SPACE & TIME

Last time around, we dug into Samuel Clemens’ – aka Mark Twain’s – love of guitars, before continuing our journey through the early days of the effected instrument, casting an eye towards the very first guitar effect: tremolo. This time, we’re going to explore the other two pillars of those early experiments in guitar effects, both of which remain hugely important to us today. That’s right: delay and reverb.

I first experienced the effect of delay the way a lot of us did, as a simple echo. I vividly remember yelling across an empty parking lot and hearing my voice bounce off a brick wall and fly back at me. I was 10 years old and found this infinitely more entertaining than any game on my Atari. Learning that my voice could bounce off the wall like a kickball and that, somehow, a parking lot and a brick wall could duplicate sound? It