The Smallest Memory Man: How the EHX Memory Toy Packs 550ms of Warm Analog Delay into a Nano Box

There is a particular kind of delay — not pristine, not pixel-perfect, but warm and slightly sagging at the edges — that no algorithm has fully replicated. It comes from bucket-brigade device chips processing your signal through a chain of capacitors, each one handing the electrical charge off to the next, accumulating the tiniest imperfections along the way. The result sounds played rather than processed: repeats that breathe and blur into the dry signal rather than sitting on top of it like a grid overlay. That sound has a name — analog delay — and for decades the gold standard version of it came in a big, heavy, expensive box called the Deluxe Memory Man. The Electro-Harmonix Memory Toy is what happened when EHX decided everyone deserved that sound, even people on a tight budget or with a crowded pedalboard.

Launched in 2009, the Memory Toy is a nano-format analog delay with up to 550 milliseconds of delay time, a Blend control for wet/dry balance, a Feedback knob for repeat count, and a single Mod switch that transforms the pedal from a clean analog echo machine into something approaching the chorused delay of the legendary Deluxe Memory Man. It is, by any measure, a lean feature set. But that simplicity has attracted players from doom metal to post-rock to alternative, and the Memory Toy has earned a reputation as one of the most satisfying budget analog delays on the market — a pedal that punches far above the price tag printed on the box.

Heritage in a Nano Chassis: The Memory Man Bloodline

The Memory Man name carries serious weight in guitar history. The original Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man — introduced in the mid-1970s — was one of the first compact analog delays aimed at guitarists, and its warm BBD circuit and built-in chorus/vibrato modulation made it a studio and stage fixture for artists across nearly every genre. By the mid-2000s, EHX had expanded the Memory Man concept into a family: the original large-format Deluxe Memory Man, the Memory Boy with expression pedal input and deeper modulation options, and the Nano Deluxe Memory Man that squeezed the flagship circuit into a compact body. The Memory Toy sits at the entry-level end of this lineage — the most affordable and physically smallest member of the family, named with the same wry modesty that EHX brings to its product line (a toy that is, paradoxically, anything but).

The name is also a sly inversion. If the Memory Man is the patriarch and the Memory Boy the next generation, the Memory Toy sits at the base of the family tree — yet it delivers the essential character that made the whole family famous: all-analog bucket-brigade signal processing, warm repeats, and that distinctive bloom as notes fade into the feedback loop. At 30mA of current draw and nano dimensions, it brings this character to the smallest pedalboards and the tightest budgets.

Specifications

Controls and Signal Chain

The Memory Toy’s face plate has four controls — three knobs and a two-position toggle switch — arranged above the footswitch. Understanding what each one actually does under the hood is key to unlocking the pedal’s range.

The Delay knob sets the time between your dry signal and the first echo repeat, sweeping from approximately 30ms at fully counter-clockwise to 550ms at fully clockwise. The low end of that range — 30 to 80ms — is where slapback lives: the tight, slightly displaced echo of 1950s rockabilly and classic country, now equally at home in indie rock and post-punk. The midrange — roughly 80 to 300ms — handles rhythmic delay for single-note lines, the quarter-note echo that sits in the pocket of a groove without cluttering chords. Push past 350ms and you enter ambient territory, long repeats that blend into reverb-like wash, particularly effective when the Feedback knob is turned up.

The Feedback knob controls repeat count. At low settings — 7 to 9 o’clock — you get a single repeat that trails off quickly. Sweep toward noon for two to four repeats. Push past 3 o’clock and the repeats multiply, sustaining through multiple decay cycles before fading. At maximum settings, the Memory Toy will self-oscillate, the repeats feeding back on themselves in an escalating cascade of sound that can be pushed into noise territory. One important practical note: users have reported that powering the Memory Toy with a 9.6V adapter (rather than a clean 9V source) can cause self-oscillation to kick in as early as 40 percent on the Feedback knob. Using a quality isolated 9V supply brings this behavior back to the expected range — around 70 percent — giving a much more usable Feedback sweep across the full throw of the knob.

