Electro-Harmonix Attack Decay Tape Reverse Simulator Pedal Reviews

Awesome pedal. Very reasonably priced. Run it with some other pedals for even more usable effects. Jason Duncan is great to deal with. He keeps you up to date on your order as it moves through the system. He's also very personable.

Definitely what I was looking for …thanx Drew

I received this pedal for Christmas and instantly fell in love with it. I thought it would be kinda complicated to dial in some good tones at first (I'm not the best with pedals such as this.) I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. After flipping through the manual I got a good understanding of how the pedal worked. I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan an love ambient type sounds in general. I paired this with the Keeley Dark Side using just the delay and got sounds that were so beautiful and organic sounding if that makes any sense. All in all a phenomenal pedal that can unleash a tidal wave of inspiration.

The Attack Decay is a truly amazing pedal, which is nicely customizable.

I bought this just to do classic volume swells for some looping pieces, since its triggering is so clean and my feet were too busy with the looper to use a volume pedal. But this thing does so much more than that. The decay control is amazing, letting you dial in everything from real "reverse attacks" to "auto palm mutes" to crazy synth sounds. The internal fuzz ranges from splattered madness to a muff-like smoothness - with a bit of swell on the attack you get a real e-bow sound and serious sustain. The polyphonic tracking works amazingly well, and even when it gets a little bubbly and glitchy, it does so in a very musical way: no ugly digital artifacts at all. And the ability to drop other pedals onto the effects loop is a game changer: you can swell in reverb or modulation or other dirt pedals on top of your input. And it works on bass and percussion as well, for some mind-blowing sounds.
This is not a plug-n-go sort of pedal; it does take some playing around to dial in the sounds. But it can store a few presets, which makes it a lot more practical for gigging. Probably the most fun I've had with a pedal in years!

there is not a pedal on the planet like this, great. makes everything different, the real game changer.

After working with this pedal for a month I'd like to share some tips to get even better results from the
Attack/Decay. In Poly mode setting the sensitivity knob is quite important. With the sensitivity not too high it produces a bubbling and sometimes glitchy artifact. I added an inexpensive Behringer CS 400 compressor first in line before the attack decay pedal and it improved all aspects of the effect. I was able to bring the sensitivity knob down and still get a very good signal to pass through the pedal. If you were at all interested in the kinds of sounds this pedal makes I recommend you get one and enjoy it for yourself.

The pedal works great. I am not using it as most people would. I am using it to provide a slightly delayed boost followed by a really short decay. This is to emulate the ADSR of an upright bass when playing bass guitar. When recorded and put under a swing drummer and with an acoustic piano it is really effective.

I've had the electro harmonix pog2 as well as the electro harmonix super ego and both of them had controls for adjusting the attack of a note.
This electro harmonix attack decay pedal takes it even further and does what I especially wanted which is to allow me to play polyphonic contrapuntal music with something of a bowed sound.
It's inspiring to use with a completely wet signal and no dry guitar and very usable with dry guitar mixed in where after the attack there is a little swell in volume which is a nice effect. There are some small artifacts in the sustain with this pedal but it's fine. I didn't go in for exploring many of the other sounds as this is doing just what I wanted with the polyphonic kind of cello sound. It certainly does reverse tape effects quite well. I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in exploring and having some fun while playing. You can hear some examples on my YouTube page "Basics For Baroque Improvisation" if you'd like to check it out.

My new favorite & clean signal path, no excess noise whatsoever. The fact that you can store 3 presets an an analog stomp is just awesome in itself. Might end up buying a 2nd for 6 presets because it is so flexible in sound.

I'm really sorry, but this is going to be a stupidly long review. This is a wonderful device. If you play any amplified instrument, buy one. It performs so many unique, useable functions. It's easily my favorite digital pedal. but...

