Tech 21 was born from Andrew Barta’s personal desire to recreate the natural sound of tube amps in a pedal. As a performing musician, Andrew used his electronics background in bringing the legendary SansAmp to market. Today, Tech 21 offers a wide range of quality audio gear for guitar and bass, all hand built right here in the good ol’ US of A. The Boost D.L.A., offered as version 2 in a copper finish, is Tech 21′s analog delay emulator with clean boost.

FRESH OUTTA THE COOKIE TIN

The pedal arrived in a cool tin box that actually could be used for cookies (Note to self: hide cookies in Tech 21 tin. Girlfriend will never look there). The all metal housing, significantly more rugged than the “cookie tin” (but too packed with electronics to hold anything more than a handful of crumbs), is standard in length but roughly 1-1/2 times wider than a typical pedal. Six easily gripped knobs control mix, feedback, tone, time, flutter, and level which extends into signal boost. A large red LED indicates power, two small push switches activate trails and triplets, and two larger heavy duty footswitches toggle ON/OFF and tap tempo. The battery is easily accessed by a removable door on the back.

A DELAY, A CLEAN BOOST, AND MORE…

The time between delays (30 to 1,000 milliseconds) is controlled by both the Time dial and Tap Tempo footswitch. The controls override each other and affect any sounds being delayed at the time. If you set tempo with the footswitch and then turn the time dial, delayed sounds will kick in to the new tempo and transpose in pitch. You can also create a similar effect using just the time dial. Warning: this is too much fun and you may get lost for hours experimenting with all sorts of warbly, cartoony, chopping, sci-fi, sped-up and slowed-down wackiness. Tap Tempo can also be used to alter the interval of an existing delayed signal. In this scenario the pitch remains the same but the rhythm of the delay and attack may be affected. More experimental fun. Dig this…you can set the tap tempo while the pedal is in bypass mode. Count off with your drummer at the start of a song and kick right in with your delay in perfect sync. Too cool.

Feedback is a fully analog circuit and controls the number of repeats. It repeats once at its lowest setting and increases through nearly infinite repeats to self-oscillation at its highest setting. The Mix control, also fully analog, controls the dry to wet signal. Whereas many delays set a 50/50 mix at the highest setting, the Boost D.L.A. offers a 100% fully wet signal. Why all delay pedals don’t offer this great feature is beyond me. Tone, fully analog as well (noticing a trend here?), is a shelving filter of 6dB per octave. At its highest setting there is no change in tone. Turning the dial counter-clockwise rolls off the high end, giving a rounder more muted feel to the delays.

Level/Boost (Guess what? Yup, 100% analog circuit.) controls the output level. An additional 9dB of boost is available beyond the standard setting for max at 12 o’clock. While pretty damn clean, I noticed a touch of crunch when maxing this setting. Individual results may vary as the boost is meant to be clean. Flutter modulates the signal. This is a control you have to contain because used improperly, you and your audience may feel the ill effects of motion sickness even with your butts planted firmly in a chair. But used judiciously, this control can impart a subtle chorus-like effect that will gracefully enhance your playing and cause total strangers to start making out and fall in love.

Two small push buttons round out the potpourri of great features. Trails allows the delayed signal to continue even after the pedal is kicked into bypass mode. Repeats will gradually diminish in volume for five seconds before cutting off completely. Holding the bypass footswitch down will increase this time. Finally, the Triplets button, working in conjunction with Tap Tempo, toggles between 1/4-note and triplet repeats for expanded rhythmic possibilities.

THE FINAL WRAP

This feature-rich pedal is incredibly well thought out and sounds great. It’s got bells and whistles but is vintage in the quality of its warm, analog-sounding output. I love Tech 21′s no holds barred approach to maxing out the effectiveness of the controls: Mix goes fully wet, Feedback can oscillate ’till the end of time, Level “goes to 11…” Add to that the thoughtfulness of Flutter, Tap Tempo, and user controlled fading of delays using Trails. I’ve got two words for whatever delay pedal you’re using right now: e – Bay.

PROS: 100% analog circuitry for Mix, Feedback, Tone, and Level. Can set Tap Tempo while in bypass mode. Tap tempo! Lots of great features without compromising tone.

CONS: Won’t delay my rent. Other than that, I can’t think of any.

MSRP – $260

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Dan Coplan is senior staff writer at SMG. Dan is a Los Angeles based cinematographer and self-admitting guitar junkie. Email: dancoplan@sharemyguitar.com

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