Electro- Harmonix Pico Rerun & Pico Canyon Echo

On the face of it, EHX’s Pico Rerun and Pico Canyon Echo pedals have a lot in common — hence reviewing them together here. Both offer a three‑second maximum delay time, both have tap‑tempo options and both ship with a suitable PSU. Yet, there are also some important differences that might draw you more towards one than the other.

Essentially, the Rerun sets out to emulate the sound and behaviour of tape echo, while the Canyon Echo is more of a straight‑ahead digital delay, with a variable filter to control the tonality of the repeats. The Blend, Delay and Feedback controls are common to both, and both pedals can be set to analogue bypass or ‘Tails’, where the delay fades naturally when the pedal is bypassed. (Pressing and holding the button until the lights flash switches Tails mode on or off.) The differences lie in the role of the fourth knob and in the function of the small button at the top of the panel.

Taking the Canyon Echo first, the button steps around three tap‑tempo note‑division options, with the LED changing from green to orange to red depending on your selection. Green denotes that an eighth note is half the tap time, when orange it’s three quarters of the tap time, and a red light means it’s equal to the tap time. The bypass footswitch can be used to set the tap tempo, but tap tempo can be disabled for those who prefer to use only the Delay knob. Filter controls an EQ that is flat in the middle, warm and soupy (low‑pass) to the left, and thinner (high‑pass) to the right. This has enough range to allow an approximate emulation of analogue delays or tape delays. If the footswitch is pressed and held with the pedal set to Tails mode, the delay produces infinite repeats until the switch is pressed again.

The Rerun uses the button (labelled Flutter) to set the amount of pitch modulation to emulate worn tape or mechanics. This can be set to low, medium or high and it does indeed impart the desired character, adding both wow and flutter, and the LED changes colour to show the current setting. Tape echo machines, especially vintage valve models, also tend to add some distortion and tape saturation, so the fourth knob is marked Saturation, and adds increasing amounts of murkiness to the repeats.

Again, the footswitch is used for tap tempo as well as for bypass, and there’s the option to disable tap tempo if it’s not required, to prevent accidents. The delay time corresponds directly to the tap speed. If bypass is set to Tails mode, pressing and holding the footswitch sets the feedback to maximum for as long as the switch is held down, which makes it possible to create those runaway dub‑style delays.

These pedals do a fine job sonically, and offer a useful amount of flexibility without taking up much pedalboard space.

Both of these pedals do a fine job sonically, and offer a useful amount of flexibility without taking up much pedalboard space. My personal favourite is the Rerun, which really nails that charming, slightly worn tape‑echo sound, and that useful dub runaway feedback option can be a lot of fun too. Should you prefer a cleaner delay, or need to create infinite repeats, though, then the Canyon Echo will definitely do you proud. And with both of these pedals having up to three seconds of delay available, there should be no complaints in that department.