I’ve never been a fan of a dry guitar sound. Delay has to be one of my favorite guitar effects and I can’t go without it. In this article I’m going to show you how to add delay to your signal chain in the best way possible.
Delay is great for adding atmosphere and depth, and can even be used to make your guitar easier to play (think David Gilmour guitar solos).
I’m not going to focus on delay settings, as this usually comes down to taste and personal preference. Some people like a longer delay time (like myself), while others prefer a shorter delay.
One way to use delay is to add a bit of fatness, without the delay being a prominent effect. I like to have a small amount of delay on at all times, but set in a very transparent way so that you hardly even notice it’s on. This removes the dryness.
What players like David Gilmour and a lot of 80’s guitarists would normally do is combine 2 delays. One would be set to a long delay time, and another to a short delay. This creates a reverb type effect, which is great for lead guitar and a prominent atmospheric sound.
Using Delay
To get the best results, the delay effect needs to be present last in your signal chain. It should come AFTER your distortion effect, which means that if you’re using the drive channel on a tube amp, a delay pedal won’t work.
To get around this issue, amp manufacturers have included an effects loop. This will allow you to insert effects between the power amp and pre-amp sections of your amplifier. All modern amps should have one, usually located at the back of the amp.
There are 2 types of effects loops, namely series and parallel. Time-based effects like reverb and delay work best in parallel effects loops. Parallel loops feed off of the signal applied to the loop, without running your guitar signal directly through it. If you have a series loop, an amplifier technician will be able to modify it to be in parallel.
You’re going to require a rack-mount effects processor that can run at +4dB. Guitar pedals run at –10dB, which means they won’t be suitable for an effects loop. Some amps do allow you to switch between +4dB and –10dB, however I feel that the best results still come from an effects processor.
A favorite amongst guitar players is the TC-Electronic G-Major. This is because the G-Major was designed specifically with guitar players in mind, however any time-based effects processor will work well.
You will need to set the unit to 100% wet in order to avoid your dry guitar signal being applied back to your sound.
