Joe Satriani’s Time Machine

Coldplay VS. Joe Satriani

..delays and repeats…

Two parts to this both announced last week when I didn’t have time to blog anything about them.

First up the announcement of the new Satriani/VOX effects pedal the aptly named “Time Machine” delay pedal. Not only does delay have to do with time and it’s a machine but it’s also the name of Satch’s excellent ’93 half live half studio double album. Now hows that for smarts 😉

It looks like an excellent piece of kit that seems extremely versatile with the Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi settings so you can get that bright sparkly digital delay and some gritty. dirty analogue echo sounds that everyone is really after these days. One good thing is the switching can be done with one of the foot switches not just the toggle switch, I like that it’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine with certain top range boutique pedals, why not have usable features foot switchable instead of squeezing in that little toggle, also don’t like internal trim pots put them on the outside so I can use them without needing a screwdriver and to unplug everything.

Added to that the Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi foot switch doubles up as the tap tempo, using which can up the delay rate to knocking on 6 seconds (Maximum delay is 5800 milliseconds when using the tap temp switch and 1000 milliseconds when using the delay control). From 30 milliseconds to nearly six that should be enough range for most delay users.

Now I haven’t even tried to bid on a Satchurator as it’s not really a sound I’m after but I’ve heard it’s a pretty well put together piece of kit, only gripe I’ve come across is the narrow band of the EQ but nothing else than that.

But a delay now that’s another matter, I have been chasing one for a while the old DOD FX96 isn’t quite cutting it these days, still kicking myself about missing a cheap Ibanez DE7 the other day. I have a feeling the new Satriani model will be going for a bit more than my pockets would like and that they might be keepers so not many cheapies landing on the Bay.

And then there’s the other story from last week involving Joe, delays and repeats with the news he’s finally got round to suing Coldplay for plagiarising his 2004 track ‘If I Could Fly’, from his album ‘Is There Love in Space?‘.

I had wondered what the delay ( 😉 ) as it seemed months ago since I watched/heard the video on YouTube…

And yes it says on there it was posted on June 17th. But Joe’s now answered why it took so long…

Everybody’s assumes I’m trying to go after these guys in Coldplay, as if I’m doing this with malice. That’s the furthest thing from my mind. I’m just doing what I need to do as an artist, to protect what’s mine, to protect those feelings I put down in song.

I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation. But Coldplay didn’t want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. Maybe they figured this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while, I don’t knowJoe Satriani

Now being a Satriani fan for some considerable time, can still remember the way my old guitar teacher’s jaw dropped when I started the cassette of “Surfing With The Alien“, added to the fact that I think Coldplay are one of the most annoyingly smug bunch of pompous dullards out there I do hope Joe wins this but then in court we might just find out they’re all just Marty Balin fans. 😕

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Required fields *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.