The Blend knob is a wet/dry mix control. Fully counter-clockwise delivers only the dry signal; fully clockwise delivers only the wet (delayed) signal. Most applications sit between the two extremes — a touch of dry signal keeps the attack clear, while the delayed signal provides the echo. For parallel effects loops, running Blend fully clockwise and mixing dry signal at the mixer or interface gives the most control, but in a traditional series chain a noon position is a solid starting point.

The Mod switch is a binary toggle — on or off — that adds a slow, subtle pitch modulation to the delay tails. When enabled, the modulation mirrors the chorus-style modulation that made the Deluxe Memory Man famous: the repeats shimmer very slightly, as if the delay circuit had a gentle chorus effect built into its feedback path. The effect is warm and organic rather than dramatic; it does not warp the dry signal, only the echoed repeats. With the Delay knob set to longer times, the Mod switch gives an ambient shimmer to sustained notes that is particularly useful in open-chord washes or sustained lead lines. With shorter delay times — slapback territory — the modulation adds a subtle movement to what would otherwise be a clinical echo, lending it vintage tape-delay character.

Famous Players: Confirmed Users of the Memory Toy

The Memory Toy has attracted a cross-genre roster of players, from post-metal heavyweights to alternative rock architects. None of the artists below are EHX-endorsed Memory Toy spokespeople; the connections documented here come from pedalboard photography, rig tour features, and Premier Guitar documentation.

Chino Moreno (Deftones)

Chino Moreno is perhaps the most visible Memory Toy user in the rock world. MusicRadar documented the Memory Toy on Moreno’s pedalboard in their “In Pictures: 68 Pro Guitarists’ Pedalboards” feature, and the Deftones rig tour coverage indicates he uses it for modulation-laced delay and — with the Feedback cranked — for warp effects that bend notes out of tune as the self-oscillation threshold approaches. Moreno’s musical context makes the Memory Toy choice meaningful: the Deftones built their sound around atmospheric guitar textures that sit in the space between shoegaze density and heavy rock aggression, and an analog delay with a Mod switch delivers exactly that kind of dimensional, slightly unstable echo. The Memory Toy’s bright character (relative to darker analog delays like the MXR Carbon Copy) suits the open, shimmering quality of Moreno’s clean and semi-clean tones.

Matt Pike (Sleep / High on Fire)

Equipboard’s photo documentation confirms an EHX Memory Toy visible on Matt Pike’s pedalboard — a fitting choice given that Pike’s approach to guitar straddles massive, tone-heavy riffing and occasional ambient texture in Sleep’s extended compositions. High on Fire’s crushing approach to stoner metal does not lean heavily on delay, but Pike has used the Carbon Copy and — per photographic documentation — the Memory Toy in his effects chain. For a guitarist whose primary sonic tools are amplifier volume and fuzz saturation, a simple analog delay without complex programming is exactly right. The Memory Toy’s plug-in-and-play simplicity and its ability to deliver usable sounds with minimal adjustment matches the no-frills philosophy of players in the doom and sludge metal tradition.

Brian Cook (Russian Circles)

Brian Cook, bassist of post-metal instrumentalists Russian Circles, is a documented Memory Toy user with Premier Guitar-level documentation behind the claim. Effects Bay’s coverage of Cook’s pedalboard — corroborated by Russian Circles rig rundown features — documents a signal chain built around an Ernie Ball Volume Jr. feeding into the EHX Memory Toy, then into an Akai E2 Headrush for tape-delay simulation and live looping. Cook’s use of the Memory Toy in this context is instructive: it functions as the analog decay layer beneath the Headrush’s more complex looped texture, providing organic warmth that the digital Headrush cannot replicate on its own. Russian Circles’ approach to bass — heavily effected, functioning as a melodic lead instrument as much as a low-end anchor — makes the Memory Toy’s warm repeats essential rather than decorative. Cook is a bassist rather than a guitarist.

The Sound: Warm, Bright, Organic

The most common community comparison for the Memory Toy is the MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay, and that comparison reveals the Memory Toy’s character by contrast. The MXR Carbon Copy is darker and grungier in its repeats — the BBD circuit in the Carbon Copy rolls off high frequencies more aggressively, giving each repeat a warm, almost murky quality that some players describe as tape-like. The Memory Toy, by contrast, sits brighter: its repeats retain more of the original signal’s top-end character, meaning they sit higher in a mix and interact more audibly with subsequent notes. Neither is more correct; they serve different tonal needs. For players whose dry tone is already dark — heavy humbuckers into a warm amp — the Carbon Copy’s darkness can feel like mud. The Memory Toy’s brighter character keeps repeats audible without competing with the dry signal.

