Okay, that's just plain silly...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
The pedal pictured above is a Pete Cornish TES Delay pedal. If you’re not a guitar player of the decidedly Classic school of rock, that series of words and accompanying picture are probably essentially meaningless. So here’s the story in a nutshell: Pete Cornish is this ?ber-Geek in the UK that makes pedal boards and the like for famous people with bottomless wallets. People like (and specifically, in fact) David Gilmour.
The going skinny is that ol’ Dave needed to not use tape delays on stage, for reasons that would be readily obvious to anyone that has ever tried to use a tape delay on stage, so he asked Mr. Cornish to make a pedal that acted like a tape delay and didn’t suck. Pete came up with this pedal (well, not the particular one in the picture, but the design.) Dave said “well, Pete, that’s pretty fucking good” or something undoubtedly similar but somehow strikingly English, and used it forever afterwards.
All that by way of saying that the Pete Cornish TES is a very, very good delay pedal. Probably the best delay pedal ever made, and there aren’t that many out there, maybe a couple dozen.
So, when you click the link that’s coming up, you’ll click it with the understanding that this is accepted to be the best example of this particular sub-class of effects. Before you click, think to yourself the most you’d pay for the best delay pedal ever made. Check it.
Now that you’ve done that, and you’re back, ready for the whopper? This is essentially a circuit-bent Boss DD-2. I shit you not. Have a nice day.
27 comments
Fuck the original! I'd just open it up, make a parts list, sketch a schematic, and then resell it for a similar price. Well, that's if I had that kind of cash and actually gave a shit. Are the insides covered in epoxy goop or something? Why hasn't someone opened this baby up and taken a look at how it works, 'cause that's the nice thing about electronics: you can just build another one. Unless its some esoteric vintage gear that uses parts only produced by some Russian company in 1962, which I doubt is the case here. I figure that people buying this stuff don't actually use it anyway, they're likely just collectors that have a fetish and look at it as a safer place to put their money than in a bank. (which they might be right about)
I just edited the OP to reflect the answer to your curiosity. I originally left that info out, although it's common knowledge to the people that buy this. I wanted to see what the responses would be before someone dropped that info. But I can see that it's just cruel.
-CR
That's... freaking... hilarious. Wow! I don't even know what to think about that. I've gotta say that I love the Boss DD series though. Someday they will have to pry my DD-3 from my cold, dead, hands.
Okay, just googled this thing, and apparently he does in fact cover the insides with red goop. So, I guess nobody knows exactly how the magic is done, but for that price I would think that someone clever would be very inclined to purchase one and reverse engineer it. If it IS as good as everybody claims. I'm not that person, but I know it must be possible.
Anyway, I'll stop spamming the comments section and let someone else post now.
Well, a Rupert Neve Portico 5042 tape simulatior is almost $2k, so that price for a TES isn't so unreasonable. Of course, I'm quite happy with my $500 Diamond Memory Lane. At least the TES doesn't use a Princeton or SpinSemi part.
I'm on the waitlist for one of these:
http://toneczareffects.com/pedals-echocz.htm
It should be about another 12-13 months before I get it (and I've been on the list for a year).
THAT is the most I'd pay for a delay pedal. I highly doubt that the Cornish is worth three and some-odd and who knows how much times extra over the Echoczar.
The only problem is getting one.
i'll stick to my(mostly free) vst's and my watkins copykat.
maybe its got an old tape walkman looper hidden inside with the boss pedal. - i remember seeing a mellotron made with walkmen
Wow. I've always loved looking at the pedals on Cornish's site but had no idea he repurposed an existing pedal- a Boss, no less. For shame.
well, if I had the money and an insane urge to piss it away....
no. I still would not buy it, no matter how incredibly English it is.
For that price does it come packaged with a mini pete cornish clone or something? Or Dave Gilmour even?
In my experience, guitarists (especially non-working, non-gigging ones) have an obsession with tone. I often wonder why electronic musicians don't, in general, have the same obsession.
Someone once said here that guitar collecting was much like Civil War reenactment. I think that neatly explains the tone obsession thing. Although much of electronic music focuses on sounds over composition, which is kind of a similar thing.
At $3000+, couldn't someone simply commission a roadworthy tape echo? That's roughly the cost of the Blue Coconut delay. I wonder how resilient that thing is?
I am glad that I have neither the ears which demand such a pedal nor the means to afford one.
It's a delay, people. A DELAY. Half of the time you're still playing over the top of the repeats.
I love musicians. One of these days I'm going to develop some sort of goofy idea, like special batteries for guitar pedals that "don't suck tone" or some sort of adaptor that plugs between your synth output and your amp/recording input that has a tube taped to the side or something (you know, so it sounds "warmer and punchier and more analog; smooths out the jagged digital edges, fills in the gaps") and I will make millions.
Millions, I say!
