Oil can delay

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 30 Nov 2004 9:12 am

Back in 1959-1960 I was a radarman on the USS Ranger (CVA-61).

On board ship there was a band that was REALLY good...All I remember is that there was a skinny blond guy playing a sunburst Strat and a chunky fella playing an orange Gretch. The guy on the strat played most of the leads and he was great on single string leads...the other guy could play like Chet.

Once I was picking with him and I asked what chord he was in and he said: "Hell I don't know the names of them." Man could he play though! I always wondered what happened to these great musicians.

I believe that he was playing thru a Gretch amp and they both used a Gibson delay or reverb that used an oil can. Does anybody remember these units, or have info about them?

With all of the retro equipment out there now, has anybody duplicated these things?
Or were they worth reproducing?

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 30 Nov 2004 9:34 am

....ooops, eleted..... my comment was off topic, I missed seeing the "oil can delay" in the Topic heading. [This message was edited by Gene Jones on 01 December 2004 at 03:39 AM.]

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 30 Nov 2004 11:28 am

Jack, I have one of those units now. This one is a Standell. I used it back somewhere around 1965. It quit working when I tried to add some oil to it. Of course no idea what kind of oil it was, you can guess the rest. But the unit still looks fine.

Jerry Hayes R.I.P. · Post by **Jerry Hayes R.I.P.** » 30 Nov 2004 11:54 am

I had one of those in the 60's called a Standel "Modulux". It was a pretty cool unit until one night after a gig at a club I loaded my gear in the trunk of my old '59 Cadillac and in the dark I missed putting it away and backed right over the dang thing. That was the end of a nice delay unit. I got a Guild Copycat next but the oil can rig was a lot less hassle....JH

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Livin' in the Past and Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 30 Nov 2004 12:10 pm

I've done some sessions where the studio had a high end amp modler program, called Amplitude or Amp Farm (?).

That's the first place I saw mention of "Oil Can Delay". Of course it was a digital simulation.

IMO, it didn't sound as good as other delays so I didn't use it. I don't remember why I didn't like it. I probably used the Lexi.

Someone must like the sound, since it's included in a modern software package.

Here's an Internet reference to how the real things worked.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 30 Nov 2004 1:56 pm

Be careful around those things. The "oil" used in them was apparently full of pcb's and is extremely carcinogenic. I think Fender used to make a small stand alone unit that used that technology.

Brad Sarno

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 30 Nov 2004 2:10 pm

check out this link:
http://www.umdistribution.com/nomad/btech.html

Brad Sarno

Michael Holland · Post by **Michael Holland** » 30 Nov 2004 2:46 pm

The 'oil can delay' was developed by Ray Lubowitz, who worked with Leo Fender in the mid-sixties to develop the "Demension IV" effect. I worked for Ray and his brother Marv Lubow in the late seventies when they owned and ran the Morley company in North Hollywood. Morley offered an 'oil can' unit by the name of the EVO-1, the Echo Volume pedal. I actually owned and used one before I moved to CA to work for Morley. I did not know at the time that the units used an extremely carcinogenic byproduct, but I did carry around and demo those units for the year that I worked for Morley.

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 30 Nov 2004 6:40 pm

WOW! Great info,,,I also recalled reading that back in the day,,Duane Eddy recorded here in the Phoenix area and the studio ran the signal out of the building to an oil cource and back to get the delay on all of the early recordings that he did.

I also remember a guitar player that I and our illustrious leader, b0b, worked with used one from time to time in the Santa Rosa area, John Millar.

Alan Kirk · Post by **Alan Kirk** » 1 Dec 2004 6:19 am

Gibson stand-alone oil can delay unit:
on eBay

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edited to shorten url[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 01 December 2004 at 06:53 AM.]

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 1 Dec 2004 6:47 am

The Duane Eddy verb was a large steel water storage tank set outside the studio. Speaker in one end and a mic in the other. There are all sorts of stories about that and how at night the neighborhood could hear Duane Eddys guitar coming from that tank.
Eddy, Lee Hazlewood, Jack Miller and Floyd Ramsey went to a junk yard by the Salt River and bought the old water tank. In the morning they would have to chase out all the birds and such and if a loud truck or an emergency vehicle with a siren came by then that take was pretty much ruined. Cool story.

Jerry Van Hoose · Post by **Jerry Van Hoose** » 1 Dec 2004 8:40 am

During the mid to late sixties, I had a Gibson amp equipped with two 12" speakers and built in "oil can delay". The can, which was located in the right, rear, corner of the amp, actually resembled a quart size, tomato juice can. This amp had a specific model name, "Gibson(something)". Maybe it was "Gibson Vanguard"? Anyway, it sounded great but sure was heavy. I had completely forgotten about the old "oil can delay" feature until I saw this topic.

Jim Florence · Post by **Jim Florence** » 1 Dec 2004 3:11 pm

Suppose there's anything I could fill this thing with now? If memory serves, this was a real nice sounding unit.

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 1 Dec 2004 3:16 pm

The link in my first post, above, says Tel-Ray has bought some of the expensive oil and will sell small portions.
http://www.geocities.com/tel_ray/home.html

David Mullis · Post by **David Mullis** » 1 Dec 2004 3:18 pm

Tel-Ray still sells the oil that you would need. I only know that because I looked it up! These delay units have a neat sound. I wonder if I could get something close out of my 2112? Any ideas?

Thanks
David

Jim Bates · Post by **Jim Bates** » 1 Dec 2004 4:46 pm

I used the Tel-Ray Organ Tone unit that had an "oil can" in it. It also had tubes in it. Was a very good 'Leslie' sound, but you could not change the speed. Controls were for amount of organ sound and another for overall gain. The units were not sealed so the oil could run out if the unit was tipped on its end. I purchased a small amount of the special oil from Tel-ray for a couple of bucks, however the parts man I ordered it from said I could use clean brake fluid in a pinch. Wish I had another just like it. Was NO loss or change of tone when unit was not activated.

Thanx,
Jim

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 5 Dec 2004 4:32 am

I remember reading a Ry Cooder artical where he talked about the oil can delay. He was parinoid about carrying his on the road due to the fact that if it broke down it would be hard or impossible to get repaired due to the health risk associated with the handling of the liquid.
Lefty
Dekley D-10
Sho-Bud LDG