The Mod switch adds a dimension the Carbon Copy lacks natively. Community reviewers consistently describe it as “just the right amount” of chorus modulation — enough to add movement and vintage tape character without becoming a chorus pedal in its own right. The modulation rate is fixed and slow; there is no LFO speed adjustment. This is either a limitation or a feature, depending on perspective. Players who want to dial in the exact speed of chorus modulation will need a more complex pedal like the EHX Deluxe Memory Man or the Memory Boy. Players who want a single switch to activate “that chorused analog delay thing” without menu-diving will find the Memory Toy’s Mod switch exactly sufficient.

The pedal’s 550ms ceiling is honest about what it is: a performance delay rather than an ambient machine. For ambient and experimental use cases requiring 800ms or more — the kind of delay that creates overlapping washes — the Memory Toy reaches its limit. But for the vast majority of rock, indie, post-punk, metal, and country applications, 550ms covers every tempo-synced application from 90 BPM quarter notes (667ms — slightly too long, but dotted-eighth triplets work fine) down to fast, stuttery rhythmic echoes. The 30ms minimum is short enough for slapback applications that sit right at the edge of pre-delay rather than a distinct echo event.

The EHX description puts it directly: “Pure analog delay for musicians who covet thick sound!” — and that “thickness” is the operative word. The BBD circuit adds a slight compression and warmth to repeats that digital delays simply do not produce. Each echo sounds like it was recorded through a slightly imperfect tape head, with the microscopic timing variations that make analog processing feel musical rather than mechanical. Pro Audio Land’s assessment — “The EHX Memory Toy is truly an outstanding buy for anyone that just has to have true analog delay with plenty of variations in sound AND at a great price” — captures the value proposition accurately.

Tone Recipes and Settings

Memory Toy vs. the EHX Family

Understanding where the Memory Toy sits within EHX’s own analog delay lineup clarifies both its appeal and its limits. The Deluxe Memory Man is the patriarch: more delay time, variable modulation rate and depth, stereo output options on some versions, and a decades-long pedigree of studio and stage use at the highest level. The Memory Man has been on David Gilmour’s pedalboards, in U2’s live rigs, and in countless studio sessions. It is also significantly larger and more expensive. The Memory Toy delivers the essential character of that circuit — analog BBD warmth, the option of chorused modulation — in a pedal that fits in a jacket pocket and costs a fraction of the price.

The Memory Boy sits between them. Where the Memory Toy has a fixed Mod switch, the Memory Boy offers variable modulation rate and depth, plus an expression pedal input for real-time delay time control — a feature that enables pitch-bending, tape-stop, and real-time tempo changes that the Memory Toy cannot do. Players who need expression pedal control or more nuanced modulation should step up to the Memory Boy. Players who need warm analog delay with a simple Mod option and want to spend as little as possible should look at the Memory Toy.

The nano EHX chorus pedals — the Nano Clone and Neo Clone — are natural companions to the Memory Toy. Running a chorus before the delay blends the two effects in series, with chorus broadening the dry signal’s stereo-like spread before the delay adds temporal dimension. Running them in parallel (via a loop switcher) keeps the effects independent. The Memory Toy’s Mod switch, by contrast, applies modulation only to the delay tails — a subtler effect than dedicated pre-delay chorusing, but equally musical.

The MXR Carbon Copy is the Memory Toy’s primary competition in the budget analog delay market. Both are analog, both have true bypass, both offer modulation, both sit in similar price brackets. The Carbon Copy goes slightly longer (600ms vs 550ms), is darker in character, and has a better reputation for build durability in rough live conditions. The Memory Toy is brighter, lighter, and smaller. Both are excellent value; the tonal difference is real but neither is objectively superior — choose based on where the Memory Toy’s brightness or the Carbon Copy’s darkness fits your existing signal chain better.

