Dr Scientist Revives and Improves its Sweet Repeats - Sunny Day Delay - as inspired in part by this very site!
Back in June of 2020 I did a best of Dr Scientist roundup article (pictured below)- which featured a number of classic discontinued models - including the Cosmichorus, The Heisenberg Molecular Overdrive, Sunny Day Delay, and Tremolessence among the current crop of pedals too. And where I have 5 of those 9 in the reference collection - including probably my favourite all-time fuzz - the Frazz Dazzler.
Said article sparked off all manner of dialogues and in fact several people petitioned Ryan to consider re-releasing some of those older discontinued models. I believe in party due to the ripples said article generated - Ryan decided that indeed the time was right for a revival - with 3 of those models supposedly being back in the works - the Cosimichorus, Tremolessence, and of course the Sunny Day Delay (SDD) - which project seems to have come to fruition the quickest - where it’s now back on sale in a significantly improved smaller compact enclosure with cool light up Mod Depth and Volume knobs - almost identical in layout and topology to the fantastic Frazz Dazzler - but obviously with different knob / parameter functions.
Original 2005 Edition Controls - Rate (Mod), Depth (Mod), Rate (Delay), Repeats, Level.
Updated 2022 Edition Controls - Delay (Rate), Repeats, Tone, Mix, Mod Depth, Mod Rate, Volume.
Incredibly, Ryan has managed to source most of the same parts as the original - to recreate those gorgeous sweet sounding repeats - which many cite as their all-time favourite sounding delay. At the core of the circuit we have the self same PT2399 Delay Chip and Compander Chip - which are so instrumental in delivering that superior tonality.
Ryan describes the Sunny Day Delay as being one of the very first Dr Scientist Pedals - which was part of the original line-up back in 2005, some 17 years ago now. It is an ambient delay pedal featuring modulated and heavily filtered (and degraded at long delay times) repeats and this is the sweetest and smoothest sounding version yet. It uses a vintage noise suppressor chip (Compander I believe) for very low noise with its retro repeats, up to about 1.25 seconds max delay time.
You can see from the top visual that the new pedal is much slimmer - and in fact uses a very similar if not identical format to the Frazz Dazzler - where both have 7 knobs, 2 of which light up, alongside dual-footswitches.
The new control layout for the Sunny Day Delay includes 2 new parameter knobs - a wet/dry mix control and a unique low pass/high pass filter Tone control for the repeats. There's also an added expression input for the Mix, and the user can fine-tune the range of the Repeats and Mod Depth controls to dial in the perfect wiggly wash of repeats. The second stomp can either turn the modulation on/off or it can be used to ramp the repeats to max settings.
The delay chip itself is a classic piece of digital history - the PT2399, while otherwise the SDD has all-analog features, even for its soft-touch switching. Dr Scientist's goal was to make the SDD hopefully able to withstand the kinds of parts shortages we've witnessed this year which have been so debilitating for many builders.
The Artwork is a tribute to Dr Scientist's home in British Columbia, the lovely Okanagan Valley, done in a style that plays on the vinyl finishes of their earliest days.
SDD Limited Blackout Edition
The new SDD will be heading to stores / dealers very imminently while it is available for order right now on the Dr Scientist Webstore - for $165 (down from $199 for Black Friday). Available for a very short time in both original full-colour edition, as well as a strictly limited cool Blackout Black Friday Edition.
This is for sure one of the sweetest and most elegant sounding delays out there and considered a real secret weapon for many. As my pedal-chain is stereo for the final third, this pedal is not really compatible with my rig - while I'm still kinda sorta still extremely tempted - just based on how sweet it sounds!
Demos
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
