Strymon throws its hat into the Oil Can Delay Ring - with its Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo

When I think of Oil Can Delays - I think of the Adineko by Catalinbread, the OBNE Black Fountain, and JHS 3 Series Oil Can Delay - and now we have a Strymon variant - the Olivera - as a new addition to Strymon’s compact series - where it joins the Brig dBucet Delay, and EC-1 Single Head dTape Echo on that roster.

I personally have yet to feel the need for an Oil Can Delay - I’ve used that on the occasional Multi-FX Pedal - and have never quite gelled with that voicing - I don’t mind it - but I much prefer Multi-Head Tape Delays!

If you’re in the market for an Oil Can Delay the existing candidates kind of take up all through the various gears already - with the Stereo Black Fountain from OBNE being particularly potent.

This Olivera is a sort of mid-tier offering - with gives you Long, Short and Both ’Heads’ options - so a sort of 2-Head Delay, but with one permanently short, and one permanently long - which is a similar technique to what Andy Timmons Halo Delay does.

Like I said - I typically don’t mind these - I just don’t specifically favour them - to be acquiring said effect as a stand-alone unit. I tended to to deploy Delay Workstation Pedals in any case - with multiple voicings.

Controls - Time, Head : Long / Short / Both, Mix, Rate {Modulation} Intensity, Regen / Repeats.

This is a Stereo capable delay - and you get the 3-way slider-switch on the rear - Mono / Mono → Stereo / Stereo, and also an Expression Jack that you can use for MIDI.

Strymon functionality is always super-slick - and benefits from a JFET input buffer and typically secondary and further start-up functions. 

This is a really neat package, and a great candidate if you want a streamlined stereo take on the oil can delay. The OBNE Stereo Black Fountain is more of an advanced unit - with 10 controls, dual footswitches and onboard Presets.

So for me - I would be auditioning both of those - depending also on whether I waned something simpler or more capable. You have to find your own lane here - and decide which unit serves your sensibilities.

It depends on how much importance and prominence you want for that effect - how easy the user experience. There are several pedals that I don’t particularly gel with because of their inherent complicity in setup and maintenance. Some players are more au fait with that sort of thing - and don’t mind puzzling away with new devices. While I don’t really have the time to faff around typically.

Which is why I - if I were in the market for one of these - would start with the Strymon - and then figure out if I should stick with that level of potency - or whether I feel I should be upgrading to the slightly more potent OBNE Stereo Black Fountain!

The Olivera Vintage Oil Can Echo is $259 on the Strymon Webstore - and I can imagine it eating into the sales of the Adineko and JHS Oil Can - while I’m not sure if it will have any effect on OBNE’s perennially poplar Black Fountain!

This one is very much a ’Nice-to-have’ rather than a ’Must-Have’ for me. Where overall Oil Can Delays are something of a minority sport!