Death By Audio Exploding Head Triple Delay

The Death By Audio Exploding Head Triple Delay is a delay pedal that puts three delay circuits in series inside one compact enclosure. Death By Audio describes it as a "triple delay dream maker/destroyer system in an ultra-small footprint"¹. The three delays, labeled BLACK, Gray and RED, feed one into the next, and each has its own controls, so a player can set three different delay times, three different feedback amounts and three different wet/dry blends at once².

It was released on November 30, 2022 as a limited edition, and it is no ordinary release: it was built to mark the 13th anniversary of the A Place To Bury Strangers album Exploding Head, after which the pedal is named². Delicious Audio reports it was a Reverb exclusive limited to 500 units, with each unit bundled with a 13th anniversary double LP of the album, digitally remastered by Oliver Ackermann and pressed on clear vinyl¹.

Three delays in series, one pedal

The core idea is simple: instead of one delay line, you get three, connected BLACK into Gray into RED². Premier Guitar puts it plainly: "It's three identical delays run in series"³. Each delay feeds the next, so the repeats of one line become the input of the next, and the three times stack and interact rather than sitting in parallel.

That series arrangement is what gives the pedal its range. With individual control over each delay's parameters, a player can build multi-tap echoes, rhythmic repeat patterns, noise and swells². Pedal of the Day suggests two opposite starting points: several short slap delays set close together create a faux reverb, while long stretched times with the FEEDBACK up produce a slowly evolving ambient cloud².

Premier Guitar's reviewer found the pedal covers a lot of ground this way, describing sounds from "washy reverbs, percussive multi-head delay effects, and mutant delays that chatter like rogue tremolos"³. While the circuit is digital, that reviewer noted the basic tonality of a single delay line is "not worlds apart from a bright analog echo"³.

The pedal traces back to an earlier Death By Audio design. Pedal of the Day calls it a look back at "the now legendary and unobtainable Ghost Delay," a key piece of gear from that era², and Premier Guitar calls the Exploding Head "effectively an evolution of DBA's own extinct and much-coveted Ghost Delay"³.

The controls

The layout is knob-per-function, which Pedal of the Day says lets you quickly change the delay's behavior². Each of the three delays carries the same three controls, plus a shared momentary footswitch.

Because the BLEND controls are independent per delay, you can isolate one or several delay lines, or run all three at once². Setting different feedback amounts per delay creates rhythmic variations and builds oscillations at multiple speeds simultaneously².

The INFINITY switch is the pedal's wildcard. Engaging it momentarily feeds the output of the third delay in the sequence (RED) into the first (BLACK), which enables momentary self-oscillation effects³. Delicious Audio describes the result as a multi-delay feedback network wrapped around the individual delays, with the first (BLACK) BLEND knob controlling the volume of that feedback¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found this side of the pedal rewarding:

Premier Guitar, 2023³

That reviewer characterized the delay array as one that "lives happily at the edge of feedback chaos," so the INFINITY switch is a deliberate route into that territory rather than an accident waiting to happen³.

Stereo output

The Exploding Head has a stereo output section that works from a single jack. With a standard TS cable, all three delays come out in mono. With a TRS cable, the first two delays (BLACK and Gray) are tapped to the ring and the third delay (RED) to the tip, which Pedal of the Day describes as a wide stereo spread of the trio of delays². Delicious Audio notes the same arrangement, that players using a TRS cable can achieve a wide stereo spread¹.

What reviewers said

Published coverage of the pedal was positive about its flexibility and size. Pedal of the Day concluded that the Exploding Head "really packs a ton of diversity into a small, pedalboard-friendly package," letting it integrate seamlessly onto a noise-making board². The same site describes its output as producing "all new otherworldly soundscapes ready to inspire future records to come"². Premier Guitar's review, published March 2023, focused on the range of textures available, from faux reverb to chattering mutant delays, and on the controlled chaos available through the INFINITY switch³.

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