Echoplex

[Smoky Barnable]

I want to build an echoplex. Has anyone here ever tried?

http://www.regiscoyne.com/echoplex/


http://www.schematicheaven.com/effects/ep1_5000.pdf

[Smoky Barnable]

It's the best effect ever created. You can attach it to a police call box and travel through time and space.

[Rectangular]

good luck, smoky

[bobp1339]

Can you get good looking blonds to go with you? 

[petemoore]

  Yupp, it was cool when it was new-ish.
  But it ate tapes.
  Then started sounding funny.
  I had a Univox design I liked better, it had a 'tape corral', snaking the tape against it's own tension [to take up the not being used length], cool thing about that is it used 1/4'' tape which I could get from my reel, splice a loop in a few minutes.
 

[JKowalski]

I wouldn't try this. I can almost guarantee the end result will not be near as good as you would like, and you would likely be discouraged halfway anyways. It's the mechanical issues that will compound the unit's effectiveness and reliability. Of course, you can do anything if you've got the equipment, expertise, and alot of patience... 

These are the kind of things that you just BUY.

Sorry to kill the DIY spirit 

[Shepherd]

Assuming you could go back in time, would you buy an echoplex brand new?  I imagine the price Fulltone is asking for the TTE is comparable, adjusted for inflation of course.

[Lurco]

new digital gold copicat http://www.wemwatkins.co.uk/cop.htm 

[Rectangular]

I'll built a tube tape echo eventually, Ive got most of the parts and schematics... but you have to realize it's beyond time consuming, and probably going to be about as expensive as buying a real unit (unless you get a broken one cheap and either repair it, or gut it for parts)

getting the mechanical elements working properly is going to be a huge factor, especially if you've only been building pedal circuits up until now. it would be easier if you were a robotics hobbyist...

also getting the parts is going to be tricky. capstan, flywheel, pinchroller, motor, guides, tape resevoire,  leaf springs, etc. its a tall order.

if you manage to pull it off, we'd all be delighted to see what you came up with

[petemoore]

  Precision Machining, and design.
  Offtrack...I wish they were built more like a record turntable, those are super simple, make it turn at a steady rate and stay flat..you're basically done !
  Reel to reel or loop tape recorders: not only do a buncha things gotta turn steady and stay flat, you have all this tape alignment and tape heads, fan belts and pulleys, +a long list of precision mechanisms.
  Literally wrap a turntable with recording tape, put a record head, and playback head on there, a magnet for erase, exponentially easier to try that.
  The head alignment part should be easier if the platter is set in a 'table'.
  Back in the ''all day for five long years'', designers didn't know any other way to do echo than to find a quiet wall or cave, or hack at a design involving tape head based machinery, just plain clunky, expensive, unreliable these days.
  A way out of the starting gate would be to find an echoplex that has everything already there, try to put together or source a rebuilt kit.

[candidate]

  Precision Machining, and design.
  Offtrack...I wish they were built more like a record turntable, those are super simple, make it turn at a steady rate and stay flat..you're basically done !

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=80294.msg664205#msg664205

[brett]

Hi
what about making a new design?
As everyone says - the electronics of tape echoes are dead simple, but the mechanics are a PITA.

What about a cheap cassette player?  Control the motor speed to adjust the delay.  I wouldn't bother with an erase head - just erase the tapes later in a spare $10 cassette player.  (ie don't use a loop, just a long cassette tape, like a C120)
any other ideas?

[JKowalski]

any other ideas?

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=80091.0

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