The Blue Nebula Tape Echo Emulator (and Lots of Other Effects) Pedal
Massive pedalboards are not my thing. One of the things I don’t care for is having to tweak settings between songs. Once I’m on stage, I’m in the mood to play, and nothing else. But I need reverb and I need delay, on occasion. When the Boss RE-20 came out, I bought one as a tape echo emulator, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. The reverb sounded too deep, like a coin dropping into a hand-dug well. There were some great sounds, but it took some knob twiddling to get there. I found myself using only a handful of settings because of this twiddling.
After the RE-20, I tried the Boss FRV-1 and the MXR Carbon Copy Delay, which was OK at best. The FRV-1 sounded harsh to my ear. Eventually, I settled on the CatalinBread Topanga as a reverb unit and pretty much forgot about delay. I had found a few pedals which combined reverb and delay, but none of them really had what I was looking for.
A while back, I watched an instructional video with Hank Marvin and learned about his use of delay. The sounds he used really appealed to me, so I started looking into ways to accomplish this. A pair of delays can be setup to imitate Hank’s delay, but the settings are picky and it’s easy to knock it out of adjustment inadvertently. Mel Waldorf mentioned the Stanley FX Baby Blue and I investigated.
When I got to the Stanley FX site, I found that there was a programmable pedal called the Blue Nebula, which had the delay settings for all of Hank’s major songs by default. After researching the pedal and the options for programming, I was convinced that this pedal could not only meet my needs as a tape-delay emulator, but also as a very versatile pedal for all sorts of effects, so I ordered one.
I had to learn my way around the pedal; how to configure it, how to save patches on a computer, how to edit them and how to reapply them to the BN unit. One thing I discovered is that there are all sorts of effects which can be added to the pedal. The first 8 are best left alone, but the second 8 effects beg to be programmed to taste. So I replaced some of the many delay effects with a Reverb + Chorus, a Reverb + Flanger, a Reverb + Phaser, and changed the order of the existing effects which I retained. Including moving the “Abbey Guitar Reverb” from position #15 to position #8, It is a very useful and great sounding effect based upon the Abbey Road plate reverbs. This one reverb covers a lot of ground and will drip until the cows come home.
Once I selected my desired effects, I decided to work with my list of patches. Each patch can be custom named and allows you to select the effect, save the parameters for that effect and name it. Usually, I name to for the song I intend to use it on and, indeed, my list of patches form a setlist. Because there are 128 user patches available, one can compile quite a list, and the Hank Marvin patches are always available as another group of 21 patches in addition to the 128 user patches. Any of the Hank patches can be saved to a user patch location and named to whatever you desire, as long as you desire 16 characters or less.
Of course the big question is; how does it sound? Let me start by stating that it isn’t designed to replace your tank, although the Guitar Abbey Reverb has a nice drip. But it’s not intended to be a spring reverb emulator. I’m very satisfied with this as a Surf sound, but I’m not a hard-core purist.
Nonetheless, there’s more to Surf music than reverb. The various delay effects and tremolo come in very handy for Surf players. The tremolo is solid and competent. I’ve had tremolo pedals that were quite disappointing in the past, but this one works well. One optional effect is a Reverb + Vibrato, which gives one the vaunted “harmonic vibrato” as a sonic tool. It’s an amazing sound. While not traditional Surf effects, I should point out that a Phase Shifter and Flanger are also available and quite good.
One complaint commonly heard, with regard to delay pedals, is that the sound is sterile. The Blue Nebula addresses this matter proactively and, unlike some pedals I’ve seen, it does not resort to artificial means. On the right-hand side of the Blue Nebula are three knobs labeled Gain, Pre and Master, respectively. Gain and Pre control the JFET preamp stages. You can crank up the first stage and push the second stage JFETs into overdrive, just like a tube driven tape delay. It is not designed to replace a Tube Screamer, but it will complete the puzzle, so to speak, and allow the tape delay to avoid the sterile sound of some delay units. The Master control is there to allow you to match the volume of the Blue Nebula to the volume with the volume in bypass mode.
Now that I’ve had the Blue Nebula for a few weeks, I’ve learned to create some very useful patches. I’ve also adapted some of the Hank Marvin patches to our song list and discovered some new approaches to effects use in the process. During yesterday’s band practice, I used the Blue Nebula exclusively and was completely satisfied with the results. We covered some Surf classics, some Chuck Berry, Del Shannon’s version of Runaway a version of Ruby Baby that combines Dion’s and Donald Fagan’s approach to the song. The Blue Nebula gave me an appropriate and unique sound for everything on our setlist. The best part is that these patches can be named for each song and used as an on-stage setlist. By switching between effects at the click of a foot-switch I was able to go from one song to the next without delay. I estimate that we will be able to add one additional song per one-hour set, by virtue of this saved time.
One thing that needs to be pointed out is that the Blue Nebula is very transparent. I have played any number of multiple effects platforms that had an audible noise floor. This one is crystal clear. There is no coloration of the signal whatsoever and the various delays are true to the input signal.
Digital pedals, such as this, are essentially packaged DSPs. The manufacturer is selling not only the hardware, but also the programming of the DSP. The Spin FV-1 DSP in the Blue Nebula is the same DSP as a CatalinBread Topanga, but the programming is much different. The package of this pedal works very well, with an easily readable display, controls to allow manual input of patches and even a manual mode where you can select any of the 16 effects loaded on the unit and try different parameters in real time. There is also a MIDI port, allowing the Blue Nebula to be externally controlled.
While the Blue Nebula came into existence as a way to copy Hank Marvin’s delay effects on classic Shadows songs. In themselves, these effects are enough to justify buying a Blue Nebula. They sound great on Surf tunes as well as Blues, and Classic Rock. Other available effects, as mentioned above, make the Blue Nebula a very versatile effects platform which is useful in many genres. It’s the centerpiece of my pedalboard.
—The artist formerly known as: Synchro
When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.