MXR's Joshua Ambient Echo looks to capture the full ambience of U2's seminal Joshua Tree Album

Colour me impressed! MXR has done an incredible job here of giving you the Edge’s Ambient Effects - as deployed on the 1987 Joshua Tree album - which I believe mostly means a smart take on the TC 2290 Rack Unit.

The compact form factor somewhat disguises the complexity and prowess of the pedal - which has full stereo ins and outs via TRS Cables, and no less than 18 parameters across 6 knobs and with a total 9 controls - with the Echo 2 and Trails buttons triggering secondary and tertiary functions on the 6 knobs - as covered below :

Default Controls - Echo 2 : On / Off, Trails : On / Off, Delay (50ms - 1000ms), Modulation Intensity, Voice : -1, +1, +2 Octave Blend, Regen (Repeats), Division : Quarter / Dotted Eighth / Eighth / Triplets / Eighth + Dotted Eighth, Mix (Effect Level), Ctr Side Switch : Tap/Exp / Ctr / Audio, Engage Footswitch - hold for 1s for Tap Tempo.

Echo 2 Alt : + Delay = Hard/Soft Flashing, + MOD = Symmetrical / Synced Echo 1 & 2 Regeneration On/Of, + Voice = Stereo CW / Mono CCW, + Regen = Echo 2 Regen Increase/Decrease, + Divisions = Echo 2 Divisions (1/8s = 1/16s), + Mix = Echo 2 Mix.

Trails Alt : + Delay = 1/4 Note Tempo / Solid, + Modulation  = Depth & Release Trails for Rate, + Voice = High Cut Filter : 12kHz > 2 kHz > 200Hz, + Regen = Reverb Decay, + Division = Compression Threshold Low > Hight, + Mix = Reverb Mix.

All in all a hugely impressive pedals. The recent TC2290P pedal was already down on my acquisition list - but I’m definitely getting this one first!

A little clunky in some ways to operate with all those additional hidden features - but still a fantastic ’encapsulation’ of that sort of TC2290 sound in a truly smart form factor.

Obviously a digital delay mostly - but with impressive additional Modulation, Pitch-Shifting and Reverb capabilities - as well as being a proper Dual Delay.

As I said at the start - I’m hugely impressed here!

Everything about this pedal is incredibly well thought out - and while there is a learning curve to it - I would imagine you would get a handle on it pretty quickly. Power requirement is 9VDC [-], 300mA which seems about right.

The Joshua Ambient Echo is available right now at leading dealers for : $240 | €333 | £269. Which compares to the TC 2290P at $349 | €359 | £349. Who else is considering getting this one in?