Wow is this thing complicated. There really aren't that many demos online for this. This is something that I had to block out time and sit down with the manual to really get what it does. No, it's not that hard to get the the backwards sound and turn the fuzz on and off. But, this has so many features beyond that - to the degree that it's easy to unintentionally make it do something else when you're just trying to fine tune the swell in & swell out/gate functions. Although I favor gear with limited functionality (e.g. Big Muff, Small Stone, Blues Driver), I have had & used gear that requires much tweaking (Boss RV-3 - and I'm old enough to have used the DigiTech RP100 when it was new). There's a triggered tremolo setting that is pretty great. There's a built-in digital fuzz (very synth-ish - a lot like the BMP settings on an old does everything multi-effects unit like say, the Zoom 505). Besides the "slow gear & gate", part of the main functionality involves a digital compressor. You can disable that. There's an effects loop. You can change where that and/or the fuzz is in the signal chain. Again, there a two main modes (mono and poly) that are almost two completely different pedals. This is an insanely versatile box for the $, but there's a reason these aren't exactly flying off the shelves & why there are very few demos for it. I have burned a lot of time trying to figure out how to use this that could have been used making music or practicing. I don't regret it. But we're talking multiple 90-minute sit-downs on my days off. Buy one of these anyway. They're killer.

Often effects that have a great deal of flexibility and capability are not intuitively straightforward to learn how to use. Not so with the Electro Harmonix Attack Decay. Right out of the box, it was pretty simple to use this pedal. Additionally, the instruction manual is logical and well organized. There are many, many cool sounds to be had with this pedal. Sweetwater delivered it quickly and safety.

I am having way too much fun with this pedal. It sounds killer.

I have been trying various combinations of compressors, distortions, and fuzz pedals to achieve a "bowed instrument" type of sound, and this pedal nails it. Very tweakable and cool tones, and a great sounding fuzz as well that can be used on its own- my only gripe is that I wish it was immediately accessible without touching the other controls (you have to defeat the attack and decay controls), but it's not that difficult to do. The presets are simple to set up, and make quick changes easy. This pedal is set-up in more of an old school fashion, which I love, without menu banks and such to have to scroll through. This is not a pedal most will have on very often, as it is great for certain sounds but not a "constant on" type of pedal that you can't live without. I haven't explored the tremolo capabilities but I know the pedal is capable of that as well as simulated banjo-type tones. Love the soft touch switch es as well, no noisy clicks. Cool pedal at a great price for the right applications.

This is an extremely versatile pedal.

First let me start off by saying the built in fuzz effect is amazing. I almost feel as though I got two effects in one - a great Big Muff fuzz pedal (with tone control!) and the Reverse Tape simulation.

I bought this pedal because a lot of jazz guitarists use an effect like this that makes their guitar sound much more synth like. Not only can you get that nice delayed attack sort of tone that makes your guitar sound more like a horn instrument or a synth, but this pedal offers even more features. With the poly mode, you can get some really drippy psychedelic effects that sound great when paired with reverb and delay pedals. Additionally, you can really alter the sound of your guitar to make it sound bowed, plucked pizzicato, the works. The fuzz can be active while this is happening, or be shut off. With the fuzz on, you can definitely replicate the bowed stuff on early Led Zeppelin albums. With it off, you can get some cool mellow stuff like I hear in many jazz fusion albums.

The best part? You can also make presets! That way once you find a tone you like, you can save it and recall it on the pedal without having to rework the knobs again.

All in all, this is one of my favorite effects pedals I have ever bought. If you are building a pedal board, because it's dual purpose of being a fuzz and an amplitude envelope, along with the Poly feature that creates some really neat effects, it's a great, great addition.

Have only been able to play around with this pedal for a couple of days, but I already know that I love it. It can have a very subtle and pleasant affect, or be a wild beast, depending on how you dial it in, which is what I find with a lot of EHX pedals. For me, this is great since I am mostly recording rather than playing weekly/monthly live gigs - the recordings I work on range across genres and styles, from blues to noise - pushing envelopes often, so I see this pedals as expanding my sonic possibilities greatly. Thank you Chris Barry for all you always do for me!!!

