View allAll Photos Tagged tapeecho
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An old Echoplex tape echo. The lid of this one says it's an EP-4, but I'm pretty sure it's actually an EP-3. Maybe with an EP-4 lid. Or maybe there were EP-3 chassis that ended up labeled as EP-4 models during the change in the production line. I bought this one used at a guitar show about fifteen years ago, so I can't tell you much about its origins. It's not one of the extremely coveted tube models, though. Just a lowly solid-state model.
Ancient technology. A tape loop runs through the machine continuously. The handle up there under the logo allows you to manually change the distance between the record head and playback head, thus varying the length of the delay. Obviously the tape generation-loss influences the resulting sound, and in that funky process lies the magic.
Here's the short(ish) version. I was sick of the way my digital delays always sounded and wanted to get that great delay sound that Jimmy Page and early Van Halen recordings had. So I bought an Echoplex and viola, there it was. Well, after a couple of years it died. Just stopped running suddenly and I was back at square one.
I didn't know of anyone local who could repair it and didn't want to put it in the mail to someone, so I bought a cheap Danelectro DE-1 Dan-Echo pedal to get me through in the interim. Funny thing about the Dan-Echo. It has a "Hi Cut" control that rolls off treble. Amazingly, that turned out to be the "magic tone" component that the Echoplex had in spades. Poor frequency response. That was the "special sauce" that made the Echoplex sound so good. Now, I know that's not everyone's belief.
Michael Fuller of Fulltone has implied that people who think "warm" and "poor frequency response" are the same thing "don't get it." And it's entirely possible (probable, even) that I don't get it. I'm functionally retarded on a lot of levels. I can't afford one of Mike's beautiful tube-driven tape echo boxes, so I'm probably not going to "get it." I do know that my muffled Echoplex did what I seem to like hearing a delay do.
You (and by 'you' I mean 'me') don't want your echo to sound the same as your realtime guitar sound. It's too busy and the high frequencies stack up in nasty ways and give you a headache. Rolling off the treble works wonders. Tuning the delay to your guitar helps a lot, too. That's another (much longer) story, but the short version is that varying the delay speed until the delay seems to "come into tune" with your low E string makes the delay sound WAY fatter.
Anyway, I never had the Echoplex repaired. It was still DOA until I repaired it today (hence the photos, taken during the process of opening it up to check it out). Turns out the flywheel just needed a little WD-40. I feel like kind of an idiot for waiting this long to open it up and check it out.
BTW, some people claim that the "warble" of the poor tape motor adds its own tone. I don't really think it's an issue. Also, there are people who talk up the "tape compression" that's added, which may have some small effect. But usually to really get tape compression you have to slam the levels to the point of saturation. There's a trim pot that allows you to change the record level, but it seems like you have to hit it with a pretty hot signal to get into the saturation zone and then the little solid state preamp is starting to sound like toasted buttocks, which is what I imagine the appeal of the tube models boils down to. I've never had access to a tube model, so I haven't ever given that a try. To me the whole thing was a frequency response issue. Your mileage may vary.
An old Echoplex tape echo. The lid of this one says it's an EP-4, but I'm pretty sure it's actually an EP-3. Maybe with an EP-4 lid. Or maybe there were EP-3 chassis that ended up labeled as EP-4 models during the change in the production line. I bought this one used at a guitar show about fifteen years ago, so I can't tell you much about its origins. It's not one of the extremely coveted tube models, though. Just a lowly solid-state model.
Ancient technology. A tape loop runs through the machine continuously. The handle up there under the logo allows you to manually change the distance between the record head and playback head, thus varying the length of the delay. Obviously the tape generation-loss influences the resulting sound, and in that funky process lies the magic.
Here's the short(ish) version. I was sick of the way my digital delays always sounded and wanted to get that great delay sound that Jimmy Page and early Van Halen recordings had. So I bought an Echoplex and viola, there it was. Well, after a couple of years it died. Just stopped running suddenly and I was back at square one.
I didn't know of anyone local who could repair it and didn't want to put it in the mail to someone, so I bought a cheap Danelectro DE-1 Dan-Echo pedal to get me through in the interim. Funny thing about the Dan-Echo. It has a "Hi Cut" control that rolls off treble. Amazingly, that turned out to be the "magic tone" component that the Echoplex had in spades. Poor frequency response. That was the "special sauce" that made the Echoplex sound so good. Now, I know that's not everyone's belief.
Michael Fuller of Fulltone has implied that people who think "warm" and "poor frequency response" are the same thing "don't get it." And it's entirely possible (probable, even) that I don't get it. I'm functionally retarded on a lot of levels. I can't afford one of Mike's beautiful tube-driven tape echo boxes, so I'm probably not going to "get it." I do know that my muffled Echoplex did what I seem to like hearing a delay do.