You could buy a Fulltone Tube Tape Delay and a Lexicon PCM42 for that amount.
What is the fascination with Gilmour's gear anyway? Fender just released the Black Strat, hooray. It sounds like... all other Strats.
Madness.
How likely is it that the purchaser of this item is a professional musician?
This goes back to the "pro gear" discussion, but part of being a professional musician is having economic balance to your process.
When you feed yourself and your family with your art, it's no joke.
This delay can't pay for itself unless you actually are David Gilmour.
- c
the rupert neve portico tape line driver thing is not a delay. it's a tape saturator/emulator whatcha-ma-callit.
the anamod tape emulator (which is supposed to be the business in every way) is $3k or something but apparently engineers who use it say it's worth every penny and does what ten different multitrack tape machines do and more and is 100% analog. see tapeop for a review.
as far as a $3K guitar pedal. er whatever. seems like no one in the audience will know and maybe you could do all the same shit and more w/an eventide timefactor pedal or something.
but, the internet being what it is and ebay being what it is and people being who they are etc.... i'm not surprised.
Mike Kiraly said :"In my experience, guitarists (especially non-working, non-gigging ones) have an obsession with tone. I often wonder why electronic musicians don't, in general, have the same obsession."
-------
I think Electronic musicians have a similar obsession with 'control', which is something which is already built-in to the guitar experience of course.
So I wonder if it's like 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs', once we get the control issues sorted only then will we be able to obsess interminably about tone.
just a thought.
I say good for Pete Cornish. I mean, he could have made something that costs $100 and then sell 30 units before he made that kind of money. Instead he just has to sell 1.
And I forgot to mention, I've seen Gilmour play live a few times, and his tone is -stratospherically- good but ya know what? It ain't the pedals. Or the amps, or the guitar for that matter...
Whoever can afford this bad boy, especially in this economy, is going to be sorely disappointed when they don't get the call for Roger Waters' next live bastardization of Dark Side Of The Moon.
I agree with terminal3. Aside from his rather ludicrous assortment of Pete Cornish pedals, Gilmour's rig is fairly bog standard shit that anyone that makes a reasonable living can afford. A lot of it has to do with being an exceptional guitar player. I'd say most all of it, frankly. The right note played for the right amount of time can compensate for a lot of other jank. It doesn't hurt that Pink Floyd gets the absolute best PA, soundmen, backline techs, etc. either. All these things add up.
For instance, the Black Strat is a normal '69 Strat that has been worked on by the best guitar tech in the world for 38 years. I'm not entirely sure how Fender gets away with selling a replica, but there you go. Guitarists are a somewhat nutty bunch.
-CR
Actually, I just picked up a trashed Pete Cornish TES Delay and circuit bent it it sounds hot. . . it is my best pedal i use it on everything. . . i think it sounds every bit as good as retro DD-2 plus it does way more. . . i think ppl who say the real thing sounds better never heard the real thing. . . plus it didn't break the bank
f u need sum ideas 4 bending or cool sounds hit me up [email protected] /* <![CDATA[ */!function(){try{var t="currentScript"in document?document.currentScript:function(){for(var t=document.getElementsByTagName("script"),e=t.length;e--;)if(t[e].getAttribute("cf-hash"))return t[e]}();if(t&&t.previousSibling){var e,r,n,i,c=t.previousSibling,a=c.getAttribute("data-cfemail");if(a){for(e="",r=parseInt(a.substr(0,2),16),n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)i=parseInt(a.substr(n,2),16)^r,e+=String.fromCharCode(i);e=document.createTextNode(e),c.parentNode.replaceChild(e,c)}}}catch(u){}}();/* ]]> */ (
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hee, current high bidder: "c***y"
I laughed at the geddy lee bass 10x more notes than needed/arpegiator thing. Laughed hard enough that the wife looked at me funny.
re> the Geddy J-Bass...
Perhaps I'm backtracking a bit, but if I remember right, those were pretty affordable (i.e. sub $1k) and the whole offensive part of the "signature" model was the hideous price for not much more instrument. Plus it's a relatively benign 70's J-Bass.
While we're on the topic of ol' Les... once did a gig with one of his side projects, and I watched unnamed semi-famous singer of band I was in walk right up to him after his set and tell him how great he played the drums. I love a singer.
On the Claypool thing, anyone remember "Frog Brigade" they did phenomenally good Floyd covers they did "Animals" front to back a lot.
CR do you remember the Oberheim delay I had, I thought that was supposed to be the replacement for the EchoPlex/CopiCat et al
But for what ever reason it went the way of the dodo real quick.
Having seeing Floyd an ass ton of times, as well as Waters. A quote from Gilmour comes to mind back from when they started the "Momentary Lapse" tour, he had read a review saying Waters voice was missed followed by a list of the songs, deadpan and English as always he answers, "I always sang those songs anyway".
And played both guitar and bass. My point exactly.
-CR
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