Hotone Eko

The Hotone Eko is a delay mini-pedal from Hotone's Skyline range, the company's line of compact stompboxes. RockBoard's PedalPedia describes it as a digital delay with a direct analog signal path, which the maker's specifications list as a hybrid circuit: your dry signal stays analog while the repeats are generated digitally¹. The result, in Hotone's words, is a "Pure, warm, and natural echo tone--an excellent ambience maker"¹.

It is a small box built like a much bigger one. MusicRadar's reviewer Michael Astley-Brown called it "a pocket powerhouse," noting its weighty zinc alloy shell and knobs that are either LED-lit or noctilucent, meaning they glow in the dark, a practical touch for dark stages².

A compact hybrid delay

The Eko handles delay duties in Hotone's Skyline mini-pedal range, sitting alongside the line's other compact effects². Its digital delay line, as RockBoard's PedalPedia puts it, "assures enough delay time and a pure signal path," while the analog dry path keeps your untouched guitar signal from passing through conversion¹.

Maximum delay time is approximately 500ms¹. That covers everything from tight slapback to ambient lead repeats, though it is well short of what larger delay workstations offer. Hotone's own Binary Eko, for comparison, carries algorithms for 17 delay types, including analog, digital, tape, dual, ping-pong, filtered, modulated and slap back, with stereo I/O and expression pedal support³. The little Eko trades that flexibility for a tiny footprint and simple operation.

How does it sound? MusicRadar's reviewer found that, like a real analog delay, longer delay times get a little noisy, but that the moody repeats never detract from what you are actually playing². His verdict on the pedal's strengths: "Clever, compact feature set. Splendid psyched-out sounds."²

The controls

The Eko keeps its control set small, in keeping with its size. The knobs are LED-lit or noctilucent, so they glow in the dark for visibility on a dim stage².

The MOD button is the one feature beyond basic delay. Hotone's description is simple: "you can press the MOD button to get a deeper spacey feeling"¹. In practice this adds modulation to the repeats, pushing the pedal toward the darker, moodier territory MusicRadar's reviewer described².

Power and bypass

The Eko runs on 9V DC with a center negative plug, drawing 60mA¹. That is the common standard for pedalboard power supplies, so it will run from most multi-output supplies without an adapter. The switching is true bypass, so when the pedal is off your signal passes through untouched².

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