Talk to me about the digitech timebender

hugbot

It seems awfully full featured for something I never see on anyones boards.

ThePrettyDamned

They're really good. I remember a period where they went cheap and a few people went and bought them. I've tried one and was impressed, lots of good sounds and easy to use. 

Luminous

Brilliant but scuppered by being true bypass, I can't get the harmonised delays loud enough unless I use it as on a send/return system.

digitalscream

@Luminous - are you sure it's true bypass? I had one, and it managed to put out delay trails quite happily, which meant that it couldn't be TB.

Anyway...fantastic-sounding delay, with more features than I could ever use. My problems with it were:

1 - No way to directly select a preset (to get to the previous one, you have to scroll  through all the other three presets *and* the current control settings). This is very awkward in the middle of a song, particularly as it cuts the delay trails off when you switch presets.

2 - It requires 9V AC power, not DC, at 1200mA. That basically means that you won't find a single pedalboard power supply which can do that job and the 9V DC that all your other pedals will need; it's a royal pain in the ass and makes a mess of your board.

After a while, I found I was perfectly willing to ditch all the extra features just to fix these issues, so I got a Flashback X4 instead (which then came with its own set of issues - for example, switching presets cut off the delay repeats, but switching a preset off and then switching the next one on didn't...thus defeating the point of having single-touch access).

Just FYI, I believe the Timebender is discontinued too, which is another good reason you won't see many.

Luminous

@digitalscream , I thought the fact that you couldn't turn down the direct level made it true bypass, ie, I can turn off the direct level but couldnt get say a balance of 60% delay and 40% dry

EricTheWeary

Having nothing better to look at whilst on the loo just looking up stuff about the Timebender. One review suggests you can't actually turn Trails off which would suggest it isn't true bypass or has that as an option,  as I understand it. 

digitalscream

Luminous said:

@digitalscream , I thought the fact that you couldn't turn down the direct level made it true bypass, ie, I can turn off the direct level but couldnt get say a balance of 60% delay and 40% dry

Not at all.

Also, I'm not sure how you had a problem, given that there's a mix control right there?

stratosonic

I use it at home for recording and improv, lovely modulated/shifted delay sounds. As DigitalScream mentioned the separate 1200mA PSU keeps it off my main board or I'd also use it for gigs.

Luminous

digitalscream said:

Luminous said:

@digitalscream , I thought the fact that you couldn't turn down the direct level made it true bypass, ie, I can turn off the direct level but couldnt get say a balance of 60% delay and 40% dry

Not at all.

Also, I'm not sure how you had a problem, given that there's a mix control right there?

The mix control only goes up to 50% mix , then to dry kill, I found a lot of the harmonised delays weren't loud enough through an amp for what i wanted

Luminous

The mix control is effectively a delay volume not a true mix control

digitalscream

Ah, fair enough @Luminous - I never really needed it to go that far.

Luminous

other than that its a great delay ...i use it in my live rig but from a desk