The MXR Joshua Ambient Echo bears that name for a particular reason: it aims to offer, in a compact case, the legendary sound of U2’s The Edge as heard in The Joshua Tree, a 1987 album that featured a signature guitar sound drenched in a rhythmic yet ambient delay.
Extremely customizable, the Joshua is a dual delay that offers mono and stereo functionality (via a TRS 1/4″ jack), blendable Up/Down Octaves, Tap Tempo, 4 Subdivisions, Modulation on the repeats, Freeze mode, and an easily accessible Trail On/Off switch.
The Regen knob controls the delay’s feedback, Delay the time, and Voice the amount of up/down octaves (-1, +1 and +2). Mix blends dry and wet signal, while the Mod knob introduces the modulation, affecting both rate and depth (they both increase clockwise, although the correlation between the two can be adjusted via in-depth editing accessible by holding down the footswitch – see manual).
While the first delay can be tweaked extensively through all the controls on the pedal, the second delay is a fixed quarter note one that can be turned on by pushing the Echo 2 button and maintains the same voicing as echo 1.
One notable feature is the 5th Subdivision setting, which creates a very “Edgesque” double delay with both quarter and quarter dotted delays.
Quite impressively almost all the controls of the Joshua can be customized via in-depth editing, with way too many functions for us to list. You can find most of these details in this video manual.
See what the YouTubers think about this pedal in the videos below.
