Updated on 01.26.2021 – For a more comprehensive article about delays organized by type, see our Best Delay Pedals article.
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Article updated on September 29, 2023
A Buyer’s Guide to the Best Mini Delay Pedals
So the budget is tight, the space on your board is little, and you desperately need a delay pedal.
Here’s an interactive page that sums up all the options you have; to navigate it, follow these guidelines:
– Hover on the images for indicative street prices and notes;
– Clicking on the images will open the pedal’s YouTube video.
MOST POPULAR MINI DELAY AND ECHO STOMPBOXES
The regular-sized MXR Carbon Copy has long been one of the most popular analog delay pedals since the early aughts. The Carbon Copy Mini, released in 2019, delivers all the BBD delay and modulation goodness of its sibling, plus a Bright switch on the side for a slightly more present tone and internal trim pots to further tweak Depth and Rate.
Electro-Harmonix recently released three mini delay pedals, all doing slightly different things. The Pico Canyon Echo is a clean digital delaywith up to 3s repeats, lo- and hi-pass filter in one knob, tap tempo with 3 subdivisions, and Trail option.
The Pico Rerun is very similar in functionality but offers a tape-style echo tone with warm repeats up to 3s which can be coloerd by saturation via the Sat knob, while the Flutter switch adds 3 modulation settings (low, medium and heavy).
The Slap-Back Echo is a reissue of a vintage circuit that’s laser-focused on delivering shorter delays. This pedal won’t work for guitarists looking for longer repeats, but it’s unmatchable on its home turf, which is slap-back delays that can be set at 45ms, 65ms, or 100ms. It also features a boost that pushes up to 20dbs of clean gain.
The TC Electronic Flashback Mini 2 is a simple digital delay with a powerful, under-the-hood potential, thanks to the proprietary TonePrint technology, which allows you to choose from several delay types like tape, analog, the classic 2290 sound, and dynamic delay.
The Ibanez Delay MINI is a miniature emulation of the classic Ibanez AD9 analog delay pedal – if you are looking for a great-sounding, no-frills option, you can’t go wrong with it. The Mooer D7 is a classic take on the multi-mode digital delay with extra creative modes (7 in total), but its mini enclosure and wide variety of sounds make it very appealing.
Super-competitively priced at around $50, the Flamma FC17 is a mini analog delay offering classic analog repeats ranging from 25ms to 600ms, adjustable through three knobs (Time, Echo and Feedback) and also Tap Tempo functionality, in a true bypass circuit.
Lovers of the classic analog EHX pedals may want to check out the Xvive Echoman, more than a mere clone: it was designed by Howard Davis, the original creator of the Memory Man Deluxe.
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OTHER MINI DELAYS WITH ONLY ONE VOICE
The classic analog delay stompbox has three or four knobs (normally time, repeats, wet/dry mix, and sometimes tone) and no extra features like toggle switches or other buttons. Here are the pedals that adhere to that original concept.
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MINI EFFECTS WITH 2-3 DELAY & ECHO TYPE OPTION
If you are looking for flexibility at the tip of your fingers, this section is for you: all the pedals in this category allow you to choose different two or three delay or echo types (or add tape-like modulation) through a switch button or toggle.
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MULTI-MODE MINI DELAY PEDALS
For those in need of a small delay pedal that can do more than one thing, the selection is limited but destined to grow. These are pedals that provide the player with four or more different modes, ranging from analog simulation to modulated, reversed, Lofi, and tape-style delays.
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MINI DELAY & ECHO EFFECTS BETWEEN $60 AND $99
Here’s a list of middle-of-the-road (in terms of price) mini pedals, organized according to their “Thumbs Up” YouTube Score. Some of these have no YouTube reviews (or, at least, we couldn’t find them).
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MINI DELAY & ECHO PEDALS UNDER $60
And this is the list for the players with budget-related issues! Some of these have no YouTube reviews.
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UNUSUAL MINI DELAY AND ECHO STOMPBOXES
For those who like to try new things, here are a few more options that don’t really have much in common with each other, but stand out for an “out of the box” approach: from the uber-creative (and digital) Rainger FX Echo-X to the F-Pedal Analog Echo Bandit and its Binson Style Tape Emulator. We put in this category also the squarely shaped Mooer Spark and the Henretta Engineering Red Brick (no knobs, but internal trimmers for time, repeats, level, and tone).
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