Ibanez Tone-Lok DE7 Delay/Echo

The Ibanez Tone-Lok DE7 Delay/Echo is a compact guitar effects pedal that covers two delay flavors in one small box: a straightforward digital delay and an Echo mode that imitates the darker, softening character of an analog delay. It is part of Ibanez's Tone-Lok series, a line of pedals the company introduced in the late 1990s, and it has stayed in players' hands long past that era. Pedal of the Day called it "a true go-to delay for many players around the world, and absolutely debunks the myth that pedals have to be expensive to sound incredible"¹.

What it does: Delay and Echo modes

The DE7 has two modes, Delay and Echo, chosen with a selection switch²⁴. Pedal of the Day's David O described the first simply: "Delay gives you a digital delay that is clear and full"². The Echo setting is different in character. As Delicious Audio put it, "The Echo setting on the other hand is an analogue delay simulation, in which the repeats become darker and quieter"³. In practice that means one pedal can do both clean, defined digital repeats and the softer, darkening trail players associate with analog delay circuits.

Delicious Audio's review compared the Echo mode with dedicated analog delays and was candid about the trade: "While it lacks the warmth of a Memory Man or Carbon Copy delay, it can also be purchased for half the cost"³.

Controls and the Tone-Lok locking system

The control section is three knobs, with Delay Time, Repeat and Delay Level as, in Pedal of the Day's words, "the main attractions in the control section of the DE7"⁴.

The three Delay Time ranges give the pedal what Pedal of the Day's Mike B called "one of the widest delay time ranges in any pedal this size, much less in this price range"⁴. The short 30 to 160 ms range reaches into slapback territory, while the longest range runs to 2600 ms⁴.

The Tone-Lok name refers to the knob locking system Ibanez developed for the series. As Delicious Audio explained, "Each knob can be pressed down, locking it into place and saving your precious settings!"³. Press a knob in and it cannot be turned accidentally; pull it up to adjust. It is a practical feature for a pedal that lives on a crowded board.

Where it came from and where it sits

The DE7 belongs to the Tone-Lok series, which Pedal of the Day dates to the late 1990s⁴. Within Ibanez's delay history it sits among a large family of delay pedals, from vintage analog designs like the Ibanez AD-80 Analog Delay and the Ibanez AD9 Analog Delay to later digital and multi-mode units such as the Ibanez ES2 Echo Shifter and the Ibanez Layer Delayer. For more on the type, see the site's Delay Pedals page.

What reviewers said

Reviewers have been consistently positive about the value the DE7 offers. David O at Pedal of the Day concluded that "it is an excellent addition to any pedal board or keyboard setup"². Mike B, reviewing it again in 2015, singled out the delay time range as remarkable for the pedal's size and price⁴. And in a 2018 piece, Pedal of the Day returned to the pedal to describe its lasting reputation as a go-to delay that proves a pedal does not have to be expensive to sound incredible¹.

The pedal's reputation is strong enough that it has been rehoused by custom builders. Loophole Pedals put the DE7 circuit into a new enclosure, adding "toggle switches in place of those hard-to-use slider switches on the original"¹. That note is a fair warning about the stock unit: the original's slider switches, used for the mode and time-range selections, take some getting used to compared with ordinary toggles.

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