4.) The sound of the tape head traveling across the tape as the Echo Delay slider was manipulated. If you have a lot
of repeats going and move the Echo delay slider the echo sound “lags” a bit as the tape head settles into the new
position. It’s denitely not a linear behavior like you’d hear in the delay time knobs on most pedals. But it added to
the Echoplex mojo and was part of its distinct sound.
5.) Record Level. There’s a control on the EP-3 that sets how hard the tape gets hit. While this control was ostensibly
used to optimize signal-to-noise ratio, set low it would give light and airy repeats and set high it would saturate
the tape hard and give an awesome fat and grungy repeat tone.
6.) Wow and utter! Almost any mechanically driven audio reproduction device is subject to these “problems” and
the EP-3 was no dierent. Tight spots in the tape cartridge, uneven motor speed, bumpy capstan wheels, and
other mechanical issues would cause the tape speed to vary resulting in random slight uctuations in the pitch of
the echoes. With shorter delay times it could create a kind of chorusy sound. With longer delay times it created an
otherworldly warbling of the pitch and added thickness and dimension to the guitar tone. And the types of wow
and utter would vary from unit to unit, depending on its condition. In fact, it would vary from day to day in the
same unit! We noticed that with our example of the EP-3 at the shop. One day it would be a slight warble, the next
day it might be more dramatic. And it always seemed “random”. It certainly didn’t sound like a perfect sine wave
LFO!
7.) Passive mixer and output stage. The EP-3 did not include any sort of output buer after the dry and wet signals
were combined through it’s simple passive mixer. This resulted is a relatively high output impedance which, while
technically not “good”, resulted in the tone and response with the amp that made the Echoplex so musically
dynamic.
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