Echoplex? or just a simple delay?

I really have my heart set on the echoplex but is it worth it? i play alot of gigs and i'm going into the studio soon. Can someone help me out?

Echoplex maintenance is a hassle and inherently inconsistent (be it part of the charm or frustration...especially in the studio) vs digital stuff is maintenance-free and consistent but perhaps too much clarity and crispness.

+1, an Exhoplex is a thing of wonder and beauty, the tone is awesome and it definitely adds a certain 'something' to your guitars tone !
Unfortunately that is mostly noise, hiss, flutter, bangs, crackles and more.
The heads can be fragile and the motors next to impossible to maintain/repair :(
I would say - keep it in the house andenjoy playing with it :)
A really good alternative I have found is the Vox 'time machine', ignore the Joe Satriani badge, it has a great sound and is reliable, clean and the knobs work.

Why not just a Strymon or Deluxe Memory Man?

+1, an Exhoplex is a thing of wonder and beauty, the tone is awesome and it definitely adds a certain 'something' to your guitars tone !
Unfortunately that is mostly noise, hiss, flutter, bangs, crackles and more.
The heads can be fragile and the motors next to impossible to maintain/repair :(
I would say - keep it in the house andenjoy playing with it :)
A really good alternative I have found is the Vox 'time machine', ignore the Joe Satriani badge, it has a great sound and is reliable, clean and the knobs work.

+1. The Satriani is a Good delay,

The MXR Carbon Copy analog delay is quite nice, also.

I wouldn't bother gigging with a real tape echo. They're a hassle. A few years ago I watched Deke Dickerson move from using an old Ecco-Fonic to a homebrew reel to reel rig to a Dan-Echo inside of a year or so.

As an echoplex owner, you guys have brought up some very good points. I agree that gigging them would be/could be troublesome. In that case, you'd need two :mrgreen:

If you're set on a real tape delay, you owe it to yourself to have a look into the fulltone tube echo. Its a piece of total coolness.

I have no doubt a pedal of your choice, can do what your wanting to do.

I don't consider myself as a musician, just a guitar owner. But I have to say I love my EP3 and it stays in the music room for those Saturday night brawls with the strings.

For gigs I'd go pedal. Tape echos are just too iffy for live shows unless you've got a full time tech.

Deluxe Memory Man

Get a pedal and save some dough and hassle.

If you have some money, get the Fulltone TTE and a couple extra cartridges.

If you gig a lot, you would really have to use the tape echo a lot to justify the maintenance and cost IMO. Which brings up the question why would anybody want to use a delay a whole lot? I answered this question honestly, and became a better player.

For the record Ive had the old echo tape machines, a TTE, and most all the analog and digital delays over the years. Now I don't even have one pedal! Neither did most of my favorite players when they played live.

I'll be the "devil's advocate"... My use of delay is for traditional rockabilly and 50's honky tonk slap back. So I'll share my opinion and experience based on that application.

I say buy an Echoplex, send it to Orbit Electronix for service and then use it. Cleaning them is really not a big deal it takes maybe 15 minutes or so on a Saturday afternoon.

The bigger deal IMHO is finding good quality tape and cartridges. I loved the tone of my EP-3 with the old tape when I first got it, now I have an Orbit tape cartridge in there and I find its actually more noisy. You can't buy Fulltone tape from Fuller because his is reserved for his TTE.

Bottom line is NOTHING sounds like a well maintained Echoplex, nothing matches it exactly.

I also have a TTE that I bought new when a store was closing trying to get rid of it. Its a very nice unit and I feel more comfortable taking it out to gigs than my old EP-3. It does not sound the same as my EP-3. The boost function is very cool on these and you also get a warranty and a place to obtain parts. Its a sweet sound all its own, and IMHO sounds best when run in stereo. Is a $1000 a lot to spend for a slap back machine, yes it is... Is $1500 too much for a clean boost, yes but folks are still buying used Klons.

