Ibanez DE7 Delay Echo

In today’s world of awesome boutique pedals, it’s easy for a lot of us to dismiss a pedal due to its cost, which can be a shame a good part of the time. Somewhere along the way, a stigma was attached to pedals that don’t cost an arm and a leg as being inferior, poorly-built pieces of junk, that have no place on any civilized players’ pedalboard, and that needs to be rectified. There are a TON of great pedals out there for the working man’s budget, but money aside, there are some real gems that deserve time in the spotlight like all the fancy gear, and one of those pedals is the DE7 Delay Echo from Ibanez.

Delay Time, Repeat and Delay Level are the main attractions in the control section of the DE7. A nice feature for the Delay Time is that you can select from 3 separate time ranges (30-160, 120-650 and 480-2600ms, respectively) for one of the widest delay time ranges in any pedal this size, much less in this price range. There’s also another selection switch that allows you to go between Echo and Delay modes, opening up the sonic possibilities even further.

The actual sound of the DE7 is really remarkable, too, from such an underrated and inexpensive piece of guitar gear. The delays can be use in slap back or rockabilly, a touch of echo for boosting up a ripping solo, or really long and drawn out, for a trippy, mega-ambient and spacey overtones. While it is basically a simple pedal, it boasts a lot of options that some pedals 3 times it’s cost can’t really compete with.

Part of their Tone-Lok series from the late 90’s, the DE7 has become something of an underground sensation, and for good reason. With a nice control section, a plethora of options and some really great tones, the DE7 is a hard pedal to put down once you’ve plugged it in and played it for any significant amount of time. As a collective group of musicians, around the world, I think it’s important to give smaller companies (not that Ibanez is a small company, by any means) and lesser-known or coveted pedals a chance to shine. If you see one of these at a pawn shop or Craigslist for a good price, don’t hesitate to snatch it up with a quickness – I promise you won’t be disappointed, and if by some chance you are, your standards are way too high. 🙂