Maestro Discoverer Delay review

It may have been seen as old and tired technology when digital delay was the new thing many years ago, but these days guitar players can’t seem to get enough of analog delay, judging by the amount of new pedals out there using BBD chips. 

The Discoverer is of that ilk and clocks in with a delay time range that runs from 20ms up to 600ms, allowing you to use it in many ways. 

At the lower end of the delay knob travel you’ll find rough reverb, turn it up a bit more for a doubling effect and then to around it’s 9-o’clock position for some cool rockabilly slapback. Beyond that, you can dial in delays to add spacey depth behind your playing or create some prominent rhythmic repeats in true Edge style. 

There’s no tone knob here to alter the sound of the repeats, but the tonal balance is just right, sitting snugly with your dry tone and becoming more dissolute and breaking up as the tail progresses. The Sustain knob adjusts the feedback from a single repeat to a long trail and has plenty of travel before you get into self-oscillation territory where the repeats take off on their own.

In the EHX Deluxe Memory Man tradition, modulation is the switchable facility here. There’s just the toggle switch to bring it in, but you get internal trim pots to adjust the rate and width. 

As shipped, the modulation is a floaty otherworldly sound that combines well with the delay. It’s not unlike a rotary speaker effect, but the trimpots will let you tone that down to something more subtle like mild chorus or an even more obvious detuned warble effect with wayward pitch-shifting. No bells and whistles, just simplicity of use combined with quality sound.

Specs

• PRICE: $159 / £149
• FEATURES: True bypass, 20 to 600ms delay range, modulation
• CONTROLS: Delay, Mix, Sustain, Mod On/Off switch, Bypass footswitch, internal trim pots for modulation rate and width
• CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
• POWER: 9V battery or 9-12V DC adaptor
• DIMENSIONS: 84mm (w) x 126mm (d) x 60 mm (h)
• CONTACT: Gibson