The delay line has controls for Dimension, Animate, and Depth. The Dimension control adds a slightly detuned slapback at low levels, reverb-like ambience at mid-levels, and a trippy echo-resonance that leads to self-oscillation when cranked. The Animate control is the real pearl in the Sea Machine’s oyster, if you will. This controls how far the pitch swings. At lower settings, you’ll hear slight detuning for a subtle double-tracked thickening effect, á la traditional chorus pedals. As you increase the Animate control, the pitch swings further and further away from the root note for an effect that lies somewhere between chorus and vibrato, before landing at full tilt on sonar-like oscillations that sound more like a giant monster-movie beast awaking from its undersea slumber than any effects pedal we’ve ever heard. Finally, the Intensity control rounds out the delay line, adjusting the blend between the modulated and dry signals.

With this mix of standard and unique controls, everything from subtle warble, classic Leslie, seasick pitch bends, strangled alien sounds, stunted arpeggiations and many more far out sounds are available. Or you could just use it as a chorus. That works, too. Oh, and if you’re a bass player who fancies themselves a fan of the classic 80s post-punk bass sound, the Sea Machine is pretty much just like (tone) heaven.

We’ve designed the Sea Machine to work well following fuzz / overdrive / distortion pedals without getting muddy, lowering in output, or breaking up, because we like running distortion pedals into things. Also, when engaged, the Sea Machine’s transparent buffer leaves the all-analog dry signal unaltered and crystal clear.

The Sea Machine is true-bypass, uses silent relay-based switching, and is built one at a time in the belly of the great white whale along the shores of the Ohio & Erie Canal in Akron, Ohio, USA.

Controls

Rate: Sets the speed of the LFO. The miniature LED will show the tempo even in bypass mode.

Shape: From soft triangle through hard square wave.

Dimension: Adds a slight slap-back at low levels, reverb-like ambiance at mid levels and an echo-resonance at max.

Depth: How much the LFO modulates the delay time.

Animate: How far the pitch shifted signal swings, lower levels equals a tighter and more focused shift à la traditional chorus. As you increase the control a more wild and animated pitch shift begins to emerge.

Intensity: How much modulated signal is blended in with the dry signal.