[sdiy] Delays: how?

[MED]

	Okay, the BBD source seems to have dried up (along with the whole 
"sounding horrible") and this raises the question: what now?
I want to make a delay with a decent time (something like 1 second). 
Feedback should be adjustable from same level (feeding back until 
hard-clipping catches it) to silent. Preferable would be control over 
the feedback loop, like an effects chain (pitch shifting craziness, et 
cetera)
I have the feeling that a modern-component delay will be a 
some-decent-bit-number ADC into a LOT of shift registers (same number of 
lines as the resolution of the ADC/DAC, times however many are needed 
for the delay time) into a DAC. Is there a better technique? Preferably 
something simpler?

Should I just try to make a tape echo? How are *they* done? MM doesn't 
have any schematics for the rolands, just vague descriptions that whet 
one's appetite.

-MED