Ibanez Mini Analog Delay vs Outlaw Quickdraw

Is there an echo in here?

Why yes, yes there is... (terrible)...

After taking note of this pedal locally listed for $65 and hearing it mentioned on That Pedal Show's $350 challenge, I decided to throw an offer of $60 to the seller.  The response was... interesting...

"Sure, you can have it for $60, but only if you're prompt in picking it up."

Prompt? What, pray tell, does that mean? So I asked.

Apparently, the seller had multiple buyers not show up over the course of a couple of days. That sucks, but I'm not sure being shitty to the next guy is going to help your cause there bud.  We're all entitled to a bad day though, so I was extra nice in explaining my schedule and when I would be available to pick it up, including being clear that I needed a window of 15-20 minutes to account for traffic - the pedal was local to me, but I was commuting back from work.

In any case, transaction complete.  not the friendliest fellow, but they can't all be great.  Most of them are though.  Not this guy.  Can't stress that enough.  He seemed tired.  Poor little lamb.

I already have a mini-delay courtesy of the fine folks at Amazon, who I'm pretty sure are going to run the effects-for-sale table in very short order.  I was curious to know if the Ibanez was of considerably better quality, given that it is made in Japan and costs almost double.

So is it?  Short answer is not at all.  Long answer is more complicated.

Construction

Despite the difference in knob size (phrasing), both pedals have the same footprint.  While the Ibanez has the seeming advantage of positioning the foot switch on an angle towards the player, this is mitigated by the larger knob.  With both pedals, accidentally changing the delay time happens exactly 1 more time that I'd like (which is zero).

There are other subtle differences.  Some matter, some don't.  The repeat and blend knobs (labelled "echo" on the Quick Draw) are reversed, which matters not one bit.  The location of the LED indicator is different too, but that does matter.  I found a few times I couldn't see if the light was on on account of that giant time knob.

The other thing I noticed was the plastic washer around the switch, which I though didn't look as good as the Ibanez.  "How cheap looking is that?," I thought to myself.

Check out the JHS Angry Charlie on the right edge of the picture above. I'm an idiot?

Sound

Well, the Ibanez delay is certainly dark.  With the Angry Charlie, I could see why you would want this delay over the Quick Draw: The Ibanez creates this squishy/compressed feeling when exposed to higher gain that is a lot of fun. The Quick Draw in comparison is far more a Digital Delay, with relatively clean and bright repeats that sound much better clean and with lower gain. The longer I compared, the more I was impressed with the clarity of the Quick Draw, and the more I understood why the MXR Carbon Copy "Bright" became a thing.

The Ibanez has a more tapered sweep of delay time, but the range seems fairly comparable: A delay time set to 9:00 on the Quick Draw was equivalent to about 10:00 on the Ibanez.

Verdict

It didn't take long for me to decide that the Ibanez wasn't going to have a home on this board. Cost aside, the Quick Draw was superior in sound to my ears, though I could see someone preferring the Ibanez if they wanted a lo-fi delay sound.

So the Quick Draw stays and the Ditto Looper goes back on the board.  It's far from complete (that Metal Zone is for the buffer alone - it sits first in the chain), but at least I know that until I go back to a Flashback x4 (why did I sell that?!?!) and get a bigger board, the Quick Draw isn't better than the pink one.

Also - that Joyo Ultimate Drive is ridiculously good for the price.  A bit dark (check the tone setting), but $40 for something that I figure is 90% of the OCD is just insane value.  Having said that, I'll be buying the new version of the OCD sooner rather than later.