Customer Reviews

Vox Joe Satriani Time Machine Delay Pedal

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Vox's partnership with Joe seems to be really paying off. The Saturator was great, and this little green box doesn't disappoint. I won't bother with the facts - you've probably heard them a thousand times. What I will say is that this delay has become a staple of my sound. I previously had a Boss DD-7 (with optional tap tempo footswich) and sold it to get this. The Boss had some nice features that the Time Machine doesn't - 40 seconds of looping and that weird backwards tape effect, but the truth is I never once used those live. With the DD-7, I'd just throw it on "Analog" and tap the tempo, which made it very limited to me. It somehow seemed like a DOS prompt - everything was hidden behind a few layers of code that I had to remember in order to call it up. And when I did use it, it was mechanical like a robot - not musical and warm like Madeline Peyroux. Oh, and the DD-7 would leave tempo artifacts in my signal even when it was bypassed. Not cool.

The Time Machine, on the other hand, offers a variety of options at-the-ready. For any song, I can choose modern or vintage via footswitch, as well as Hi-Fi or Lo-Fi via the toggle. The settings really do sound different and give you the ability to shape your sound to create what you're looking for. I still tend to tap the tempo, but the Time Machine's D.Range knob is much easier to use and see on stage than the DD-7's Mode knob. When tapping the tempo, the D.Range button thinks of your tapping as a quarter note and sets the repeats as follows:

1000 ms - Quarter Note (repeats exactly on your tapped tempo)
500 ms - Quarter Note Triplets
250 ms - Eight Note
125 ms - Eigth Note Triplets

Once you've set the tempo, you can switch between different D.Range settings and it will maintain your tempo. This becomes intuitive very quickly. When I play with delay now, I can intentionally put my delayed notes exactly where I want them, rather than just have them strewn out behind me like a trail of discarded beer cans.

I was initially turned off by the TM not being "True Bypass", but whatever Vox did in there, they did it right. I can't hear any degridation in tone or signal with the Time Machine (or Satchurator, BTW). By contract, Boss Pedals are known to suck tone, which I definitely experienced with the DD-7.

The only negative is that the Time Machine doesn't have tails / trails, where the delayed notes continue to trail off even after you've hit the "off" button. Minor oversight, Vox & Joe, no cookie for you. (Full disclosure - the DD-7 does have tails / trails)

Bottom line - the Vox / Joe Satriani Time Machine is the best delay pedal for my money. Not cheap, but definitly worth it.

For the record, I play a Strat into an MXR Super Comp -> Sparkle Drive -> Satchurator -> Ernie Ball Volume Jr -> Time Machine -> Fender Amp.