J. Rockett Audio Unveils the Retro-Style Clockwork Echo

July 13, 2021 · 5 sources

J. Rockett Audio Designs announced the Clockwork Echo, a retro-style delay pedal that reworks a classic bucket brigade design, with a release date of July 15, 2021¹. The Nashville, Tennessee company said it developed the pedal in conjunction with Howard Davis, the designer of the original Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, approaching him "with a modified concept of a classic" bucket brigade analog delay¹.

The pedal uses analog bucket brigade chips for its delay path, digitally controlled for tap tempo only, and the maker describes the result as "the classic analog tone you have been searching for"¹². Its modulation section is footswitchable, with speed and depth controls, and experimenting with those controls is said to produce chorus, rotating speaker and flange sounds². The maker's own description of its range: "This is as musical as an echo can get, go from lush long delays to amazing room like slap back echoes"².

Key features announced at launch:

• Tap tempo¹
• True stereo output, with one side out of phase¹
• Two expression pedal control inputs for delay time and repeats¹
• Footswitchable modulation with speed and depth²
• An "Always On" boost, usable whether the delay is engaged or not²
• True bypass¹

The Clockwork Echo runs on 9V DC, center negative, drawing 100mA, so it needs a power supply rather than a battery². Reviews that followed the launch noted the pedal took four years of development and is made in the USA³⁴. Guitar.com listed the UK price at £399 and described the Clockwork Echo as the first pedal in J. Rockett's new Vintage Series, modeled on the Deluxe Memory Man, in a relatively small but weighty enclosure with cog-themed artwork across the control surface⁵.

Guitar World's reviewer, Trevor Curwen, found the pedal "the real deal" for players who want genuine BBD analog sound rather than a digital approximation of it⁴. MusicRadar's review team reached a similar conclusion, writing that the Clockwork Echo "does a neat job in presenting the analogue magic of classic bucket brigade delay and modulation in a more functional format," with longer delay times extending what the original Memory Man could do³.