Saw one on Ebay Germany a couple of weeks ago. So there are some of them around, that's all I can say. Price was okay (~100,00 EUR) iirc.

The Hicadoolas

Thanks for the review Psychonaut,
very tempting. I'll have to try it out.
Although I was mainly interested in it's Reverb capabilities,
but still - I'm all for interesting sounds.
It does look cool.
Did you record with it?

SanchoPansen, that seems extremely cheap! The one I'm looking at is 4.5 times that.

Last edited: Feb 05, 2012 15:32:10

Not mine, but a pretty good demo...

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Last edited: Feb 05, 2012 17:28:03

Wow. I like that.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

So, is anything generally available these days close. What about Guyatone's Tube Echo? I'm still looking.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

DreadInBabylon wrote:

Very impressive.
I imagine a signal, split one way to the echo, one way
to a reverb tank, into 2 amps or 2 channels... could
sound huuuge.

That would sound huge

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IvanP wrote:

Those videos are a lot of fun. Victor is right that
the Echocord is just the next iteration of the Klemt
Echolette. My Echolette is a really fun unit, but
unfortunately mine is super noisy. I sent it for
repair and maintenance some years ago to a guy in
Arizona that has a service dedicated to tape echoes,
and it helped, but it's still too noisy to be used in
any kind of a practical situation. Watching the
Echolette video that Victor posted just above makes me
very jealous! There's no noise there at all. (Anybody
know what's causing this noise and where to send it to
get it repaired?)

But when working correctly those echo boxes are so
incredibly cool - I'd say the coolest guitar effect
ever! The flexibility and sound they have is unmatched
by any pedal.

What sort of noise is it? My Dynacord is very quiet, the motor makes sound but that doesn't come through the amp. There's a guy in Union NJ, his shop is called Time Electronics. His name is Rich and he used to play bass in the Mystic Eyes back in the 60's. He rebuilt my Echoplex 7 years ago and I haven't had a problem since ( it's been on 3 euro tours, two midwest tours, and countless shows in between ). This guy aproaches electronics as science, if he can't fix it... I can send you his contact if you want.

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IvanP wrote:

psychonaut wrote:

What sort of noise is it?

Hissing. Very loud. Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhh.....

My Dynacord is very quiet,

Lucky!

the motor makes sound but that doesn't come through
the amp.

Yeah, that's the case with the Echolette, too.

There's a guy in Union NJ, his shop is called Time
Electronics. His name is Rich and he used to play bass
in the Mystic Eyes back in the 60's. This guy
aproaches electronics as science, if he can't fix it...
I can send you his contact if you want.

Victor, that would be great! I'm not eager to ship it
for repair one more time, but it's not really usable at
this point, so I probably better. Thanks!!

Just emailed you his number

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Last edited: Feb 06, 2012 14:09:03

I don't have experience with any of those except the El Capistan, but I'd say it comes quite close - as close as any pedal I've heard so far.

People always say that the tape echoes sound better, and that's probbly true. But I think what many people forget is that tape echo units almost always have a built-in preamp of some sort. The older tube units actually add a tube preamp to the works, which of course is going to change the sound, and if it's well-designed, for the better. Most pedals don't come with any sort of a preamp, just the effect itself, and if they're well-designed, their sound should be fairly transparent. So, I wonder if many tape echo afficianados are actually responding to the sound of the preamps built into those old tape echo machines, or the sound of the effect itself. I suspect it's often the former. I saw a comparison (maybe somebody posted it here on SG101) between El Capistan and some tape echo machines, and the conclusion was that El Capistan got close but didn't really measure up. I found that comparison quite silly, honestly, given this preamp difference.

Anyway, just a few thoughts....

Ivan
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My experience is with a different echo unit, the roland RE-201, and with a variety of digital pedals. There's something a tape echo does - a saturation to the sound - I don't hear anywhere else. That said, there are several pedals that deliver some of the tape atmosphere. Best one in the Echoplex vein I've heard is the H&K Replex. Not that close, but reminiscent. Very pretty sounding delay there. On the space echo side, the Catalinbread montavillian pedal really surprised me. It's not marketed this way, but turns out to be somewhere in the space echo zone if you set it just right. The CB pedal is my favorite of all the pedals I've tried, sounds so good I rarely turn the RE-201 on any more.

MD