Joyo Audio keeps it analogue with the R-10 Nascar Delay

Joyo Audio has unvield the R-10 Nascar Delay, a super-affordable little effects pedal that promises the sort of warm and organic vintage delay that you'd expect from a classic bucket-brigade device circuit.

The Nascar's setup is pretty simple, with a footswitch for switching the pedal on and off and controls for delay, feedback and mix. 

The bucket-brigade device circuit dates back to the 1969 and was developed by F Sangster and K Teer of the Philips Research Labs. It takes its name from the arrangement of capacitors that passes a stored analogue signal down the circuit, just as the fire brigade would do in the days before hydrants, hoses and so on. The BBD circuit allowed for vintage tape-echo technology to be replicated in a chip and placed into a smaller format, such as . . . Well, a stompbox. 

As the signal is passed the capacitors in the BBD chip empty and fill again. There is spillage, unwanted noise, and there needs to be filtering to keep the noise down. In other words, it's not that efficient, and digital signal processing has in many applications replaced it. 

But as with many things in the realm of the electric guitar, what is perhaps not the most efficient electronic solution (e.g. valves in your amplifier) is often the best sounding – or at least helps delivers a sound that guitarists find valuable. Note that it's not just the BBD circuit that is delivering the tone but the circuitry around it as well. With all the filtering, the analogue delay from a BBD circuit is warmer and darker than your original guitar tone, making for a nice subtle contrast.

Anyway, this is the sort of vibe that the Nascar should give you. Time will tell if it will be as effective as the awesome Boss DM-2W Waza Craft  but at a £49.99/$58.99 it is certainly a whole lot cheaper.

• Read our brief history of bucket-brigade delays here.

Check out Joyo Audio for more details, and check out the demo video below.