You (and by 'you' I mean 'me') don't want your echo to sound the same as your realtime guitar sound. It's too busy and the high frequencies stack up in nasty ways and give you a headache. Rolling off the treble works wonders. Tuning the delay to your guitar helps a lot, too. That's another (much longer) story, but the short version is that varying the delay speed until the delay seems to "come into tune" with your low E string makes the delay sound WAY fatter.
Anyway, I never had the Echoplex repaired. It was still DOA until I repaired it today (hence the photos, taken during the process of opening it up to check it out). Turns out the flywheel just needed a little WD-40. I feel like kind of an idiot for waiting this long to open it up and check it out.
BTW, some people claim that the "warble" of the poor tape motor adds its own tone. I don't really think it's an issue. Also, there are people who talk up the "tape compression" that's added, which may have some small effect. But usually to really get tape compression you have to slam the levels to the point of saturation. There's a trim pot that allows you to change the record level, but it seems like you have to hit it with a pretty hot signal to get into the saturation zone and then the little solid state preamp is starting to sound like toasted buttocks, which is what I imagine the appeal of the tube models boils down to. I've never had access to a tube model, so I haven't ever given that a try. To me the whole thing was a frequency response issue. Your mileage may vary.
An old Echoplex tape echo. The lid of this one says it's an EP-4, but I'm pretty sure it's actually an EP-3. Maybe with an EP-4 lid. Or maybe there were EP-3 chassis that ended up labeled as EP-4 models during the change in the production line. I bought this one used at a guitar show about fifteen years ago, so I can't tell you much about its origins. It's not one of the extremely coveted tube models, though. Just a lowly solid-state model.
Ancient technology. A tape loop runs through the machine continuously. The handle up there under the logo allows you to manually change the distance between the record head and playback head, thus varying the length of the delay. Obviously the tape generation-loss influences the resulting sound, and in that funky process lies the magic.
Here's the short(ish) version. I was sick of the way my digital delays always sounded and wanted to get that great delay sound that Jimmy Page and early Van Halen recordings had. So I bought an Echoplex and viola, there it was. Well, after a couple of years it died. Just stopped running suddenly and I was back at square one.
I didn't know of anyone local who could repair it and didn't want to put it in the mail to someone, so I bought a cheap Danelectro DE-1 Dan-Echo pedal to get me through in the interim. Funny thing about the Dan-Echo. It has a "Hi Cut" control that rolls off treble. Amazingly, that turned out to be the "magic tone" component that the Echoplex had in spades. Poor frequency response. That was the "special sauce" that made the Echoplex sound so good. Now, I know that's not everyone's belief.
Michael Fuller of Fulltone has implied that people who think "warm" and "poor frequency response" are the same thing "don't get it." And it's entirely possible (probable, even) that I don't get it. I'm functionally retarded on a lot of levels. I can't afford one of Mike's beautiful tube-driven tape echo boxes, so I'm probably not going to "get it." I do know that my muffled Echoplex did what I seem to like hearing a delay do.
You (and by 'you' I mean 'me') don't want your echo to sound the same as your realtime guitar sound. It's too busy and the high frequencies stack up in nasty ways and give you a headache. Rolling off the treble works wonders. Tuning the delay to your guitar helps a lot, too. That's another (much longer) story, but the short version is that varying the delay speed until the delay seems to "come into tune" with your low E string makes the delay sound WAY fatter.
Anyway, I never had the Echoplex repaired. It was still DOA until I repaired it today (hence the photos, taken during the process of opening it up to check it out). Turns out the flywheel just needed a little WD-40. I feel like kind of an idiot for waiting this long to open it up and check it out.
BTW, some people claim that the "warble" of the poor tape motor adds its own tone. I don't really think it's an issue. Also, there are people who talk up the "tape compression" that's added, which may have some small effect. But usually to really get tape compression you have to slam the levels to the point of saturation. There's a trim pot that allows you to change the record level, but it seems like you have to hit it with a pretty hot signal to get into the saturation zone and then the little solid state preamp is starting to sound like toasted buttocks, which is what I imagine the appeal of the tube models boils down to. I've never had access to a tube model, so I haven't ever given that a try. To me the whole thing was a frequency response issue. Your mileage may vary.
An old Echoplex tape echo. The lid of this one says it's an EP-4, but I'm pretty sure it's actually an EP-3. Maybe with an EP-4 lid. Or maybe there were EP-3 chassis that ended up labeled as EP-4 models during the change in the production line. I bought this one used at a guitar show about fifteen years ago, so I can't tell you much about its origins. It's not one of the extremely coveted tube models, though. Just a lowly solid-state model.
Ancient technology. A tape loop runs through the machine continuously. The handle up there under the logo allows you to manually change the distance between the record head and playback head, thus varying the length of the delay. Obviously the tape generation-loss influences the resulting sound, and in that funky process lies the magic.
Here's the short(ish) version. I was sick of the way my digital delays always sounded and wanted to get that great delay sound that Jimmy Page and early Van Halen recordings had. So I bought an Echoplex and viola, there it was. Well, after a couple of years it died. Just stopped running suddenly and I was back at square one.
