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It's the fatness of the tape echo that is so wonderful and the way tape reacts and treats the sound ... digital is awful musically by comparison. How I envy you tape echo owners

These units are getting rave reviews for creating the authentic vintage echo sound with all its programmable 'impurities'. Can't save settings into patches, though, unlike its more expensive sibling the Timeline so have to reset it to different echo when needed, but aside from that, anyone here tried one out to see if it can get close to the sounds we crave?

Stymon El Capistan Echo Dave

dave robinson wrote:

Martyn wrote:These units are getting rave reviews for creating the authentic vintage echo sound with all its programmable 'impurities'. Can't save settings into patches, though, unlike its more expensive sibling the Timeline so have to reset it to different echo when needed, but aside from that, anyone here tried one out to see if it can get close to the sounds we crave?

What are 'these units' Martyn?

Hi Dave,

I'd been trawling the net looking at various YouTube demos of all manner of units, more out of curiosity than anything purposeful, and stumbled across these echo boxes. Ignoring the hype and in quotes rave comments, I listened to several demos and after getting past some of the echoes that I thought had no real use or relevance to our music-specific tastes, I did think that with the ability to dial in varying levels of wow&flutter, tape 'crinkle' effect, darkening off of the echo trails as with worn tape etc this made quite impressive sounds. I don't think it's possible to reproduce every precise echo` dedicated to itemised Shads tunes, as would be the case with EFTP patches and others, but there are various alterable multi-tap and single/double repeats that could get pretty close.Those demonstrating them in the videos were just showing all the variables they could within the scope of the demos but the sounds seemed quite good to my ears and several examples sounded close to some dedicated Shads ones I've used on the M/Stomp or Q2. I don't limit my playing to Shads material and more often than not use a relaxed multi-tap echo (U16) that suits all manner of other stuff, so in these instances I don't need to exactly emulate a specific echo, preferring this generic one instead. I suspect the Strymon unit will produce something similar but maybe with the added texture or character that the M/stomp can't.

Mansons in Exeter are my nearest stockist and I chatted with their techie today on the phone, outlining what I'd ideally like compared to what we probably have generally available and he thought the El Capistan and the Timeline possibly achieved the most authentic vintage tape echoes he'd experienced and said, given they're not the cheapest out there, they're walking out the shop at a surprisingly fast rate. He usually orders one or maybe two units, given their possible limited appeal and higher cost but now he's ordering six every time and it was interesting that the members of staff who are keen guitarists themselves had bought these units rather than others they have available - not that this proves anything from our point of view but it does indicate the units may have a good quality of sound. I explained my niche interest in specific Shads echoes and he said the cheaper of the two (El Capistan) would get me closest to the real valve driven echo sound I seek. As to the particular timings and patterns of the echoes - details are less clear as to how accurately they can or can't reproduce a specific Meazzi type echo. Think it's one to try in their shop when they restock soon and perhaps I can report back with an updated opinion afterwards but I was hoping someone here may already have tried one to save me having to do so for myself.

Cheers,
Martyn

Martyn and Dave

These are probably one of the best tape sim pedals out there and I have seen tests against real echo units by some real anoraks on tape echos and there is not a lot to tell they are very good. As far as an echo unit for Shads goes the Hall and Collins unit will probably be along these lines with correct roll off on bass and impedance matching plus correct head timings and decays etc along with some tape artifacts I understand. Have to wait and see but the prototype that people heard last year got some very good acclaim. I would like one of these Strymon unis in my arsenal though they are excellent.

Rog

Have you had any experience of the Strymon Timeline Roger? It would appear to be the big brother of the El Capistan and has been to the gym for a while. User saver function, better sounds (so Strymon say) and sadly a £400 price tag.

No personal experience but there are plenty of sound bytes and videos out there. The El Capistan though was featured against real tape machines on one site I looked at and the guys that ran the tests were more of less saying there was nothing to tell in the original tape machines and the El Capistan which says a lot. The larger unit is a collection of echo units and styles in a bigger box but I believe the El Capistan does a better job on tape emulation. The larger unit packs more options in and of course is a very good unit. Neither will do the right timings though for the Shads vintage echos although Two Strymons could be rigged to produce a sound close enough for most but at a cost of around £500 would put most off ! Great echo pedal though.

Hi folks

Has any one had any experience with a Roland RE20 echo box/pedal as yet? Any good for "The Shadows" sound or does this box require patches?
Most of the music shops are selling these boxes new at UKP205...a cartel running here or what!! Any advice gratefully received as I want to upgrade from my ZOOM G2 with EFTP patches.

Rgds Stu