Menu
Suede·Social·Issue No. 20
Tone recipes·2026 · JUL
Shoegaze1993easy to fake

01Slowdive

Alison

Endless wash of clean Jazzmaster through a stacked chain of delays and reverbs — chords become atmospheric pads. Multiple delays at different times create a layered shimmer that obscures the chord changes. Pitch-modulated reverb adds an ethereal sheen. The actual playing is sparse; most of what you hear is processed tail. Two guitar parts overlap throughout, often in different octaves.

02Signal chain

Guitar to amp, 4 pedals between.

  1. In
    Guitar

    Fender Jazzmaster, position 4 or neck pickup

  2. 01
    First layer — quarter-note delay
    Boss DD-3 Digital Delay

    Time: ~400ms, Feedback: 40%, Mix: 40%

  3. 02
    Bright plate reverb on top
    Yamaha SPX90 (reverb mode)

    Plate, ~3s decay, Mix: 40%

  4. 03
    Second delay layer for thickness
    Electro-Harmonix Memory Man

    Delay: ~280ms, Feedback: 30%, Chorus: on

  5. 04
    Modulation under the delays
    Boss CE-2 Chorus

    Rate: slow, Depth: 1 o'clock

  6. Out
    Amp

    Vox AC30 clean

03Field note

The secret sauce

Each guitar in the recording goes through a different reverb time — when they overlap, you can't tell where the chord change happens. That's the texture, not the pedals individually.