ilovefuzz.com

I'm usually an anti-trend kind of guy. I like to sneer and laugh as the legions of buy-it-now fucktards at TGP drool over the newest "it" pedal.

But I'll have to say that the El Capistan is pretty friggin awesome. I've been biding my time...waiting on the craze to wane and used prices to drop down to *relatively* reasonable levels. The timing was right a couple days ago: saw one for an "acceptable" price and I also happened to have every penny ready to go in paypal. That never happens.

Got it today. After some tweaking and twisting of knobs (haha), I coaxed some sweet tones out of it. Got down into the second level of parameters and really dialed in what I was looking for. Didn't even know it had a spring reverb emulation built in. At first I was about to get all mad because when I hit the strings hard, the repeats had some soft clipping going on. Then I figured out I could adjust the "tape bias" and get rid of that...or dial in so much that the repeats sound like a fuzz pedal.

Obviously, I'm still in the honeymoon phase. But with delay, I usually know right away if it'll do what I want for the "core sound". This one does, and the extras are really nice as well. So I'll continue to experiment with it and see if can last longer than a few months on my board.

This is the most pleased I've been with my board EVAR. Only thing missing is a Big Muff (Ryan @ Dr. Scientist has my old favorite one), so I gotta build one up. And maybe some kind of FET-based heavy overdrive.

**********EDIT:
Here's a demo clip of the El Cap with the RRR:
http://www.archive.org/details/Strymon-ElCapistan-Demo

Clip details:

• Guitar is Agile AL-2000; neck pickup used throughout (GFS Fat PAF)
• Recorded: Guitar > El Cap > RRR > Line6 UX1 > Garage Band (using American Clean amp model, but no other effects)
• Reverberator settings: Mode P1, long setting
• El Cap settings: the whole clip is Fixed Head mode with 1/4-note division
To start, I have it thus: Time is about 500ms I think, Mix is around 12:00, Tape Age is 1:00, Repeats is 11:30, Wow & Flutter is 2:30, Reverb is off, Boost is set to 0db, Low End Contour is 12:00, Tape Bias is 5:00 (off), and finally Tape Crinkle is also 5:00 (off).

Then I goof around with the Flutter and Tape age a bit, and kick in some wicked oscillation. In about the fourth section, I turn off the RRR and use the built-in Spring Reverb at about 2:00. You'll definitely hear the drippy tones. Then I extend the delay to show how the flutter (modulation) is directly tied to delay time. Then in the last section, I make it all nasty and crank the flutter, tape age, and crinkle. Then at the very end I clean all up again.

I hope it's not too boring. And I really have just barely scratched the surface of what can be done with this bad-ass thing.

I want that ROSS

Meh, I don't know. Wasn't my thing. Wasn't bad, just not my thing.

Aint no hype son that pedal is the ish... Any of the knobs can be controlled by an expression pedal, you have to hold down both switches and plug it in then the first knob you turn is the one controlled by the expression... You can also do the sound on sound looping in single mode c... Step and hold on the tap switch for a wall of feedback... Strymon rules... Now I need the Timeline...

BlindtoFaith wrote:I want that ROSS

You can NOT has that cheesburger. It's the best flanger I've ever played.

hazelwould wrote:Meh, I don't know. Wasn't my thing. Wasn't bad, just not my thing.

I can see where it wouldn't be for everyone. Obviously, since there are used ones for sale, not everybody loves it.

I've never even played a real tape delay before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. And honestly, I don't like the sound of all the 2399-based digital delays that claim to have "tape warble" (the super pitch-shifty, sea-sick sound of the modulation on those is not my thing at all). But I liked the demo vids of this one, and I knew if I didn't like that I'd get my money back in about 30 seconds.

What's cool about the El Cap is that I can totally dial out all the tape artifacts and get a pretty good analog-ish delay sound. And the modulation on it is the best I've heard on any delay. I'm really picky about in-built modulation. That's why I also got the Electroman (effects loop for whatever mod I want to use, like that bitchin Ross Flanger).

Your board is fucking awesome.

Fuzzy Picklez wrote:Your board is fucking awesome.

Awww thanks. I like it a LOT right now. It's taken a long time to get there, and I ain't no rich boy.

culturejam wrote:

Fuzzy Picklez wrote:Your board is fucking awesome.

Awww thanks. I like it a LOT right now. It's taken a long time to get there, and I ain't no rich boy.

I hear ya.
You got some awesome stuff.

Also, now that the el capistan has your approval, it's back on my radar.
Hmm...
Demoz?

I'm probably not the best demo guy out there, but I'd be happy to bang out a clip of some of the settings that *I* like. Give me a week or so to test it out more and I'll see what I can come up with.

I'll just reiterate that the sound quality is great. And you can control the lo-fi aspects quite precisely. They really nailed the "random" aspect of tape delay (or at least what I've heard in demos, as I've never played a real tape echo). It's controllable as hell, but it always has that bit of random floating around in the repeats that keeps it unpredictable. Maybe I'll start noticing patters after listening to it for a while, but I kinda doubt it.

I got the Ross Flanger right here in the B/S/T forum. I traded something for it with Nick. Can't recall what it was. I just remember he was thrilled with the trade and so was I.

That other delay you have on the other hand...

I've got bad delay gas right now, and I'm just holding off for something special... Ahem... 919.

Is the electroman a 2399 delay?

hazelwould wrote:Is the electroman a 2399 delay?

Well, it's gooped, but from what I can see, I'm 99% sure that it is PT2399-based. I cannot imagine how it would be anything but that, based on how the PCB is arranged.

But I suppose we'll see.

hey, nice board and congrats to your happiness

i know what you mean with knowing if it'll do it for you instantly - i also have it like that when it comes to delays. Lately, i've fallen in love with my new Wampler Faux Tape Echo - i know that El Cap is a level higher, but still - a super nice pedal

how's that Electroman?

DarkAxel wrote:i know what you mean with knowing if it'll do it for you instantly - i also have it like that when it comes to delays.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I knew within 30 seconds that the Deluxe Memory Boy was not for me. I *hated* that thing.

DarkAxel wrote:Lately, i've fallen in love with my new Wampler Faux Tape Echo

I almost got one of those last week. I'm sure it's awesome, and I do plan to try one out at some point.

DarkAxel wrote:how's that Electroman?

It sounds really good. The tone control is awesome and having a built-in loop is really something special. I don't understand why all delays don't have this feature.