Gibson / Maestro Discoverer Delay Analog Echo Test / Review

 Preface:

Good day to all of you fuzz lovers out there! Over the course of the last 5+ years, I had the pleasure to test out a lot of guitar and bass pedals. This blog is supposed to help you find not only your sound, but also a device that is well built, nice looking and, ideally, affordable.

And if you are not interested in owning the pedal, the post hopefully makes for a good read on bathroom break!

1. Optics and General Built Quality

Starting off the blog post with the most subjective topic of all, the looks, I have to admit that I personally really like the entire Maestro line of pedals that now sports over 10 different utility devices from several flavors of boost and drive, through modulation, to time-based effects like the analog delay that sits on the inspection table today. The Discoverer Delay pedal is unusually heavy for its fairly compact size, thus inspiring faith regarding its longevity. What I personally really enjoy on top of that is the fact that almost all of the Maestro devices can be used with battery power and have, due to their analog nature, a fairly low current draw. Top-mounted input and output jacks, a sturdy switch and metal shafts for the three pots round off the first overview nicely.

Right now may be the right time to talk briefly about tap-tempo switches and options on delay pedals. Regarding rather dark and gooey sounding bucket brigade based devices like the Discoverer Delay, I am of the opinion that they don't necessarily require tap tempo, as they will most likely be used for general ambiance, a fattening of the signal or as a nice slapback echo box. Another master of this type of effect is the good old 24V Memory Man by EHX. Unfortunately, the Discoverer Delay neither has the goldilocks preamp of the MM nor the extremely sweet, fixed-speed modulation of it. Actually, let's talk about that in the main chapter!

Before we go ahead, here is a picture of the front:

And a gut shot of the well-spaced interior ensues:

2. Sounds and Tonal Options

I promised you to start out with the modulation option that this analog delay pedal offers. At its price point of between 100 and 130 Euros new and around 70 to 80 Euros on the second-hand market, it is not very common to see this on affordable echo boxes. Akin to the well-established Carbon Copy by MXR, the Discoverer Delay is equipped with two mini pots on the inside that predefine the speed and depth of the vibrato-effect applied onto the effect. I really enjoy having that option, the effect, however, is way too intense for my taste. Instead of making the echos sparkle and give them a bit of depth and headroom, which, as an example, the Memory Man (again) does excellently, it adds a rather sea-sick vibrato even at lower settings. Don't get me wrong, you may even like this, I would just rather see something more moderate on such a breat-and-butter effect pedal. You can always swiftly shut off the modulation, however, and enjoy the delays like a true connoisseur.

As for the echos themselves, they are exactly what you would expect from a mid-tier analog delay. They are dark, blend into each other and stack up towards the end of the Sustain knob, which, resembling a feedback knob on other pedals, defines the number of times the delayed signal is fed back into the bucket brigade chip. To me, the Discoverer Delay has the perfect amount of degradation, adding a bit of grit and white noise to every individual echo, especially at longer delay times, defined through the Delay pot. For an analog delay, the Maestro offers a fairly long delay time with 600ms being advertised and my example realistically sporting around 585 to 590ms when compared to a delay plugin in my DAW. This is fine, since these chips have fairly high tolerances, just look at the marketed "around 450ms" delay time on Memory Men. Memory Mans? Whatever.

The Maestro delay, however, has one fatal flaw that - sort of - kills it for me. The signal that comes out of the bucket brigade chips is a fair bit quieter than the original signal, which is absolutely no issue with the Mix knob at a low value, since the original signal overshadows the echos by quite a margin. As soon as the Mix reaches noon, however, there is a noticeable disparity between your signal with the effects pedal on bypass and it being switched on. Having no option to, internally, compensate for this, this makes the Discoverer Delay unsuitable for both ambient stuff and retro-style Slapback delay. Furthermore, the signal significantly cuts the presence on the original signal, even with the Mix knob turned off. This fact, however, gives the pedal a vintage vibe and since it does not affect the overall perceived volume of your signal, it can be written off as more of a feature than a bug.

3. Unique Features and Special Use Cases

With the Discoverer Delay being rather mousy and nice, the amount of special scenarios is  limited. Yes, it is rather affordable and, in my opinion, a lot better than other analog delay pedals in its price range, however, it has its weird drawbacks, most noticeably the presence cut-off and the fact that the affected part of the signal is significantly quieter than the original signal, preventing it from being used in certain scenarios without the assistance of  a second pedal that compensates these shortcomings.

Here you go, treat yourself to a final picture of the Discoverer Delay from the inside:

I think that the most intruiging special use case is the fact that the Discoverer Delay cuts the highs of your signal in a warm and nice way without you losing perceived volume at lower Mix knob settings. This makes it perfect for adding warmth and viscous echos to your solo playing, leading to the echos blending into a dark, reverb-like ambiance. Still, the echos are defined enough to dissolve nicely into a drippy spring reverb, if you want to. If this is all you seek, go for the Discoverer Delay. Also, on top of that, it excels at one type of weird stuff - building up white noise and runaway-sounds. At maximum Delay knob settings and with the Sustain high up, the noise takes over after a few repeats and it decays the echos ohh-so beautifully, reminding me a bit of the PT2399-based repeats of the Echo Dream 2 by DBA. On the other side, the Maestro delay is rather tame when maxed, preventing it from being hideously loud when having the signal running away at maximum Sustain values. It stays moderate and controllable, which definitely is worthy of a note!

4. Conclusion Time

Among the sheer amount of inexpensive delay pedals from overseas, the Discoverer Delay by Maestro stands out. It wants to be the decent, well-priced and well-made alternative to a Carbon Copy by MXR, but fails in part due to the tone-suckage and the modulation being too strong. Some people, I guess, will absolutely disagree with me and claim that the pedal in question has to sound dark and gooey, making it perfect for vintage style guitar licks. To them I want to say that they are not wrong. I personally think, however, that there should a) be an option, giving you the choice of darkening your signal or leave it as is, and b) a gain stage, compensating for the loss of signal intensity after it leaves the bucket brigade chips.

What I basically want to say is: if you look for a very basic old-school analog echo pedal and the Discoverer Delay is within your price-range, consider it! However, you get what you pay here - for a few bucks more, a used small-footprint Memory Man or Carbon Copy may not be too far away.