I didn't know of anyone local who could repair it and didn't want to put it in the mail to someone, so I bought a cheap Danelectro DE-1 Dan-Echo pedal to get me through in the interim. Funny thing about the Dan-Echo. It has a "Hi Cut" control that rolls off treble. Amazingly, that turned out to be the "magic tone" component that the Echoplex had in spades. Poor frequency response. That was the "special sauce" that made the Echoplex sound so good. Now, I know that's not everyone's belief.
Michael Fuller of Fulltone has implied that people who think "warm" and "poor frequency response" are the same thing "don't get it." And it's entirely possible (probable, even) that I don't get it. I'm functionally retarded on a lot of levels. I can't afford one of Mike's beautiful tube-driven tape echo boxes, so I'm probably not going to "get it." I do know that my muffled Echoplex did what I seem to like hearing a delay do.
You (and by 'you' I mean 'me') don't want your echo to sound the same as your realtime guitar sound. It's too busy and the high frequencies stack up in nasty ways and give you a headache. Rolling off the treble works wonders. Tuning the delay to your guitar helps a lot, too. That's another (much longer) story, but the short version is that varying the delay speed until the delay seems to "come into tune" with your low E string makes the delay sound WAY fatter.
Anyway, I never had the Echoplex repaired. It was still DOA until I repaired it today (hence the photos, taken during the process of opening it up to check it out). Turns out the flywheel just needed a little WD-40. I feel like kind of an idiot for waiting this long to open it up and check it out.
BTW, some people claim that the "warble" of the poor tape motor adds its own tone. I don't really think it's an issue. Also, there are people who talk up the "tape compression" that's added, which may have some small effect. But usually to really get tape compression you have to slam the levels to the point of saturation. There's a trim pot that allows you to change the record level, but it seems like you have to hit it with a pretty hot signal to get into the saturation zone and then the little solid state preamp is starting to sound like toasted buttocks, which is what I imagine the appeal of the tube models boils down to. I've never had access to a tube model, so I haven't ever given that a try. To me the whole thing was a frequency response issue. Your mileage may vary.
Home-Made Sign at Spaceman Music. I love it.
See Mikey G Ottawa's Flickr Photo Set of my visit to Spaceman Music in Centretown Ottawa on Gladstone Avenue at Bank Street. www.flickr.com/photos/mikeygottawa/sets/72157603698127445...
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I edited this photo for best effect.
See Mikey G Ottawa's Flickr Photo Set of my visit to Spaceman Music in Centretown Ottawa on Gladstone Avenue at Bank Street. www.flickr.com/photos/mikeygottawa/sets/72157603698127445...
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So the reason I pulled out this Echoplex was to finally take a look at it myself and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. I assumed it was a burnt-out motor.
Well, I feel a little silly. The motor was running like a champ when I plugged it in, but the flywheel was frozen tight. A little WD-40 and the Echoplex sprang back to life. I wish I hadn't waited a decade to open it up. Heh...
So the reason I pulled out this Echoplex was to finally take a look at it myself and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. I assumed it was a burnt-out motor.
Well, I feel a little silly. The motor was running like a champ when I plugged it in, but the flywheel was frozen tight. If you look you can see the flywheel is covered in a thin layer of rust. A little WD-40 and the Echoplex sprang back to life. I wish I hadn't waited a decade to open it up. Heh...
So the reason I pulled out this Echoplex was to finally take a look at it myself and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. I assumed it was a burnt-out motor.
Well, I feel a little silly. The motor was running like a champ when I plugged it in, but the flywheel was frozen tight. A little WD-40 and the Echoplex sprang back to life. I wish I hadn't waited a decade to open it up. Heh...
So the reason I pulled out this Echoplex was to finally take a look at it myself and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. I assumed it was a burnt-out motor.
Well, I feel a little silly. The motor was running like a champ when I plugged it in, but the flywheel was frozen tight. A little WD-40 and the Echoplex sprang back to life. I wish I hadn't waited a decade to open it up. Heh...
So the reason I pulled out this Echoplex was to finally take a look at it myself and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. I assumed it was a burnt-out motor.
Well, I feel a little silly. The motor was running like a champ when I plugged it in, but the flywheel was frozen tight. A little WD-40 and the Echoplex sprang back to life. I wish I hadn't waited a decade to open it up. Heh...
Repairing a friend's Echoplex. This example had a combination of dirty tape heads, cold solder joints, previous owner splicing and dicing, a cracked resistor, and was out of adjustment.
Cassette release from No Corners.
Link later but wow this is some music, Bristol bringing it again. One of fifty.
soundcloud.com/j-a-b-u/nc001-jabu-live-tape-echo-clip
Davemaster Green, Tapemistress Dork and Dorkmaster Scratch playing with a Watkins Copycat tape echo.
Hear an MP3 recording at
soundtransit.nl/mp3/1360.Dave_Pape.Brighton.Burning_Dork_...