Awesome pedal. It will take me a while to get everything dialed in but that's the fun part. This review is also for my Sweetwater rep Joe Schafer, he's always on point making sure that I am satisfied with my purchases. It's been a great experience buying gear from Sweetwater and working with Joe.

I've meant to write this review for the last several weeks. I jumped on this as soon as it was announced it was going into production as I'm old enough to remember the first from the 80's. Although there is a learning curve and I'm still figuring it out to get all the nuances it's capable of with the poly and onboard Fuzz (which can get downright nasty) this pedal is more capable than the original, produces a clearer signal and replicates the tones of the first attack/decay flawlessly. It works well with both valve and ss amps and the effects loop option and ability to add an expression into the mix this pedal can do way more to color your tone than you would expect. Well worth the investment and real-estate space on your board and can readily take the place of a dedicated Fuzz/overdrive.

I picked this up as soon as it was possible remembering the beast from the 80's. Although it isn't a simple take it out of the box and go (there is a learning curve to get it set the way you want) it has more ability than the original and is well worth the $. I figure I'll still be figuring out all of it months from now but won't be tired of it any time soon.

Received recently, got to admit I haven't been able to duplicate some of the effects touted by E-H yet, but I'm sure I will soon.

You had no idea you could use this as a stand alone
Fuzz and comp, vibrato, volume swell, reverse type
Effect. Its a fairly involved pedal, so if you like simplicity(which is more offend than not
my style)this is probably not for you but i decided to get this for the reverse simulation and something kind of just cool to mess with because most the pedal i have a simple 1-2 knob 1 function pedals. For all the things this can do it is a bargain. Kind if cool also that this is a re-issue of and old rarer pedal.

I've had this for a few weeks now, and I still haven't gotten to all the hidden features or been able to achieve all the different sounds in the video yet (i.e. the tremolo, etc). but just the swells make this worth the price. one weird thing is the Fuzz. I have to turn the knob to ZERO because of HOW LOUD IT IS; it reminds me of the Fuzz on the Holy Stain pedal. how/why does someone need that kind of response out of a fuzz? also: RTFM. this is a deceptively complicated pedal, and some things are tough to figure out because the manual is sometimes hard to follow.

I ordered one of these as soon as I saw it advertised. Although my Sweetwater rep was under the weather, he got one off to me asap. It arrived a full two days sooner than I expected to get it. I took it out of the box and played with it, ignoring the guide book, and immediately got a bunch of interesting sounds. I also got a couple of odd sounds; one like bubbles coming to the surface of water.
Hang on to that manual. Access to some of the features are a bit tricky to achieve. It requires holding one button down for a time and then hitting another button. Even more is involved to set up an expression pedal. It may be a bit of work, but you can set the pedal to a variety of knobs.
not only can one make that reverse sound, but can set the attack and decay to have a banjo like sound, create a tremolo of short, choppy repeated notes. There's a very heavy fuzz distortion and 3 presets.
The volume varies noticeably. and the difficulty of setup is the .5 I took off.

Great pedal mixed with other pedals!Thanks for fast delivery,may want more.

I've had the pedal for a week or so, but really haven't had time to explore much of it. I can say that right out of the box I got some interesting sounds without reading much of the manual. I think it will be fun when I find a place to use it in one my home recordings.

While this is an obviously high quality piece of gear, I am finding it very difficult to master. I bought it primarily for its "tape reverse" effect, I've been working with it for a few weeks now, and have yet managed to make it create this effect. Even after watching numerous YouTube tutorials, I still can't get it to do the thing I bought it for. Don't get me wrong, it can do some interesting things, but it is NOT easy to operate. It came loaded with 3 presets, and none of the 3 are the tape reverse effect. I think it's a bit mislabeled, and I'm now wishing I'd bought something else, such as the Danelectro Back Talk pedal, but if I finally succeed in figuring it out, I'll probably be quite pleased with my purchase, as it does do a few other cool effects.

I dont know if the pedal i got was defective but find the need to hold the bypass switch down and press the footswitch to activate/deactivate the fuzz to be a no-go for live application. 2 stars for the tremolo