One of the few pedals I ever sold and then bought again. Nothing ever replaced it’s unique voicing. I have a tape (el cap) and echorec style (boonar) but keep the obscura for the things it can do that others can’t. It’s also really intuitive and only a few features are really “hidden”
Man you've been pumping out high quality content like crazy. I feel like it's only a matter of time before your channel really gets discovered and takes off.
Your videos just keep getting better and better, and they were already super good! Really enjoyed that jam at the beginning. Gosh, I love to hear information about delay pedals. And I so enjoy the way you break down the functions in every pedal you share, both how they work and why they work like they do. It’s really something that isn’t in anyone else’s pedal demos. I think your channel needs to add the tagline: “Stompbox Breakdown: we read the manual so you don’t have to!”
Aww thanks man! I enjoy reading a well-written manual, and a lot of guitar pedal manuals, you can tel were written by the people who designed and played them. Glad you liked that first jam too, I have that expanded into a whole thing with a bridge and words in my head.
I absolutely love this delay. I got it new on a clearance sale for like $80? I can’t believe how good it all sounds. I’ve read a few valid complaints about how some of the features are implemented, but for what you all get, packed into a delay this size, it’s absolutely brilliant.
That's a great deal! Yeah, for all they shoved into this pedal, I wish I could use the second stereo input as an input for a footswitch that'd enable tap tempo and maybe switch modes or something. Same with the Hardwire pedals, sometimes there's too many features, not enough interface to attach them to.
I got one a few years ago and have loved it ever since. It is brilliant along with the Digitech Polara which does an absolutely great spring reverb emulation. For the money these originally did cost they were awesome.
Absolutely! I haven't been able to find a good deal on a Polara, but yeah, they really packed a whole lot of features in this pedal that comes across as a single-purpose pedal. Perhaps they were too humble
I notice most channels don't really know how to demo delays because the demo guys typically are into either blues or shred playing only. The other demos for this are pretty awful. A pedal like this requires a player who likes to play around with the actual sound of a guitar and you smashed it.
Love, love love this pedal. Sorry they don't make it anymore. it's VERY quiet, has trails and a buttload of delay time. It's a looper too, but I've never used it. This is my regular delay. I might even get a second one.
From shirts to drum packs, I will buy anything with a skull on it. Happened the moment I turned 40. I already own two modulation-heavy reverb pedals but nonetheless I see this pedal in my future. Thanks for the demonstration!
Another great demo of a great pedal. That lofi mode is really delicate and pretty. I’ll definitely need to pick one of these up and explore with it. Is this on your main board? If not, which delay do you use regularly? Thanks for the content! Keep on growing the channel.
Thanks, Jacob! Oddly enough, I don't really have a board at the moment. I play bass in a band, and I keep a small board for that (5-6 pedals) but for guitar, it's usually just whatever has been out for the videos. If I were going to pick a delay to throw on there, though, it'd probably be the Rubberneck or Boss RE-20. I needs that instant tap tempo.
Cool stuff! I'm really interested to see how Digitech might change under new ownership. The first delay pedal that I had was in the mid 2000s and it was the Digitech Digidelay. I think back then, Boss pedals were kind of pricey and you could get a good deal on used Digitech pedals. Have you tried the Digitech Timebender? I ran into one of those some years back, but didn't end up grabbing it. It has a lot of features that pedals to this day don't have to my knowledge. Some unique things that the Timebender does are different pitch shifting and strum pattern repeats.
That was my experience as well, they were the slightly lower-cost Boss alternative. It wasn't until later when they started offering features Boss didn't carry. I've seen the TImebender, but haven't picked one up. Lots of features, though I'm not sure I'd make use of most of them.
Whoa man..... the future back in the 80s 《《IS》》 now...! Are you magic...? Less seriously, I've always wondered how the obscure sounds. Appreciate the review!
@@StompboxBreakdown my Alesis QuadraVerb GT and Peavey Pro-Fex want to say hello! i recently replaced an EEPROM in the former, and for a moment, i felt like a semi-unhinged brain surgeon!! hahahahahah!!!
it's a great pedal. was on my board for about 3 years, and only recently did I take it off to put a foxgear baby t7e (binson style pedal) and then sometimes I swap it out for the nux dd7 (space echo emulator) I'm on a big tape delay kick as of recently...where you can adjust the delay by the 3 or 4 head adjustments. but the degrade is phenomenal on the obscura, and it is full of features and almost any delay sounds you ever need.....except maybe the pink floyd style binson sounds from dark side and echoes or early radiohead space echo sounds......but you can still get very close.
I have a few digitechs and they handle hit synth signals well at this price point. Cheaper pedals clip in an unusable way, some TC electronic just cut out! My RV6 would occasionally clip as well!
Got one of these right when they came out, but it always had an odd fake filtered sound to it that I could never pin point. As well as the main annoyance for me being the usable range of delay was relegated to a tiny area on the small concentric knob. Why they didn't reverse the locations of the repeat knob and the time knob is beyond me. Traded it in for a DD-3 a year or two later and eventually upgraded to a DD-7 which has got to be my favorite delay I've ever used.
They got bought by Harman, most likely for some of the technology from the Lexicon side of the house. Harman wanted that for car audio and wasn’t really interested in effects pedals so they slowly shut it down. Just recently though, they got acquired by Cor-Tek (Cort) and some of the originals players are back and saying they’re ready to get things going again.
Failed to mention.... Dotted Eighth Delay makes repeats fall in between the notes you play (if playing to tempo). This is the classic U2 "Pride" setting, amongst others. Know your gear.
@StompboxBreakdown Not a slight on you. Still a lot of guitarists can't figure out "Dotted Eighths". They think that just setting it to "Dotted Eighth" will make them sound like The Edge or David Gilmour. What they don't realise is that they have to play Eighth Notes to the same Quarter Note Tempo (BPM) they tapped into the Pedal. You should do a video about it ;). Enjoy your videos. Education is a good thing.
