Dwarfcraft Devices Minivan Echo

If you want originality in your pedals, one company you can always rely on to come through in the clutch is Dwarfcraft Devices from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Mainly fuzz and octave-based for the majority of their lineup, today’s featured pedal sees them jumping into a new genre, one that’s our favorite here at Pedal of the Day: delay. Not just any delay, of course – the Minivan Echo conjures up analog tones of the past, along with an easy way to add more effects into its sound.

The Minivan uses a delay chip at the heart of its innards, but one that’s so old, it might as well be analog: the PT2399. This classic chip emulates the analog-tape roll off and degrading repeats coveted by so many delay users, and it sounds fantastic housed in the Minivan’s enclosure. The Delay control adjusts the overall echoes emitted, from a single repeat up to crazy self-oscillation, turning the Minivan Echo into a noise machine ala Dwarfcraft.

The Mix knob is your normal blend control, able to do 100% dry or a delicious blend where the echoes are slightly more pronounced than the original dry signal. The Feedback control gets fun, especially when you plug an expression pedal into the Insert jack up top. This jack has dual capabilities, too, as it can also be used as an effects loop (using a TRS Y-splitter cable) to add as many other effects into the Minivan, to affect the delay signal even more.

After waiting and hoping for a long time, Dwarfcraft has finally graced us with a delay, and, as usual, it’s something crafty and off-the-cuff, which is what we all expect from these Sconies. Always innovating and creating new crazy-awesome gear, they truly set the bar for experimental pedal production and design, and Aen makes some of the funniest and most insightful demo videos for his pedals that are out there. Thanks as always to Dwarfcraft Devices for their continued support – be sure you head over to their website for more info on their creations, and to see how you can work some crazy effects into your rig.