HI all,
This is my first post on gearslut looking forward to annoying your heads over the coming decades.
So as my title suggests i've deleloped a bit of a thing for vintage tape echo machines and have just purchased me fifth machine an Echolette E- 51 Tube machine but it needs a bit of tlc.
Can anyone recommend a good place to get it seen too? I live in ireland so somewhere in Ireland or the United Kingdom would be great.

My other machines are Roland RE 201 (*2)
Roland RE 301
Evans Vocal Echo
and now Echolette E51
Rare Museum Synthesizers for Sale: Contact dave -at- davealex.com

Let me know what your favorite tapr echos are and any views on the echolette? And are there any other addicts out there?
Looking forward to your replys

Peter

howdy:
sorry i can't help you with a repair guy in ireland, but i'm just chiming in to say i too love the tape echos... i have a fulltone and a roland RE-501, but the 501 needs some work (i live in toronto if anybody knows anyone!). use them all the time.
-J

I used a Roland Space Echo RE-201 recently and it was nearly a religious experience. Such a beautiful, warm sound. And it looks cool as hell. I can't wait to encounter one again.

J

Check on the gear page The Gear Page
You may have to register but they have been mentioned over there before.

Nice one dude,
I'm sending allot of Reason synths out and tyring them in series and parallel. Great fun with some great results could easilly wile away a day just feckin about to see what happens and has been the inspiration for many tunes. The spring reverb on Roland Space Echos are great ,have used it for allot on vocals and acoustic guitar , its a sound!

peter

cherrybombrecordingstudios » Page 1 of 11

[quote=plunderpot;1910790]I used a Roland Space Echo RE-201 recently and it was nearly a religious experience. Such a beautiful, warm sound. And it looks cool as hell. I can't wait to encounter one again.

It sure is an experience, I heard one for the first time about two years ago and have been hooked ever sinced.
Lovin that photo too , a Twin and a 201 what a combo!!!

Hey this is my first post too, this thread caught my eye because I am a bit of a tape echo nut, I recently had the enormous fortune to acquire a Watkins Copicat! Fully working, even with six spare magnetic tapes! Unbelievable. Its a solid state unit, with I believe four heads, a depth and swell control, and two gains. two ins and one out.

I got taught how to create an infinate echo with it. Great fun. I got it off an old dude who used it to create a shadows guitar style. Bless. He moved on to pedals. Its so bueatiful and its one of the main highlights of my home studio.

When I get more used to forums, I'll post a picture, but jus check them out on the web if ya not sure what they look like.

Good luck with the search fellow analogue addict.

I'm fortunate enough to be the owner of both of my friend Robert Quine's (R.I.P.) RE-501's. He purchased them some twenty-odd years ago after working with Brian Eno, who had a tremendous influence on Bob. I use one, and the other is sitting in the original box, unopened...

Mark Cattano
Magneto Studios
MySpace.com - Mark Cattano - Huntington, US - Rock / Alternative / Progressive - www.myspace.com/markcattano

P.S. I love my Roland Space Echos!

indeed, robert quine R.I.P. - what a phenomenal guitar player. a big influence on my playing, and i don't even play guitar.
back to the thread. i already posted my love of tape echo units yesterday!
-J

hey peter,

after hearing a roland tape echo live recently i gott hooked.
i saw the evans with spring verb and echo in a store the other day. Could you please comment on this machine? here in germany we gett alot of dynacord/echlette and klemt machines on ebay. the echolette you own is the same as the golden klemt tube model. could you also please comment on the sound and functionality of the machine?
My reference is the roland re 201 and I would love to get some info.

thx

I have:

RE-201
RE-150
Korg SE-500
and some Dynadorcd

Well, everybody knows the RE-201. Oh it is so beautiful.

But the SE-500 is very interesting indeed, It has this Sound on sound feature which switches off the erasehead so the tape becomes an endless loop. Just put some some nice/calm pattern, piano for example, on a loop and play it thru se SE-500, instant ambient machine!

-Tomi

Hi all and merry christmas time.

I am looking for the Internal wiring of the Echolette E 51 motor.

In fact I need to know how can do rewiring the internal's coils inside the motor because I need to make variable speed.

Here the ECHOLETTE E 51 MOTOR REFERENCE :

PAPST-MOTOREN KG:

KLZ 20.50-4/8-140D-B144 4922
42V - 4W - 48mF - 50Hz - 1.74

If anyone have idea how can do a variable speed of this Echolette E51 it should be welcome.

Reply at this mail please :

[email protected]

Anode

took a chance two years ago on an RE-201 from ebay @ $425 that "needed work". printed out some tips from the 'net, and with some q-tips, a new tape, and NO technical experience, i had it up and running as good as new in a quarter hour. it definitely requires regular, simple, minor maintenance, but it's kind of rewarding to open that baby up and get your hands all over that hot, slutty tape.

it goes on every single recording i do now, in some way or another, even if just for the spring 'verb.

even when i'm using a plugin delay, i'm trying to make it sound like the tape!

