Electro-Harmonix releases its iconic Deluxe Memory Man analog delay in Nano form

Electro-Harmonix has unveiled a pedalboard-friendly version of its revered Deluxe Memory Man delay pedal, which aims to cram all the brand’s analog delay and modulation tones into one compact chassis – meet the Nano Deluxe Memory Man.

Taking inspiration from the original 1980 Deluxe version of the Memory Man – which sported a rather cumbersome size – the Nano iteration seeks to offer up uncompromising bucket-brigade delay tones reminiscent of its predecessor by including faithful specs and modern-day tweaks.

Fans of the DMM will no doubt be familiar with its enduring presence in the modern music world, having been used by a battalion of guitarists such as Robert Smith, Ed O’Brien and The Edge – who used it on U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday, among many other tracks.

Straight off the bat, the Nano DMM sports four control knobs found on the original – Level, Blend, Feedback and Delay – which are used to tweak the unit’s effects. While Level adjusts the input gain, the Blend knob acts as a Wet/Dry mix control.

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In operation, the pedal’s modulation is produced by sweeping the delay time with a repeating LFO, with a fully cranked Blend control conjuring thick vibrato tones, or thick chorus sounds when liberally dialed in.

The Feedback control, meanwhile, dictates the number of echo repeats right up to runaway oscillation, with the Delay knob controlling, well, the delay – more specifically, it selects between 30ms and 550ms of delay times. That’s more than the 300ms limit found on the original DMM.

While on the topic of delay, an easily accessible internal switch can be triggered to turn delay tails on or off, with true bypass switching when the tail has been disengaged.

This time round, EHX has also introduced two new control knobs – Rate and Depth – in place of the original two-in-one Chorus/Vibrato control. 

Included for enhanced modulation control, Rate controls the effect speed, while Depth determines how much modulation is added to the delay sound.

Two separate LED lights are onboard, with one acting as an overload sign that engages when the signal entering the delay block is too hot. The other is a simple On/Off visual aid.

Of course, the highlight really is the size of the pedal – all of the aforementioned tones are squeezed into 4.5” by 2.75” chassis, meaning, unlike its older sibling, the Nano Deluxe Memory Man won’t increase competition for pedalboard real estate.

Other notable appointments include high-input impedance to preserve the tone the pedal is being fed, as well as a regular nine-volt power supply input.

The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man Nano is available now for $203.

To find out more, head over to Electro-Harmonix.