This week’s video was a proper budget scrap: three “analog-style” delays, all chasing that bucket brigade vibe, all under sensible money, and all bringing something slightly different to the table.

If you’ve ever looked at real vintage analogue delays and then quietly closed the tab when you saw the price, this is for you.

The Contenders

We put the Joyo Analog Delay, the Mooer Ana Echo, and the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade head-to-head. On paper they all live in a similar space — warm repeats, darker voicing, classic feel — but under the hood they’re doing things a little differently.

And that’s where it gets interesting.

Joyo Analog Delay – The Sensible All-Rounder

Let’s get this out of the way first: the Joyo isn’t a “true” bucket brigade delay. It uses a PT2399 chip with filtering to get that darker, analog-style sound rather than a genuine BBD chip.

Does that matter? Not really.

It sounds good. Really good, actually — especially for the money. It tops out around 440ms, which is plenty for most practical uses, and it covers a lot of ground. Slap-back? No problem. Subtle doubling? Easy. Slightly more ambient textures? Absolutely doable.

If I had to label it, this is probably the best all-rounder of the three. It doesn’t have the strongest personality, but it also doesn’t have many weak spots. And it’s often the cheapest of the lot, which makes it very easy to recommend if you just want “a good analog-ish delay” without overthinking it.

Mooer Ana Echo – Vintage Vibes on a Budget

The Mooer Ana Echo is the purist’s choice here. It runs a genuine MN3205 bucket brigade chip and is very deliberately inspired by the Boss DM-2 — right down to the slightly backwards-feeling control layout.

If you’ve used a DM-2 before, you’ll know what I mean.

This one tops out at around 300ms, so it’s the shortest delay time of the three. It doesn’t really excel at slap-back tones — it can do them, but it’s not where it shines. Where it does shine is in those washy, ambient, slightly murky repeats that almost become part of your core tone.

It adds character. It softens the edges. It feels vintage in the best way.

And considering what a real vintage DM-2 goes for these days — or even the Waza reissue — the Mooer is a bargain by comparison.

If you want warmth and vibe over versatility, this is probably the one that’ll grab you.

TC Electronic Bucket Brigade – Crisp, Modern Analog

Then we’ve got the TC Electronic Bucket Brigade. This one uses a modern Cool Audio BBD chip — the same family of chips you’ll find in a lot of modern analogue designs (and yes, in plenty of Behringer-owned circuits too).

The big headline here is 600ms of delay time — the longest of the three. If you're after longer, luxurious repeats, then look no further.

The repeats are noticeably crisper and more defined than the other two. Because of that clarity, this one absolutely excels at shorter slap-back tones. It blends beautifully with your dry signal without turning to mush.

On top of that, you get modulation on the repeats. Subtle wobble at shorter settings, lovely movement at longer ones. That feature alone pushes it into MXR Carbon Copy territory — just without the Carbon Copy price tag.

If you want analogue feel but with a bit more modern usability, this is a very strong option.

So… Which One?

Honestly? You’re not getting a bad pedal out of this bunch.

They all cover that bucket brigade flavour in their own way, but they each lean in a slightly different direction:

• Joyo – most versatile and budget-friendly.
• Mooer – warm, vintage, characterful.
• TC Electronic – clearer repeats, longer delay time, added modulation.

Delay is one of those effects that can be as subtle or as dramatic as you want it to be. It can sit there doing gentle doubling, it can add a bit of reverb-like space, or it can become part of the rhythmic identity of what you’re playing.

The best one here isn’t about specs — it’s about which personality fits your playing.

And at these prices, the real danger is convincing yourself you only need one.

Consider using the affiliate link if you would like to buy one:
TC Bucket Brigade
https://thmn.to/thoprod/530567?offid=1&affid=2735

 This week we’re stepping slightly outside the usual budget territory, but trust me, this one earns its place. The Wampler Ego 76 Mini is Brian Wampler’s take on the legendary 1176 Peak Limiter — a compressor that has been absolutely baked into the sound of recorded music for decades. If you’ve ever loved the feel of a studio guitar track without really knowing why, chances are an 1176 was involved somewhere along the way.

Now, before anyone panics, this isn’t Wampler trying to turn your pedalboard into Abbey Road. The Ego 76 Mini takes the idea of the 1176 — that fast, punchy, characterful FET compression — and translates it into something that actually makes sense for guitarists.

At its core, this is a proper studio-style compressor in pedal form. You’ve got level, compression and a parallel clean blend, which is already a massive tick in my book. On top of that, there are attack and release switches, giving you access to those classic 1176-style response times without needing a degree in audio engineering. It’s clever, because you get all of the best attack and release settings without having to understand what attack and release actually mean.

The real magic of this pedal is how flexible it is in a guitar rig. You can absolutely stick it at the front of your chain and use it like a traditional guitar compressor. It’ll do the squishy Dynacomp-style thing if that’s your bag — country snap, funk rhythm, tightening up clean tones — all very much there. But it doesn’t stop at squash.

