MXR Carbon Copy Delay Review

Here's my take on the MXR carbon copy analog delay stompbox. I picked this up on sale at Musician's Friend for $129.00 If you read all the reviews on the net for this, you'll see that it's not a very reliable unit and somewhat of a risky long term purchase. However the same reviews will tell that this unit sounds like a true analog delay (because it is!). The delays follow the original sound with no sharp leading edge and blend in so smoothly that you'll swear there's an Echoplex tape machine or the original Ibanez analog delay with bucket brigade devices lurking inside. It's that good with both steel guitar and lead guitar. I did notice that it rolls off the highs a bit when inline and turned on but I was able to adjust my amp controls to still get a great tone out of it. I didn't verify it's performance with the effect switched off as I tend to leave it switched on and in line all the time and just vary the effect level and delay to suit whatever I'm playing. Even true hardwire bypass effects stomp boxes (of which this is) still suffer losses from the added cables needed to wire them in. The big blue LED on this thing which illuminates when the effect is engaged, is bright enough to split atoms and way too bright for any stage venue. This unit does feature an all analog signal path and bucket brigade technology.

Link To Carbon Copy At Musician's Friend

Song Recorded with pedal steel and the thinline tele (You Wouldn't Know Love)

A few last minute comments

Overall this unit really fattens up the steel tone and does for standard guitar what an echoplex would in my application as far as straight slapback echo. The echo is low fidelity but just produces the perfect overall echo effect to my ears when added to the original sound. Not too visible in the pics is the extreme sparkle in the finish. I recorded an old Ray Price tune using the Carbon Copy for both guitar and steel along with a small touch of Boss RV-5 reverb (see link above). Below are solo sound samples of both steel and guitar so you can hear more clearly what the effect is doing. A few other obverstations are that the Carbon Copy does not come with a battery and you have to remove all 4 philips screws in the bottom cover to gain access to the battery compartment. There is Modulation button on the top on the unit that adds a bit of chorus to the delay. At the stock under the bottom cover settings the MOD effect is barely perceptible. In the first steel sound sample you'll hear the MOD off for the first set of notes and on for the second set. Under the bottom cover there are width and Rate adjustments for the Modulation effect. Unlike most stomp boxes, this one has the power cord on the side which can interfere with the routing of the audio cables. ANother thing wirth noting is that the maximun delay is way shorter than most digital delay units and note to useful for doubling effects.

I also recorded Cryin' My Heart Out Over You on my Tab 20 page with the Carbon Copy. On the recorded songs (versus the sound bites above) I've got just a hint of echo which adds to the sustain without producing an in your face discrete echo sound. There's also some technique involved in not hitting too many sharply damped notes on slow songs which allow the echo too stand out too much.