Recycle Box Delayed Distortion Pedal

Rainger FX Recycle Box

Recycle Box from Rainger FX picks up where the Break Box left off while breaking new ground with a unique distortion and delay hybrid effect. True to its name, the pedal came out of two things meeting: the idea of a hybrid distortion/delay, and a practical need to do something with the enclosures left over from the Break Box production run. The result is an eccentric, characterful stompbox—entirely in line with Rainger FX's general ethos of "weird is good".

The drive circuit is identical to the Break Box's, which is essentially a combination of Rainger's own overdrive design and the back half of the distortion circuit from the Freakenbender—their Tonebender collaboration with Colorsound. Three controls define the sound: Volume, Tone, and Gain, spanning mild saturation to full-blown distortion. The delay is a triple-tap design, with an unusual timing relationship between the taps, which gives the effect a distinctly chaotic quality. The delay sits after the distortion, giving it a more traditional character—clean repeats on an already-clipped signal, albeit that doesn't stop it from being wild. Two controls adjust the settings: Time (up to 770ms), and Feedback, which gladly runs into self-oscillation when maxed. With no dry/wet control, the delay signal is maxed out: an all-or-nothing kind of deal that demands to be actively played rather than set and forgotten.

The big pad, where the scratch trigger used to be in the Break Box, is repurposed to momentarily switch between dry distortion and delayed distortion. You can also define how this button accents the relationship between the effects—a Pad Flip button on the top end panel decides whether pressing the pad will bring the delay in or drop it out.

Recycle Box Features

• Analog distortion with digital delay
• Made with leftover Break Box enclosures, featuring a vinyl sticker on top
• Same distortion circuit as in the Break Box
• Volume, Tone, and Gain controls over the distortion
• Triple-tap delay, each tap individually timed
• Feedback control running from three single multi-tap repeats up to droning self-oscillation
• Delay time control up to 770ms
• Big PAD momentarily switches between dry distortion and delayed distortion
• PAD FLIP pushbutton on the top end panel inverts the pad's function
• Delay sits after the distortion
• Delay section is equipped with a noise gate