Buying Guide

The Memory Toy has been in continuous production since 2009 and remains a current EHX product as of 2026. MSRP is $107, with street prices for new units starting around $87 via major online retailers. Used examples in excellent condition trade in the $50–75 range, making it one of the most affordable entry points into true analog delay. Given that the circuit is relatively simple and EHX has been making it for over 15 years, the reliability record is solid; the most common reported issue is the power supply sensitivity described above (use a quality isolated 9V supply, not a daisy chain or a 9.6V adapter).

For players considering between new and used: the Memory Toy is cheap enough new that the used savings are modest. Unless you find a particularly well-priced used example, buying new gives you the included battery, a fresh footswitch, and the knowledge of the unit’s history. For those who want to experiment with the internal trim pots (which allow adjustment of modulation depth and a slight volume boost), note that this voids the warranty — worth knowing before you buy used from someone who has already voided theirs.

Players stepping up from the Memory Toy typically move to the Memory Boy (expression pedal, deeper modulation controls) or the Nano Deluxe Memory Man (the full Memory Man circuit in a compact body, with Rate and Depth knobs for modulation). Both represent meaningful upgrades; neither makes the Memory Toy obsolete, because the Memory Toy’s simplicity is genuinely useful for players who want to set it and forget it.

Ownership Notes

The Memory Toy is famously straightforward to dial in: the three-knob layout gives players an immediately intuitive control surface, and the Mod switch is a commitment-free toggle that can be flipped mid-set without dialing anything in. That said, a few practical notes improve the ownership experience significantly.

First, the power supply point bears repeating: the Memory Toy is sensitive to supply voltage. A quality isolated 9V output — from a Strymon Zuma, Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, or similar — gives the most predictable Feedback behavior. A daisy chain, particularly one shared with digital pedals that introduce voltage sag, can cause unpredictable self-oscillation. The included 9V battery works perfectly but drains at 30mA — usable for a gig, but a regular power supply is the practical long-term choice.

Second, the Memory Toy sounds best with gain before it in the signal chain, not after. Running a distortion or overdrive pedal after the delay smashes the repeats into the gain stage, compressing and hardening them in a way that most players find unpleasant. Delay last in the signal chain — before reverb if using both — is the standard approach for a reason. The Memory Toy follows this rule without exception.

Third, the Blend knob’s range is wide enough that very small adjustments at the wet end of the travel have large effect. Players who want just a whisper of analog echo should not go past 10 o’clock on the Blend knob; at noon the effect is already clearly audible and sits roughly at equal wet/dry. This is a common point of confusion for players coming from delay pedals where the mix control has a drier starting point.

The Memory Toy’s true bypass switching is clean and pop-free under normal conditions. The Small Stone Nano’s pseudo-true bypass is audibly different at high volumes — the Memory Toy’s mechanical true bypass is more transparent when switched, making it a good choice for players who need to switch cleanly at high stage volumes.

The EHX Memory Toy in Context: Why It Matters

The arrival of the Memory Toy in 2009 coincided with the peak of the boutique pedal boom — a period when analog delay circuits were being reissued and reimagined at prices that placed them beyond most working musicians’ reach. The Memory Toy made a credible analog delay — not a simulation, not an approximation, but an actual BBD circuit delivering actual bucket-brigade delay — available for under $100. That democratization has had real effects on the sounds of a generation of players who could not afford the full Memory Man or the boutique alternatives but wanted the character that BBD processing provides.

The post-rock and post-metal communities in particular embraced the Memory Toy as a pedalboard workhorse. In genres where delay is less a rhythmic tool and more a textural one — where the question is not “how many beats between echoes” but “how much atmosphere can I create” — the Memory Toy’s warmth and its Mod switch’s ambient enhancement make it more useful than a technically superior digital delay with twice the feature set. Chino Moreno’s Deftones, Matt Pike’s doom-metal projects, Brian Cook’s Russian Circles — these are not players who chose the Memory Toy for its affordability alone. They chose it because it sounds like what they needed.

In 2026, the Memory Toy competes in a more crowded market than it did in 2009. Digital delays have become warmer, more nuanced, and better at approximating analog character. But the Memory Toy remains relevant because analog delay is not primarily a character approximation — it is a circuit behavior, a physical process that produces its warmth through the same mechanism it always has. Players who want that mechanism, not a simulation of it, still come back to the Memory Toy.

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