A classic, fat slapback delay tone is a sound no guitarist should be without. It's a sound as old as rock-n-roll, that instantly takes the listener back to the time when the electric guitar was still in its infancy, and guitar-based music was just beginning to rule the airwaves, capturing the ears and imaginations of the Western world. It's impossible to say definitively who invented slapback, but Sam Phillips of Sun Records is often credited with pioneering its use on the rock n’ roll records he produced in the 1950s, from Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and others. The effect was originally a fairly complex studio creation involving a pair of tape machines, and on the recordings of the time it was often liberally applied to everything from vocals and guitars, to drums. As a guitar effect, it is very closely associated with Elvis's guitar player, Scotty Moore, for whom it became an essential element of his signature sound.
Today, guitarists no longer require dual tape recorders to achieve a thick, lively, old-school slapback delay sound. There are plenty of stompboxes that will do the job just as well, require a lot less expense and maintenance, and are way easier to carry around at gigs. The actual delay time—in milliseconds—required for a proper slapback tone differs depending on who is asked, but most guitarists and recording engineers think of true slapback as existing roughly in the 60-to-250 millisecond range, with the feedback control set very low, or all the way down to zero. Obviously, just about any delay pedal can fulfill these basic requirements, but for a really superb slapback tone, a certain analog warmth, grit, and thickness is an essential quality. This does not mean that the pedal in question necessarily has to be analog, just that it must be able to convincingly emulate these analog characteristics. Here are a handful of my current favorite old-school slapback machines, both analog and digital, in no particular order.
Strymon Deco
One of the most compelling tape effect emulators I've heard in a long time, or maybe ever, is Strymon's Deco. More than just a slapback machine, hooking this handsome little aluminum box up to your rig is like mounting a pair of miniaturized Ampex quarter-inch decks on your pedalboard. It will conjure up just about any tape-generated sound that may have been found at Sun Studios during Elvis's tenure, as well as a bunch of other sounds that definitely weren't. It reproduces all manner of double-tracking effects, tape flange and chorus, tape echoes, and even the sweet, musical grime and compression of heavily saturated oxide, all in glorious stereo. Strymon gives the user all sorts of control parameters to twist, warp, and otherwise dirty up these sounds, making the Deco a true sonic playground for the tape-obsessed guitarist. Getting back to the slapback, though; the Strymon Deco may be the most lovely, euphonic, and musically responsive stereo slapback available in a stompbox. Buy one and you will never regret it.
DOD FX90 or FX96
At the opposite end of the price and reputation spectrum from the Strymon Deco are the lowly, yet workmanlike, DOD FX90 and FX96, two fine analog delays long out of production, yet still widely available second (or third)-hand. These two echo boxes are closely related, and both based around the top-shelf Panasonic MN3005 BBD chip, with the later-model FX96 having a longer delay time and a low-pass filter control (labeled "tape quality") for giving the repeats a dark, deteriorated tape echo tone. As a bonus, an earlier version of the FX96 even has a cool reel-to-reel tape graphic on the face. Either of these two pedals can make an ideal old-school slapback machine, especially for the player that uses slapback often and wants an analog pedal dedicated to the sound. The best part is that the DOD FX90 and FX96 are both extremely common and very inexpensive. One should be able to acquire either one for well under a hundred bucks with a little shrewd bargaining or eBay auction sniping.
Maxon AD999
Guitarists for whom nothing but the best will do—at least when it comes to real-deal bucket-brigade delay tones—should look no further than Maxon's AD999. With a sonic lineage dating back to the classic Ibanez AD9, the AD999 takes this concept to its logical end, with an octet of custom BBDs generating 900 milliseconds of dynamic, beautiful stereo echoes. Of course, if you just want a little vintage slapback, 900 milliseconds will be much more than necessary to get the job done, but the available delay time isn't really the most important feature of this pedal. Its crowning glory is its sound. The Maxon AD999 is just one of the loveliest sounding analog delay pedals ever designed, and its slapback tones, especially in stereo through a pair of cranked tube combos, is one of the best sounds your ears will ever hear. Its organic, slightly dirty repeats are both clear and present, and yet blend perfectly with your sound as they fade away, adding dimension and liveliness without overwhelming. The AD999 ain't cheap, but after you plug it in for the first time you'll forget all about what you paid for it.
Catalinbread Belle Epoch
The EP-3 model Maestro Echoplex is the most celebrated and lusted-after tape echo of all time, with the warmth and dynamics of its tones being one of its most widely heralded features. Few pedals can even begin to approach the EP-3 for slapback, yet Catalinbread's Belle Epoch not only approaches it, but nails its tone and response completely. A lot of digital delay pedals roll off a little high-end or grunge up the repeats and call it "tape echo," but Catalinbread truly went to epic lengths to replicate every characteristic of the EP-3, from its legendarily mellifluous preamplifier to the random characteristics of its modulation. You just aren't going to get closer to real Echoplex slap than the Belle Epoch, and like the Echoplex, it brings a lot more than a touch of tasty, vintage echo to the table; the Epoch is an instrument in itself that will add dimension and inspiration to your playing.
Roland RE-301 Space Echo
Okay, this isn't a pedal exactly, but if you are a true slapback fiend, then there's really nothing else that's going to satiate your lustful urges like a Roland RE-301 Space Echo. As a testament to the authenticity of its tones, the RE-301 is the machine that Brian Setzer, the modern era's reigning king of slapback, uses to generate his superbly fat and lustrous echo tones. Roland's RE-301 is kind of like the Echoplex in sound quality and function, but a lot more reliable for a touring musician that actually needs it to work dependably every night. The quality of its slapback is inviolable, and much like the Echoplex, its preamplifier adds a sparkle and sheen to the guitar's tone that is as much a part of the machine's unique sound as the tape. A good Roland RE-301 will likely set you back over 1000 dollars, but if slap echo's really your thing, you can't do better than this.
Slapback echo is an essential tone that every electric guitarist should explore and master. It's a crucial part of the distinctive ambience of early rock n’ roll and electrified country, and it can still be heard in every genre of guitar music, from hardcore to modern pop. Slapback is such a simple sound that nearly any delay pedal can ably achieve it, and the additional width, depth, and bounce it provides to an otherwise basic guitar tone can be a springboard to endlessly inspiring riffage.