Ibanez ES2 Echo Shifter review

In the annals of Ibanez effects history, you'll find some of the most practical stompers of all time - and some of the most bonkers. The ES2 Echo Shifter sits between the two: at its heart, it's an old-school analogue delay with a few modern additions - but it boasts some bonkers ones, too.

To adjust the delay, you get three controls (feedback, mix and an awesome delay-time slider), plus a tap tempo footswitch for more precise delay times, which range from 30ms to one second. Then there are the oscillation and modulation switches.

Oscillation, is the 'spaceship' sound you get from upping a delay's repeats so much that the pedal begins to feed back on itself, and the ES2 makes this accessible at the flick of a switch. Combined with the foot-adjustable delay-time slider, you have access to all sorts of sonic mayhem - from pitch-shifted repeats to whirring UFO take-offs.

Sometimes, the ES2 can get too crazy for its own good. Turning up to 12 o'clock on the modulation depth control adds a chorus-y shimmer to the repeats, but anything above is so dramatically pitchy it's enough to make you hurl - we'd have liked a rate knob.

You don't have to go nuts with the ES2, though: its lush repeats have classic analogue charm without the noise; and if you want to get crazy, the option's there.