Dial things back a bit and the Ego 76 turns into something much more refined. There’s a lovely sparkle and polish you can add to clean tones without killing your dynamics, and that parallel blend control paired with the compression control is where the real magic happens. Being able to mix your dry signal back in means you get the benefits of compression without losing the feel of your playing, which is exactly how compression is used in the studio.

Where this pedal really surprised me, though, was further down the signal chain. Stick it after a drive or two and it becomes more of a glue pedal than a traditional compressor. It evens things out, adds sustain, and just makes everything feel a bit more “finished”. It’s that subtle, almost invisible thing that you don’t really notice until you turn it off… and then immediately turn it back on again.

Yes, it’s more expensive than what we usually cover. No, it isn’t a cheap impulse buy. But unlike a lot of boutique compressors, this doesn’t feel like a one-trick pony or a studio novelty shoehorned onto a pedalboard. It genuinely works in multiple positions, across multiple styles, and rewards a bit of experimentation.

If you’ve ever struggled with compressors feeling either too squashed or too boring, the Ego 76 Mini might be the one that finally clicks. It’s studio compression made usable, musical, and — most importantly — fun. And honestly? That makes it pretty easy to justify the extra spend.

If you'd like one of your own, consider using my affiliate link:
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Sonicake Smart Box – From Proof of Concept to Proper Gigging Tool

The Sonicake Pocket Master was one of those pedals (well, FX unit maybe?) in 2025. The kind that quietly landed, didn’t look like much, but then completely changed the guitar landscape. It was one of the first genuinely affordable ways for everyday players to dip their toes into Neural Amp Modelling on the go, and once people realised what it could do, it absolutely took off. Small, unassuming, and way more capable than it had any right to be.

The Smart Box is very much the next step in that journey. If the Pocket Master proved the concept, the Smart Box feels like Sonicake taking that idea seriously and asking, “Right… how do we actually make this usable outside the bedroom?”

The most obvious upgrade hits you straight away: footswitches. Two of them, no less. This might sound like a small thing, but it absolutely isn’t. The Pocket Master relied on those little rubber buttons, which were fine for desk use but always felt like it prohibited live use. The Smart Box fixes that in one move. Suddenly, this feels like something you could actually put on the floor without fear.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with the Valeton GP-50 here. Both companies seem to be circling the same idea at the same time: take a compact NAM-capable unit and make it genuinely stage-friendly. With proper footswitches, LED rings, tap tempo, and control switching, the Smart Box immediately feels more confident in that role. You can still pair it with something like the M-Vave Chocolate Plus if you want to go even further, but you don’t have to anymore.

The front panel layout is another big win. Instead of burying everything in menus, Sonicake have added dedicated buttons for each block in the signal chain — amp, cab, delay, reverb, EQ, and so on. Editing patches directly on the unit is now much quicker and far more intuitive. The Pocket Master wasn’t hard to use, but this feels friendlier again, especially for players who don’t want to spend half an hour scrolling through menus. Even the most technophobic guitarist should be able to build a usable patch without getting nervous.

Internally, there are some meaningful upgrades too. The effects list has grown a lot. Where the Pocket Master gave you one or two flavours of each modulation, the Smart Box gives you proper choice — including some more adventurous options. There’s a clear nod here towards ambient and shoegaze players, with textures and effects that go well beyond the usual budget multi-FX safe zone. It really feels like Sonicake are pushing the boundaries of what “affordable” gear is supposed to sound like.

Now, we do need to talk about the NAM situation, because this is still the elephant in the room. Like most compact NAM players at the moment, once you engage NAM profiling, the internal cab sim is bypassed. That means you’re either using full rig NAM profiles (amp and cab together) or running an external cab solution. The Smart Box sticks with this limitation, which is a little disappointing — simultaneous amp and cab modelling would’ve been a genuine leap forward.

That said, it’s not a dealbreaker. There are loads of excellent full rig NAM profiles available for free on Tone3000, and realistically, most users are going to find plenty of sounds that work for them without much hassle. It’s just one of those “we’re not quite there yet” moments for NAM tech at this price point.

Feature-wise, the Smart Box is absolutely stacked. You’ve got over 130 effects, up to nine blocks running at once, 100 presets, drum rhythms, a looper, tuner, metronome, stereo outputs, USB audio interface with re-amping, OTG support for phones, wired and wireless MIDI, expression pedal input, headphones out… and it’ll even run on its internal battery for a few hours if you need it to. It’s one of those pedals where you keep discovering another feature you didn’t realise was there.

Crucially, it still comes in under £100. That’s the headline for me. Yes, it’s not the bold technological leap some of us were hoping for, but it is a clear step towards being a proper gigging unit. More usable, more intuitive, more flexible — and still very affordable.

If Sonicake keep refining this platform, especially on the NAM side of things, this could end up being something really special. As it stands, the Smart Box feels like a confident evolution rather than a flashy reinvention — and honestly, that’s probably exactly what most players actually need.