DIY Tape echo

pj310

Just seen that T-Rex are releasing a tape echo pedal called the Replicator soon, which will retail at just shy of 600 quid. The thought inspired me to make a tape echo myself, on the cheap, just as a bit of fun. I'm thinking it should be fairly easy, using a mixer to set up a loop for the tape deck, which has 3 heads: record/play/erase (in that order). Mixing the level of the loop in the mixer works as a feedback control. Now for the question. Has anyone tried something like this? I would ideally like to change the delay time, which could be accomplished by either slowing down the speed of the tape, or moving the record and play heads further apart. I feel slowing the tape down will have an uncontrolled impact on the modulation, adding too much flutter at longer delay times, so not ideal. But having a variable distance setup would have to involve using two separate decks (one for recording and the second for playback), and perhaps place one on a mechanical slider, which is probably going to be introduce its own issues with the tape roll... So unsure which way to go about it. A Eureka would really be helpful!

Or is it totally pointless and going to sound crap and not worth it at all? Thanks for any insights!

Fuzzdog

I made one out of two old reel to reel tape units when I was a teenager and had no money.  Looooooong time ago though, so can't remember what I did.

Which is probably for the best, as it sounded shit.

Sassafras

I seem to remember doing this on an old tape deck with a loop and a piece of thick tape over the erase head or maybe even moved the erase head back. I also seem to remember it wasn't as inspiring as the Copicat I bought later on. Now that was ECHO.

thermionic

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en#q=diy+tape+delay&hl=en-GB&tbm=vid

Sarge

Back in the day tinkerers were putting light dimmer switches in their wem copycats, and blowing them up too