For live use, most of the time I just use a simple Aqua Puss reissue set for rockabilly slap back. I've found that its the one that sounds most like my EP-3 and its reliable with no tape to change.

The MXR Carbon Copy analog delay is quite nice, also.

+1 great delay

I've seen Buddy Miller a few times with some sort of tape delay and he sounded totally awesome. That said, however, I replaced my bucket brigade analog delay with a Digitech Hardwire Delay-Looper DL-8 at half the price about a year ago and got easily twice the effect. I've barely begun to dial in all of the possibilities with this pedal. I don't read many negatives about it. Certainly, not the popular response, but...

If you can afford to think about an Echoplex, I think you know the answer.





Want something cheaper, maybe check out a Roland Space Echo.



You can mail me the difference(you're welcome!)

I've seen Buddy Miller a few times with some sort of tape delay and he sounded totally awesome.

Buddy Miller uses a Fulltone TTE, I've seen photos of that in stereo with 2 Swart amps.

I have to say that I've been pretty impressed with the tape echo in my Akai Headrush pedal - which I bought primarily to use as a looper!

The tape echo is pretty good to my ears - much better sounding than the digital delay incorporated in the same pedal.

And I've always really liked my old Boss DD2 up till now.

bumping up a slightly older thread because I recently picked up a TTE, and it's getting me more and more interested in tape echoes in general.

as to whether to buy an Echoplex...it depends! what range of delay do you need and how willing are you to do the maintenance required? the magnificent thing about the TTE for me (and I'm guessing this is true of other tape echoes as well) is that it gives me great slapback delay AND great longer delays, and that's not something I've found in a bucket brigade pedal...and I've tried a LOT of 'em. for slapback, a good 300ms bb delay like an Aqua Puss works great. for longer stuff, a DMM or something works pretty well. but the TTE gives me all of that PLUS the preamp in that thing just sounds great. is it worth the price tag? time will tell....it's going to have to perform pretty admirably for a long while to justify it, but I'm not turning it loose any time soon. The sound and feel of it is pretty addicting...and I don't throw that word around when talking about gear.

now I wanna try an Echoplex! or a Space Echo! or a Copicat! ahhhh!

I have to say that I've been pretty impressed with the tape echo in my Akai Headrush pedal - which I bought primarily to use as a looper!

The tape echo is pretty good to my ears - much better sounding than the digital delay incorporated in the same pedal.

And I've always really liked my old Boss DD2 up till now.
get analog man to mod that dd2.

I own an RE-150 Space Echo. I love that thing. I recently cleaned the heads and pitch roller and the noise it was making went away. I don't gig with it much since it's big, but if you have to have a tape echo sound that's the way to get it. If I had the cash, I'd get a TTE or a tube Echoplex.

I had a friend in a jazz duo that played his flute through a Super Reverb and an Echoplex and do sound on sound loops. It was pretty groovy, but I bet you could do the same thing with a good delay/looper pedal.

On the other hand, when the drummer kicks in can the audience tell if you're using a tape echo or a good pedal?

get analog man to mod that dd2.

My DD2 has been sounding great for 25 or so years now.
Why mod a great sounding digital delay to sound analog, when you can just get a good analog delay?

Besides, tape echoes sound nothing like analog delays.

Anything electro-mechanical, with moving parts, rollers, motors, bearings, bushings, tape tape wear, head wear, dirt, etc...... will inherently be less reliable. If you want to gig reliably you'll have to have two of them. Too much hassle and expense.

PLENTY of very good sounding digital and analog delays on the market. No moving parts. Much more reliable.

Then ask yourself, can anyone in the audience tell the difference anyway? Do they even care?

Besides, a modern pedal will be capable of much more than just a single tap delay like an Echoplex. You'll get tap tempo, multi-tap and all sorts of stuff the old Echoplex never dreamed of.

No moving parts to service or tape to replace. Yes it's digital!