We’ve reviewed a few Donner products here at KGR, but the White Tape delay pedal from Donner’s “Vivid Series” is the first effects unit we’ve looked at from this budget brand.
One thing we noted when we did our series on Behringer’s pedal range is that budget stomp boxes can generally hold their own against high end models, at least for the vast majority of players – but will Donner’s White Tape stack up?
Read more about our review process.
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Contents
Who Is this for?
The Donner White Tape delay pedal is a great FX unit for guitarists from outright beginner through to advanced, and potentially even professional level musicians. For around $50, you’ll get a well-made, good-looking pedal that provides pretty much everything you’d want in a delay unit.
Appearance / Features / Controls
Unlike budget models from the likes of Behringer, Donner’s pedals, including the White Tape, have a full metal construction. We found it to be absolutely rock solid, and more than capable of taking the knocks that would come with a harsh life on the road.
This is a stereo pedal, and subsequently features left and right input and output channels, allowing you to simultaneously play through two amplifiers for true stereo.
The pedal is activated with a sturdy stomp box style foot switch, which switches between on, and true bypass.
To manipulate the sound, there are 2 parallel sets of controls. The top line controls the left channel, which is used for mono only, while the bottom row controls the right side output when you’re using the stereo functionality.
The level dials control how much of the processed signal is heard in the mix. The time dials control how long the pedal waits to replay your input. Finally, the feedback dials control how often the wet signal is returned and replayed.
Performance/Sound
We found that the White Tape gave us a pretty authentic tape delay effect. It brings plenty of texture and atmosphere to the overall sound, and it was exceptionally easy to operate. The stereo functionality was particularly impressive, especially when run through 2 tube amps facing each other with a 4-meter spread.
Nothing about the White Tape delay pedal ever gave us cause to wish we’d had a more expensive or more premium model.
Our one gripe with this pedal is the lack of a battery compartment. This unit can only be powered with a 9v AC adapter.
We found that it was sufficiently quiet, even when played through an exceptionally clean amp, with no reverb, or any other kind of texture added. It did give us some pretty wild feedback when the time and/or feedback dials were maxed, but that’s pretty much a given with delay pedals.
The true bypass was great. We had no reason to believe that it wasn’t actually bypassing anything – we got a perfectly dry tone, and found that there was a notable difference after switching the pedal on, even at low level.
Overall, the sound profile was excellent, but to hear it for yourself, we invite you to check out our demonstration of this pedal over on the KGR YouTube channel:
Final Thoughts on the Donner White Tape Delay Pedal
Even if you aren’t trying to save money, there’s simply no need to buy anything over and above the White Tape if you’re looking for a stereo tape delay pedal. It’s effective, sounds good, it’s quiet, and best of all, reliable.
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