The Benson Delay is a delay pedal from Portland, Oregon's Benson Amplification, a builder known for its boutique amps and Germanium pedals. It is built around the PT2399 echo chip but voiced to behave like a tape echo, with a modulation circuit simulating tape wow and flutter, tap tempo, and a feedback boost that pushes it into self-oscillation12. It was announced in October 2023 at $279 and is made in the USA34.
Benson describes the pedal as "creating floaty and colorful repeats with a chaotic yet musical degradation," drawing on the company's history servicing tape and bucket brigade echoes1.
A PT2399 delay voiced like a tape echo
The heart of the pedal is the PT2399, a digital chip designed to produce echoes in the range of 40ms to 340ms in its basic form5. Guitar.com described it as "a digital processor known for its ability to emulate bucket brigade delay-based circuits with its analogue character, but also able to be pushed into jittery, digital sounds"6. Anasounds' technical analysis notes that the PT2399's main advantage over the BBD is that it "provides bright and better defined repeats," with a simpler delay circuit allowing greater flexibility in analog processing7.
Benson's approach is to wrap that chip in analog parts. The company says it "utilized a combination of gooey compander chip, analog filtering, and careful gain staging"1. Delicious Audio characterized the result as a digital chip with "the analog and musical feel, thanks to the rest of" the circuitry, which allowed longer delay times up to 1200 ms2.
The modulation side is a pair of controls, LFO Speed and LFO Depth, designed to simulate the wow and flutter of a tape echo machine2. The Low Frequency Oscillator has what Benson calls "a tremendous range of both speed and depth, as well as sine, square and random waveforms"1.
Guitar Pedal X named it in its year-end roundup as "an excellent analog voiced PT2399 delay with LFO flutter and tap-tempo"8.
Controls and how it works
The pedal carries knobs for mix, feedback, depth, rate and the LFO, a layout shared with the prototype pair Benson teased in June 20226. Two footswitches handle the rest: one for bypass, and a second providing both tap tempo and a momentary effect that takes the pedal into self-oscillation2.
| Control or switch | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mix, Feedback, Depth, Rate, LFO knobs | Core delay and modulation settings6 |
| TAP/HOLD switch | Toggles through quarter, dotted eighth and eighth note tap divisions; LED blinks 1, 2 or 3 times respectively1 |
| BYPASS switch | Toggles between sine, square and random LFO waveforms; blinks 1, 2 or 3 times respectively1 |
| Hold the tap knob | Boosts feedback for self-oscillation, adjustable via internal trim pot1 |
| Menu access | Hold BYPASS for two seconds, then tap TAP/HOLD once1 |
On That Pedal Show, Chris Benson walked through the waveform menu: "the one blip there is sine wave two is square wave right and then three is random"9.
Power is a 9V DC center negative supply with a 100mA current draw1. At 100mA this is hungrier than most analog delays, so plan a proper isolated output rather than a small daisy chain.
From tape echo repair to the PT2399
The design goes back further than its 2023 release. Company owner and designer Chris Benson has been refining it since 2019, when he was inspired by an old tape echo machine in disrepair that he bought28. On That Pedal Show he said the work started even earlier: "I started working on that in 2008," referring to years of servicing tape echoes including Echoplexes9.
Chris Benson started working on the delay in 2008, when he was servicing tape echoes including Echoplexes, and the design drew on Benson Amps' history in tape and bucket brigade echo servicing91. The inspiration for the pedal itself came from an old tape echo machine in disrepair that Benson bought in 20192. The circuit ended up built around the PT2399, which Benson Amps describes as finding "our paradise in the form of the ubiquitous PT2399"21. The PT2399 version arrived as the Benson Delay in October 202338.
The tap tempo is what Benson calls "the most accurate tap tempo ever applied to the PT2399 thanks to Bontempo, an open source technology" concocted by Antoine Ricoux at Electric Canary and refined and implemented by Octave Zangs1.
Guitar World quoted Benson on the design goal: "We wanted to avoid the more modern issues of delay design, like the digital jaggedness that can come" from adjusting the time control on a digitally clocked device3.
What reviewers said
On That Pedal Show, Mick's verdict on the sound was blunt: "man that is a really killer sounding delay." He also heard a modulated character beyond plain echo, comparing it to "a Kacey Musgraves record or something of that ilk," and noting that heavy modulation on short delay times pushed it into chorus and flanger territory9.
MusicRadar's Rob Laing reported it in a year he called "a vintage year for analogue delay sounds," adding that "at $279 / £289 it sits in a pretty sweet spot for true delay made in the USA"4. Delicious Audio added it to its article on the best tape-style echos2.
"man that is a really killer sounding delay"
In the demo, Chris Benson explains the pedal's history back to his tape echo servicing work, the shortest delay of about 30 milliseconds, the waveform and tap division menus, and the self-oscillation hold function, while Mick and Dan react to the modulated, tape-like repeats9.
Who uses it
Chris Benson himself plays it: on That Pedal Show he said it is "one of two pedals I use live when I play out"9.
Questions
Is the Benson Delay analog or digital?
It is built around the PT2399, a digital echo chip, but Benson surrounds it with analog circuitry: a compander chip, analog filtering and careful gain staging. Delicious Audio described the result as a digital chip with an analog and musical feel from the rest of the circuitry.
What is the maximum delay time on the Benson Delay?
Benson's product page lists a range of 30ms to 1250ms, which is fast enough at the short end for chorus, vibrato and slapback sounds. Delicious Audio had earlier cited delay times up to 1200 ms.
How do you change the LFO waveform on the Benson Delay?
Hold down the BYPASS switch for two seconds, then tap the TAP/HOLD switch once to enter the menu. The BYPASS switch then toggles between sine, square and random waveforms, and it blinks once, twice or three times respectively to show which one is selected.
How do you make the Benson Delay self-oscillate?
Hold down the tap knob to boost the feedback for self-oscillation. How far the feedback boost goes is adjustable via an internal trim pot, so you can set how wild the runaway repeats get.
What tap divisions does the Benson Delay have?
The TAP/HOLD switch toggles through quarter, dotted eighth and eighth note tap divisions, with the LED blinking one, two or three times respectively. On That Pedal Show, Chris Benson described the divisions as quarter note, dotted 8th and 16th.
Sources (9)
- Delay - BENSON AMPS, Benson Amps
- Benson Delay, Delicious Audio, 2024-11-04
- “I've never heard it sound this good, ever”: Meet the ultra-precise, digital-meets-analog Delay pedal that has Josh Scott raving, Guitar World, 2023-10-12
- How Benson used a chip used in karaoke machines to create what could be one of the key delay pedals in a vintage year, MusicRadar, 2023-10-13
- Elettrorama MFOS Echo Rockit effect synthesizer ready to roll, gearnews.com, 2018-06-14
- Benson Amps teases two new delay pedals, Guitar.com, 2022-06-17
- The analog delay, or rather... the analog-voiced delay, Anasounds, 2020-05-14
- Guitar Pedal X, Guitar Pedal X, 2023-12-20
- Chris Benson Of Benson Amps & Pedals At TPS! Preamps, Fuzzes, Delay, Surf's Up & Florist, That Pedal Show (YouTube), 2024-05-16
