Every so often, an idea comes by, which makes you question why someone hasn’t done it before, or at the very least , done it well.
For most styles of Lead guitar, the two most requested ‘effects’ (i.e. not your actual tone) are usually Delay and Reverb. After a judicious amount of blending and mixing of the two, it’s possible to get a mix that delivers the sound you were after.
Now Wampler, have provided a beautifully simple solution for those requiring these sounds, the new Ethereal pedal is a combined Delay and Reverb, with a unique way of blending between the two, to deliver a wonderful sonic ambience that can shimmer and gleam to your hearts content.
Brian Wampler actually held back the release of this pedal until he had it exactly right, and from the beginning you can hear why. The sound is almost more than the sum of its parts. It can deliver simple FX like Slapback echoes or simple ‘Edge’ like quarter note delays, but that’s really only the start.
You see there’s not only one delay on board, there are 2!
Now for anyone who’s ever run an Analogue delay into a Digital delay and messed around with the patterns, you’ll know that you can come up with some very cool, if not wildly unplayable patterns, with dotted 8ths running into 16th triplets and all manner of craziness, but in this case, it seems that the 2 delays play very well together, allowing an assortment of very cool, ambient textures, which once set across the backdrop of a huge plate reverb, can take on almost synth pad like qualities.
Of course if you want to set it with a tasteful little 8th note signature and a splash of High quality reverb, then it definitely saves you having to buy two pedals, but the real pleasure with this pedal, is the myriad of possibilities it allows from just a little tweaking of the simple controls.
Whatever your inclinations, if you’re a guitarist looking for high quality delay and Reverb, this is certainly a pedal you need to check out soon.