Tone Report Weekly Issue 154 | Page 13

AD9 Analog Delay FP-777 Flying Pan The beauty of a great analog bucket-brigade delay is that milliseconds and tap tempo and all the concerns of the digital delay world are no longer of consequence. You can set the knobs wherever and it somehow, almost magically, just works, providing sweet musical ambience that complements any context. The Ibanez AD9 is just such a delay. Nearly as iconic as the Tube Screamer, the AD9 has reigned as one of the most beloved of Ibanez’s 9 Series effects since its release in 1982. Like all bucket-brigade echo boxes it has simple controls, but that’s all it needs to conjure anything from brilliant, rich slapback tones, to spaceship landing sounds, and even subtle, reverb-like ambiences. It has a mono input and dual outputs, such that wet and dry outs can potentially be routed to separate amplifiers for super-spacious sonic landscapes. Another nice thing about the AD9 is that it is quite common (though no longer in production, sadly) and readily available for small sums of money. The early history of Ibanez effects is rife with oddball noise boxes, but perhaps the most wonderful of these is the FP-777 Flying Pan. With its curious butterfly/hand graphic, less-than-straightforward control set, and seemingly nebulous intent, the Flying Pan has more than its fair share of eccentric charm. Luckily it also happens to sound pretty great. Though it may be difficult to determine at first glance, it is a stereo auto-panner and phaser, with independent switches for engaging each effect, and a quartet of knobs for dialing in phase speed, phase depth, panning speed, and whether the phaser effect is spread across the stereo spec