Clockwork Echo

J Rockett reimagines the Deluxe Memory Man concept

- Trevor Curwen

The Deluxe Memory Man is a revered analogue delay pedal. First seen in the late 1970s and famously used by The Edge to craft the early U2 sound, various revised versions of it are still available from original manufacturer Electro-Harmonix. Like many of the classics, though, that doesn’t mean that others can’t have a crack at creating an expanded or improved version, and J Rockett is the latest to take this on, with the advantage that it has original designer Howard Davis on its team. Four years in the making, the Clockwork Echo is now with us.

Now, while there’s a general consensus that an original vintage Deluxe Memory Man sounds great, it does have certain operational aspects that might be considered shortcomings: it’s a fairly big box for a start, it needs a 24-volt power supply, has no tap tempo, has wet and dry outputs rather than true stereo, and has rudimentary control over its modulation functions. J Rockett has addressed all of that and created a pedal that uses classic analogue bucket-brigade (BBD) chips for authentic sound while incorporating a degree of digital control.

The Clockwork Echo has a very practical footprint, managing to fit its three footswitches into 133mm (slightly over five inches) of width. Besides the bypass footswitch, you get one for turning the modulation on and off and another for tap tempo. The pedal runs from a standard nine-volt supply so will work fine with all the usual pedalboard power distributors, but it has internal voltage conversion to 24 volts, maintaining the sonic integrity.