Tape Echo pedal options.

fretmeister

I’ve been listening to loads of demos of the Catalinbread Belle Epoch and the Keeley Tape Echo etc.

What others should I consider? Anything from cheap clones upwards is good.

Sporky

Boss Space Echo?

I really liked mine a lot.

Grangousier

Strymon Volante is amazing, and I'm guessing the El Capistan is just as good. 

Dave8

Jim Dunlop Echoplex

JohnPerry

El Cap is superb and very tweakable (easier than the Volante too, I found). But cheaper options like a TC Alter Ego v2 or the Zoom Ms70-cdr have very respectable tape models

Wazmeister

UAFX Starlight
El Capistan

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Danelectro Reel Echo is a great pedal. Very basic and takes up a good amount of pedalboard real estate, but it sounds great and can be had for a lot less than some of the options previously mentioned.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256573619130?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=WHZdS0nDQBe&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=A7Jojk31SVm&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

fretmeister

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Danelectro Reel Echo is a great pedal. Very basic and takes up a good amount of pedalboard real estate, but it sounds great and can be had for a lot less than some of the options previously mentioned.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256573619130?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=WHZdS0nDQBe&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=A7Jojk31SVm&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

That’s a bit big for my board! 

EricTheWeary

UAFX Orion if you want simple but tweakable. £95 at the moment (was £170ish originally?). 
NUX DD7 which sort of sits between the Boss RE-2 and the Boss RE-20 feature wise but cheaper than either. And the RE2 and 20 obvs. 

Solid gold FX EMiii which has basic multi head options and some other fun stuff. Not huge pedal, not cheap but not quite crazy money. 

Depends a bit on what you want feature wise eg multi head, pre sets, tap tempo. 

Cols

I’d highly recommend the Belle Epoch; unlike the Dunlop Echoplex, it actually includes the much-coveted preamp of the EP-3 which was an important part of its sound.

TheMarlin

Strymon El Cap is my choice for tape echo.  Awesome pedal. 

EricTheWeary

Nearly forgot: I was looking at the EHX Pico Rerun the other day which has a tweakable tape sound, tap tempo and an oscillation feature all in quite a small box. 

Winny_Pooh

EricTheWeary said:

UAFX Orion if you want simple but tweakable. £95 at the moment (was £170ish originally?). 
NUX DD7 which sort of sits between the Boss RE-2 and the Boss RE-20 feature wise but cheaper than either. And the RE2 and 20 obvs. 

Solid gold FX EMiii which has basic multi head options and some other fun stuff. Not huge pedal, not cheap but not quite crazy money. 

Depends a bit on what you want feature wise eg multi head, pre sets, tap tempo. 

The UAFX orion looks excellent for £95.

The RE-20 is great too. Far prefer it to a belle epoch, the BE just sounded dull.

stickyfiddle

Strymon Volante and Deco are both amazing. 

I assume the Deco is a bit specialised and the Volante might be a bit big, so the El Cap is likely a good fit. 

UA stuff sounds good but doesn’t quite have the same punch as Strymon imo. I’ve also heard too many dodgy customer service issues to recommend them..

JayGee

Is it really silly of me to point at the T-Rex Replicator?

Which is an actual tape echo in a pedal format rather than an emulation. Youngest Son has one, it’s a pretty impressive technical  achievement, it sounds great, and it’s huge fun to play with.

fretmeister

JayGee said:

Is it really silly of me to point at the T-Rex Replicator?

Which is an actual tape echo in a pedal format rather than an emulation. Youngest Son has one, it’s a pretty impressive technical  achievement, it sounds great, and it’s huge fun to play with.

Too big! Also a bit expensive for the 3 songs I’d probably write with one! 

sgosden

Volante and el cap are both amazing, but different things.

El cap is a delay pedal that beautifully emulates the sounds and manipulations of a tape echo (the wobbles and age of a tape etc).

The volatne is a digital tape echo with modern control. So you can make it do the wobbles and things but a bit more work and slightly different.

theatreanchor

El Cap. Has stayed on my board. 

stickyfiddle

sgosden said:

Volante and el cap are both amazing, but different things.

El cap is a delay pedal that beautifully emulates the sounds and manipulations of a tape echo (the wobbles and age of a tape etc).

The volatne is a digital tape echo with modern control. So you can make it do the wobbles and things but a bit more work and slightly different.

yep. The key thing that the Volante gives you is the different head positions (controlled but the little light up switches in the middle). It works brilliantly with just a single (virtual) head activated, but gets really fun when you start setting up combinations of them for rhythmic delays.

I haven’t plugged mine in for a while but every time I do I get lost in the best way. I could get the germ of a whole record in a single day

NickB

The Roland Space Echo emulation in the HX family is pretty darn good. Get a HX one and you can get a whole load of other great FX as well. 

prowla

Sporky said:

Boss Space Echo?

I really liked mine a lot.

It's cool because it emulates the tape speeding up and slowing down as you adjust the delay!