is a very nice bucket brigade pedal. I am not too sure why folks call this type a pedal "analog" but it's got a nice thing going. I like the blinking light. Wish it had a tap tempo but not that's okay. I tap my foot as I'm turning the knob until the light matches my foot.

TSR jack on the side allows to add in other pedals there or stereo out. I don't have an expression pedal so I can't comment on that.

One of nicer features are the two small adjustment knobs for Rate and Depth. That opens up a lot of tones for you.

Small touch to add both velcro for you to put on or a thin foam pad to stick to the back depending on your druthers. Also, easy access 9v battery door. Little stuff but it adds up.

It's not a swiss army knife to me like the Nemesis is, but if you want that BBD tone and some cool features, it's a solid effort from Santa Barbara. If it says assembled in Santa Barbara, the boards must be being made somewhere else but it's obviously machine made when you look at it. The folks at SD are assembling them and testing each of them out. I can live with that.

Being a guy that likes to hand solder every connection in my amps, it takes time and attention to detail. For a big old school tube amp, that's okay. For a pedal that you want to sell thousands of, not going to happen.

I have enjoyed getting to know the Vapor Trail.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

 

[YeRedHouseOverYonder]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Sweet! The VT is on my short list for delay pedals. They look and sound well made.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mincer]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

BTW, it is fun to put another delay in the loop of the Vapor Trail. You can build a time machine that way.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Will it morph into a blue police box?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

CHAOS!

i like my vapor trail too. its on my big board and set pretty clean for my rock star solos but the modulation sounds good when ive messed with it

 

[Matt42]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

I've been wanting to try one of these, but I would be hard pressed to take my Carbon Copy off of my board. It's been there for ~8 years.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

I like that the Vapor Trail has the modulation controls on the outside of the box.

 

[Matt42]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

That is a definite plus. In all the time I've had my CC, I've never opened it up to tweak the modulation settings. Having them on the outside would be great!

I'll probably end up with one of these at some point, but I have much higher priorities at the moment.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

I'd like to have one - but they are rare at a price I'd pay. Not saying they are not worth it - nothing but good word on all the new Duncan pedals.

My DD-3 and AD-9 get me through all kinds of weather.

As for modulated delays - I'm not sure on this feature. Is it a delay plus chorus? Or a delay that isn't quite chorus? Or pretending to sort of be a chorus?

I prefer my delays to delay and my chorus to chorus.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

As for modulated delays - I'm not sure on this feature. Is it a delay plus chorus? Or a delay that isn't quite chorus? Or pretending to sort of be a chorus?

Modulation on the repeats only. Effectively creates more "movement" in the overall tone than straight delay, but less in-your-face effected than chorus. Originally implemented to emulate the warble of a tape echo, it's really nice on clean and slightly distorted parts.

 

[Artie]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Does using 18-volts increase headroom? Or is it voltage regulated simply for versatility?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Modulated delay makes the echoes sound 'wobbly' (can double as a chorus with low delay time and 1 repeat). Basically, it sounds sort of like a tape wobbling. The Deluxe Memory Man was designed like this. All of the echoes I use (and I use a lot) are always modulated now.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Again - you guys say that like tape warble is good. (No offense Scott_F).

The guys doing tape echo got boners that didn't go away for weeks when the first bucket brigade delays showed up. And there lines to dump analog pedals like swapping iPhones when digital hit a great price point.

It's a sound. Still, I'd grab used one at the right price in a heartbeat. No use for tape echo sim personally.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Actually real tape warble is not desirable to me. Yes it's fun but it is not something I can use in a real song.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

It is the case where the simulation is actually better than the real thing. I think modulation gives nice movement to the notes- always liked that sound. I like super clean, super long delays too (10+ seconds), but that is not what the VT does.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

Yep that delay looks super cool.
Ive been using Boss DM2w and i think that is a wonderful pedal. Much nicer than the carbon copy (less signal degradation on the original signal) and longer delay. The buffered output helps too because i run it at the end of a chain of TB pedals (I always used to do that with the SD Deja Vu as well). Much warmer and more organic sounding than the deja.
Looking at your review and all of its features, the vapor looks like a gorgeous sounding pedal too. Even tho i never use modulation on my delays.
If i didn't already have the boss pedal it would be a hard decision.

What would be a game changer for me would be a sweet analog delay like these, but with a tone control on the repeats.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

They look pretty appealing, but still like my Deja Vu......I use mine in FX loops.

In front if an amp, it's hard to beat the T Rex Replica or Pigtronix Echolution.

 

[Scott_F]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

I've never used a carbon copy. The "analog" model on the Nemesis is pretty good but the Duncan is the real deal. I am still protesting the use of the word analog however but all I will accomplish in this is coming across like the wankers that argue Class A amps versus Class AB and which one a cathode biased amp really falls under.

 

[Leon Of Late]

Re: Vapor Trail Review

I love mine as well. I still need to dial it in more but I like what I hear so far. I'm more of a straightforward delay kind of guy, so I just want it to make my lead lines sound bigger....I won't use the modulation much. I'll step on my chorus if I want more movement.