tech21 Boost D.L.A User manual

PREMIER GUITAR DECEMBER 2009 www.premierguitar.com
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At first glance, I knew Tech 21’s analog delay
emulator with clean boost was going to be
something different because of the unit’s layout
and controls. The gold case features two foot-
switches: one for bypass and one for tap tempo.
Above them are two small buttons labeled
“trails” and “triplets.” Two rows of knobs allow
adjustments for Mix, Feedback, Tone, Time,
Level and Flutter. On the sides of the pedal
are the Input and output jacks, as well as the
9V adapter jack. The supplied manual was very
informative and easy to understand, and offers
some great sample settings for the types of
effects provided. The build quality is excellent,
and the battery compartment that clips the bat-
tery in place is a nice touch.
How Does It Work?
As far as adjustments go, this pedal has
all the bases covered. It also addresses all
of the shortcomings I’ve experienced with
other delays. The mix control sweeps from
100 percent dry to 100 percent wet, which is
important for two reasons. One is, of course,
to get the proper balance of delay to the dry
sound. The other is to allow for finer control
of the delay, which makes this the first delay
I’ve found that is truly useable in line before
the front end of a distorting or clipping amp.
I believe in placing the distortion or overdrive
pedal before the delay (and reverb) so the
trails don’t fight each other in the sensitive
environment of an overdriving amp’s input.
Although this isn’t the way I’d recommend
using a delay, sometimes it has to be done this
way if there’s no effects loop. And with this
unit, it’s possible to get a pretty decent delay
sound this way.
The Feedback control can go from just one
repeat to infinite repeats, and can even reach
self oscillation levels like an old Echoplex. All
those cool flying saucer sounds are possible
here. Using the Trails button makes it possible
to keep the delay trails repeating and fading out
after the unit is switched off.
The Tone control on this pedal is a thing of
beauty. There is a longstanding debate among
players about which are more desirable, the
pristine clean sounds of a digital delay or the
lo-fi tones of a good analog unit. Many analog
units have differing degrees of this delay tonali-
ty, depending on the brand of the delay and the
designer’s ear. This one has literally all of them
covered; from the clearest, brightest digital to
the warmest analog, and all points in between.
The control is very wide ranging, and I was able
to duplicate the tones of any of my delay pedals
quickly and with little effort.
The time control has a range of 30ms to
1000ms. Often with my older analog delays
I find myself wishing for just a little more
delay time to match the tempo of a song,
but longer delay times—between 450ms and
Boost D.L.A.
TECH 21
BY KENNY RARDIN

www.premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR DECEMBER 2009 
600ms—tend to get too dark. This is not the
case with the Boost D.L.A. All delay times had
perfect tonality at any setting. If you like it
dark, you can dial that in too. The Triplets but-
ton allows you to instantly set up those triplet
sequences in perfect time. I achieved instant
Pink Floyd delays just by activating this control
and tapping the tempo.
Next is the Level control, which brings me to
one of my pet peeves about many delay pedals:
you go to do a solo and the volume drops out.
What makes it worse is that the degree of the
problem usually varies with the type and amount
of distortion or overdrive you use. To help com-
pensate for it, I’ve used small footswitchable
boosts after the delay on some pedalboards.
However, once again the Boost D.L.A. unit
comes through. Unity gain is at approximately
12 o’clock on the dial, and up to 9dB of boost
is available without changing the pedal’s sound.
No matter what type of tone you’re using, you
won’t have dropouts.
Like similar controls on other units, the intent
of the Flutter control is to simulate the tape
warble of old Echoplex-type units, and this
one works well. On the original echo units, this
effect was random depending on quality of
your unit’s motor and drives parts. Using mod-
ern technology, you can actually achieve the
desired amount of this effect; it’s not exactly
random but it does sound similar. There is,
however, another benefit to this control on the
Boost D.L.A.: it can create lush chorus sounds
on its own, with or without delay. Just using
the Tone and Flutter controls, I was able to get
some killer chorus tones that were extremely
variable, making this a great feature.
The Final Mojo
I’ll start by saying that this pedal does not have
a hardwire bypass. Some players may be con-
cerned about this, and the way it will interact
with other pedals and devices. Normally, I’m a
fan of true bypass, but I also realize that it can
generate a noisy signal. In this case, because of
the choice to offer a properly designed buffered
system, I don’t see any problems. I hooked it
up to a true bypass strip and found no ill effects
from it not being true bypass. Kudos to Andrew
Barta and Tech 21—no unwanted compres-
sion or other artifacts were present. The Boost
D.L.A. met or beat all my expectations of a
delay unit. A lot of thought has gone into the
design of this pedal, and they seemed to have
covered all the bases. In the process, they’ve
also set the bar a little higher for others.
Tech 21
Street $14
9
9
tech21nyc.co
m
m
you’re looking for a delay pedal that
goes beyond the average feature set.
Buy If...
Skip If...
you’re not over particular about
delay sounds and you’re happy with
your old unit.
Rating...
4
.5
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