Electra EP 250 Analog Delay

[trag-o-caster]

Not a stompbox, but a rack mount unit. My drummer buddy got ahold of one of these things today and dropped it off with me. It doesn't have stereo out, so it's not really usable with the home studio. However, I plugged my Fernandes Strat into it today and plugged it into my B1uesboy 5F1 and WOW! What a great sounding unit! Excellent analog delay, and good sounding spring reverb.

I've looked all over the 'net and can't find anything about it. I did see a little about the EP150, but not the 250.

It is the same Electra that made the unusual Les Paul copies with those strange effects modules that plugged into the guitar itself. Remember those? They were owned by St. Louis Music, who I believe also bought up Ampeg.

And that's all I know. Does anyone know anything about these?

[trag-o-caster]

To any who may be interested, I used this device last night at a jam session, and I seriously think I'm in love! This thing has jawdropping reverb, and the delay is just wonderful! It's about two rack spaces tall, but it has a spring reverb tank inside, and it's just a killer.

I read some reviews on Harmony-Central for the EP150 which, I'll assume, is the less deluxe version of this, and they're all quite favorable. If you see one cheap, I highly recommend picking it up and giving it a whirl.

[kp8]

i have an odd old electra distortion. Very weird box

[Ringo]

I heard a steel player who was using an Electra analog delay some years ago, it sounded great.
I'm pretty sure all the older Electra effects were made in Japan, I know the older 70's & 80's Electra guitars were.
Not sure who made them for Electra / St Louis Music.
Enjoy your new toy!

[f13ndus]

Well, I'm digging up an old thread... Normally I'd start a new one, but since there's hardly ANY into on these online, I figure this way there's more of it in one place.

I wanted to see if trag-o-caster still has this unit, or if anyone else does. I really can only find a few references to it online, so I'm guessing not that many were made, or they've all been scrapped... which is a shame, because this is a NICE unit. If I ever see another one, I'll have to pick it up.

I picked one of these up a few days ago - traded a Big Muff and a Dano transparent overdrive for it. I love it!!! Spring reverb and analog delay (echo), combined in one unit. Several different input and output options to match whatever you want to use it with (as long as it uses a 1/4" mono jack ) , and the Reverb and Echo are footswitchable, which is a nice touch.

The reverb circuit wasn't working in mine, but a few hours of troubleshooting and soldering took care of that - turned out the IC for the reverb circuit wasn't working. Well, recovery was working, drive wasn't. Also, there was a really badly burnt ground trace on the circuit board in mine - I mean REALLY badly. Didn't hurt operation, did cause a minor hum problem that I took care of by bridging the break. I do wonder what could have caused it - perhaps the same problem that fried the reverb opamp? I'm guessing it was an external fault, maybe shorted wiring or power surge or lightning... Mine was probably made in Japan, as the pots are Japanese branded (same brand as in my OD-1) and the opamps are all JRC 4558Ds. Date codes on the opamps place mine at around 1979.

Anyway - I do really, REALLY like this unit! It's EXACTLY what I needed for the front end of my '58 Gibson GA-8. The reverb is very deep and full, blows the built-in reverb in my Peavey Bandit out of the water. Maybe a bit too much "sproing" at higher settings, but hey, it's spring reverb. I'm tempted to try a couple of different reverb tanks in it, if I can find some with similar input and output impedances. it's a long spring tank, but only 2 springs (2 long springs, not 4 springs that are joined in the middle to make 2) - an Accutronics 4 or 6 spring tank should make it even better.

The delay side - well, it's a nice analog delay, what can I say? Warm/dirty sounding repeats, and easily able to repeat infinitely and self-oscillate like mad. I may try tweaking the trimpots to see if I can get a little more control out of it, I'm sure some resistor/capacitor values have drifted enough that the factory setting isn't optimal any more. As a nice feature, the delay chips (although not the regular opamp chips on the board) are all socketed, so they're easily replacable if need be. Could even replace them with a modern equivalent (I think Cool Chips is making BBD chips these days?) and save the "vintage" chips for the future...

I should add - the "Delay" knob is wired backwards from what we consider normal - full CCW is the longest delay, full CW is shortest. The wiring is easy as pie to reverse, just swap the wires on lugs 1 and 3 of the pot, but I think the taper of the pot must not be linear because now the control seems a little cramped - the delay time stays relatively short until just over halfway through the control. I may switch it back and get used to it, it might be worth it for better control of short delay times.

ONE issue I've noticed - I'll have to trace out a schematic at some point to see if I can take care of it - the delay bleeds over into the reverb circuit. They must be tied together at some point - with the delay level at zero (or turned off at the footswitch, which just shorts the leads at the pot to make it zero), you can still hear repeats of the signal in the reverb. I think they're not of the dry signal, but repeats of the reverbed signal - could be wrong about that though, since when you hear it the reverb is on . It's not really annoying, and hardly noticable - I like it, really, because you can tweak the rate and repeat knobs to add some more depth/body to the reverb - but it IS a design flaw that I'm sure wasn't intended.

If anyone is interested, I can get some pictures of it on here, inside and out. I also need to re-open it and find out what delay chips are in it, I can't remember off the top of my head. (Problem is that to check the chips, I have to do some desoldering to get the board out and flip it over, and that takes time - time that I could spend playing through it! )