Catalinbread Belle Epoch Tape Echo - Belle Epoch Placement

The original Echoplex was typically used in front of the amp to gain the benet of the preamp and also since
guitar amps usually didn’t have eects loops back then!
The Belle Epoch was designed to be run in front of your amp in the same way the Echoplex was designed to be
run in front of your amp. They share almost identical input and output circuit topologies, including the passive
unbuered mixer circuit of the EP-3. However, we tuned it to have a lower output impedance than the EP-3 to
not load down the output as much while still retaining the open non-buered output interface. A buer does
just what the name implies - it isolates one circuit from the next and can create a “disconnected” feeling that is
subtle but a player who relies on touch-sensitive dynamics in his rig will appreciate the dierence of not having
the buer. Having said that, the Belle Epoch will perform great in almost any pedal stacking situation. But for the
most authentic Echoplex-like experience, we recommend that you run it before any foundation overdrive type
pedals and after fuzzes, treble boosters, and the like. For the most awesome experience, try playing it right in
line before your cranked up tube amp.
At the end of the day, just experiment with the pedal order to see what YOU like the best. Here’s a couple things
to keep in mind though:
If you run it before an overdrive pedal or overdriven amp, you’ll probably want to run the Tone(Record Level)
and/or Mix controls lower since the distortion will compress the dry and echo signals together more.
If you run it after all gain pedals and into a clean amp, you can set the Mix and Tone(Record Level) controls
higher to achieve the same balance between dry and echo signals.
BELLE EPOCH PLACEMENT