I foolishly traded away a really nice RE-501 a while back to Dave Kerzner of Sonic Reality.. I didn't use it much, so I figured I wouldn't miss it (I really still probably wouldn't - but they're so COOL).

I do still have an Echoplex EP-2... not bad either.
"-)

I'll just use this thread as it seems the most appropriate...

I'm looking for another (I have echolette echo 400 /not working/ and dynacord mini /working/) tape echo and I can't decide which one to get as they all seems to have some different functions.
Could someone please explain advantages/disadvantages of these machines:
Evans se-780, Evans se-810, Multivox MX-312, Korg se-300, Korg se-500, Roland re-201, Roland re-301, Roland re-501
For the last 5 units I know some things but on this spot I'd like to know the differences in sound (regarding to the internal circuit), functions offered, stability and maintenance - for all of the units mentioned.

Thanks in advance for any discussion!

I've owned an Echoplex since the early 80s and I've loved that thing (and hated it too... the endless cycle of tape carts... and then splicing)... but every time I've used a Space Echo it's been, like, revelatory. This cosmic kinda thing...

I love a real tape echo. I had an amplifier for repair in my shop. After getting it working I played the first line of 'Folsom Prison' and my wife runs out and screams out 'that's the sound!'. Ray Butts EchoSonic, I think it was serial number 65 or 67 or something like that. A near religious experience. I was saddened to give it back to its owner.

re501 and se500 here

I can't see any difference in built quality. If you get solid unit, it's going to hold.

My 501 is in very good condition. I can't hear the tape splice (though that's function of the tape loop) and wow/flutter is very low. It's also low noise (in my opinion).
Soundvise I hear a lot of color from the electronics, which makes everything a bit midrangy (and moody). I'd go as far as saying the electronics is very colored, covering everything and not letting the raw tape sound (and distortion) to be heard. It's cool though, there is vibe to it. Spring reverb in my unit is a bit trashy sounding so I guess it's not the one that they used in re201s. It can sound great on the right material though.

SE500 has much cleaner electronics. Mine has some problems with the tape splice which can be clearly heard as a drop (that can stop the feedback) and depending on how tight the tension is set there is also a pitch change. I'm keeping it this way until I get tired of it, so far it has been fun because of some unpredictability that it brings. I like the tone much better than RE501, it sounds more like raw tape to me and it can get much wilder/agressive than 501 too. Motor speed change is very slow though, great for smooth transitions (when you bend the tone) but not so great if you want some rapid modulation on drums for ex.


Keep in mind every single tape echo will sound different, no two re501s will be the same. Too many variables.

What feels similar about all of them is some kind of fluidity in the sound. Something I can't hear in even very nice emulation like uad re201. The distortion also sound less muffled and more direct.

It's hard for me not to overuse them .

501, EP2 and EP3 here…

EP2-dirty, warm and fuzzy. Also noisy and a pain to keep going (both mechanical and tube parts to worry about).
EP3-also warm but less fuzzy, much easier to live with, just sounds great on anything clean or dirty, my favorite
501-lot's more choices: multiple heads, reverb, sound on sound, variable speed, EQ, chorus. Does some very cool stuff and a LOT easier to build tape for than the echoplexes.

Also got a couple of Sireko? oil can delays (Fender Dimension and Morley Echo)-they're weaker, much more spacey in terms of echoes, and a lot cheaper!

Fulltone Musical Products, Inc. | pedals | Tube Tape Echo

The best of the best old stuff would be either the Klemt Echolette or my favourite, one of the binson wire recorder echoes.

Built like a tank and a fantastic sound.

But rare and expensive, mostly - and there are still spare parts out there for them!
Just think - no tape to splice, either.

I just brought nice RE201 home. The guy selling it was the first owner and he told me it has been on (running) for about 30 hours total. There are even protective foils on the knobs.

The first test ride revealed several surprises for me.
1) I've expected much more noise. The only noise I can hear is the (mechanical sound of the) motor in the reverb once it is turned really loud.
2) It sounds very different than RE501 in the "you need both" sense. Eps. with high feedback where RE201 goes into that very specific color... (btw very close to the UAD RE201). RE501 has more noise-like break up instead of RE201 chorus-ey resonance.
3) The spring reverb has dark-china-cymbal character, while RE501 sounds like hitting a small trashcan really hard.
4) 201 sounds colder than I thought... my expectation was much closer to the korg se500 which gives nice warm hug to whatever you send in.

First impressions... will see in a long run.


There is one issue with the unit though... high frequency ringing (several peaks starting at ~8khz). Not really loud, but present no matter what setting/inputs you use. I guess it's some out of spec capacitor not filtering what it should.

+1 on the Fulltone tube tape echo, they are fantastic

In the '60s I used a Watkins Copicat and then got a Vox C02 Deluxe Echo when I played lead guitar in a Shadows/Ventures cover band. Hated it when the tape snapped in the middle of a song