Slowdive, 1993. Softer than Loveless and wider than A Storm in Heaven. Chorused guitars, long echoes and reverb with an octave shimmer on top, two parts blending into one wash. Then one song where the fuzz arrives and does not leave.
Plug into an audio interface, pick Live input and wear wired headphones. Chrome on a laptop or desktop works best.
Chorus widens the guitar. Echo is a filtered dub delay that pans as it repeats. Wash is the reverb, and Shimmer feeds it an octave up so the tail rises.
Used mostly as a fuzz. Keep Glide near zero for this record; the wobble is a Loveless thing.
The three tones
Doing the workThe chorus and the wash working together. The chorus widens each chord, the echoes fill the gaps, and the reverb blurs the changes so nothing stops.
How to play itLet open strings ring through the chord changes. The blur between chords is the sound.
Doing the workContrast. The fuzz only means something because the quiet parts are clean. On this board, stomp Glidewall on and off to go between the two.
How to play itPlay the quiet part clean, then hit Glidewall and dig in. Big downstrokes, open chords.
Doing the workThe echo feedback. Repeats are filtered on every pass so they get darker and thinner as they pile up, which is what keeps high feedback from turning into noise.
How to play itShort phrases with long gaps. Play, then stop and let the echoes answer.
Build it for real
Order. Fuzz first, then chorus, then delay, then reverb. Chorus before delay means every repeat carries the movement; delay before reverb keeps the echoes inside the room.
Amp. Clean with headroom, slightly bright. The effects are the sound, so the amp should stay out of their way.
Entry
roughly $300 to $450 new
Shimmer is easy to overdo. Keep it under the guitar, not on top of it.
Mid
roughly $600 to $850 new
For the dub echoes, a delay where you can push feedback up mid-phrase is worth more than any feature list.
Boutique
$1,200 and up new
Two guitars with slightly different settings, panned apart, is the real secret of this record.
Totals are rough street prices for new pedals in late 2026 and will drift; used is usually far cheaper. The rig above uses original pedal designs, not models of these.
Learn the technique
Questions
Fuzz first, then chorus, then delay, then reverb. Chorus before delay means every repeat carries the movement; delay before reverb keeps the echoes inside the room. Clean with headroom, slightly bright. The effects are the sound, so the amp should stay out of their way. On the rig above, switch each pedal off and on to hear what it adds.
A starting point, in order: EHX Big Muff Pi, then EHX Small Clone, then TC Electronic Flashback 2, then Boss RV-6. That is roughly $300 to $450 new. Shimmer is easy to overdo. Keep it under the guitar, not on top of it.
Yes. Plug your guitar into an audio interface, choose Live input, allow microphone access and wear wired headphones. Chrome on a laptop or desktop works best. Without an interface, the demo guitar plays through the rig.
Early draft. These presets and builds are written from production experience and listening, not checked against the original gear. If you know these records and something is off, tell me.