Dunlop Echoplex® Delay

I am not a professional guitar player, but I do love music and the EP103 Echoplex Delay is the coolest thing that has happened to my guitar playing since I received my Stratocaster for Christmas many years ago. It is not merely a delay pedal, it is a sonic sculpting tool. Yes, in "clean" mode it sounds like a crystal clear delay pedal. But the real magic, in my opinion, is when your utilize the "aging" of the sound, as well as the stereo and trails functionality. When the delay time is turned way down, the "ageing" near 2 o'clock and the sustain (repetitions) near "infinity" it's possible to play a "clean" note and have a long dirty sustain (since the human ear cannot readily identity a 4ms repeat). With stereo TRS and trails set, the end of a note (followed by not playing) cycles and and spins into a sonic vortex that can be either subtle or savage depending on how the volume is set. It allows you to play a riff, mute the guitar with your hand and sing a few bars with a sonic swirl all around you that darkens and takes on a life of its own. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to sound like The Edge, buy a different pedal. If you want incredibly broad and infinitely creative sonic sculpting, from slap-back to a modulated thumping heart beat, from subtle and almost imperceptible to other-worldly, this is the pedal for you! I run an MXR Dynacomp compressor, and use a Boss LS-2 to add in an MXR Badass '78 overdrive when needed to blend with my clean signal. The LS-2 or some other pre-amp is a MUST with the Echoplex to get the full sonic possibilities. (Maybe if I'm really good Santa will bring me the Echoplex EP101 pre-amp for Christmas some day.) And the great thing...it's all nobs and no digital program settings to stand between you and the fun and improvisational nature of playing the guitar.

I had use of a tape Echoplex many many years ago and this was a blast from the past. The only real problem is that the tape echo I used had a total time of many seconds (I don't really remember other than that you could set it so long that you could play an entire riff and wait a while for it to come back in the first repeat). This one has a maximum delay of .75 seconds (4 seconds, apparently, if you set it with a tap pedal... but that eliminates half the reason I'm using a 'tape' delay pedal). I suspect that other brands of retro tape delays offer more versatility. That said, this thing sounds great and is enormous fun to play with. Short delays make for gorgeous thickening, which is likely why they didn't bother to give it a longer 'tape length'. The clean/dirty switch is a nice touch. Overall, I would say it is a nice pedal and worth the money as a throwback to yesteryear, but since delays have come a long way since the original Echoplex, you should understand that this is about getting the Echoplex sound more that getting an everyday delay pedal.

I don’t use a lot of pedals to shape my tone I save that for my amp settings (Marshall tube) and my volume and tone knobs on my axe (Gibson Les Paul). With that said a few yrs back I purchased the Echoplex preamp pedal. Like others have said it does enhance the tone it adds that “secret sauce” everyone talks about. Now just recently I purchased the echoplex delay pedal from Amazon. If I’m using a pedal it has to be analog (it’s just what I prefer). The echoplex delay is extremely versatile from slapback to delay from 4 to 750ms and great for ambience too, pairing it up with the echoplex preamp pedal gives it that classic tone of the original Echoplex tape machines. Dunlop and MXR did an incredible job of taking those sounds of yesterday and importing them into pedal form. “Age mode” is awesome! Altering the flutter modulation by turning the nob clockwise makes the tone darker, increases the distortion (tape saturation) and the sounds of tape distress. Can be plugged in to an efx loop or in front of the amp. I prefer the front because that’s what we did before efx loops were added to amps. It comes with a power supply if you do not already have a daisy chain supply. Short of being the actual vcr sized tape machine (when working properly). I’ve tried and so far I can not add any major or minor negatives on this pedal. For me it has preformed flawlessly so far and having the preamp pedal too gives it that complete tone. I’m not telling anyone to purchase this pedal, your ears, your tone, your style and taste. What I am saying is Dunlop/MXR managed to capture that vintage tape machine, lighting in a “pedal” sound without shoveling out vintage tape machine money.

Very easy to dial in a great delay sound, and love that it has a tap tempo option. I run this in the loop of my Friedman DS-40 and in the front of my PRS HDRX 20. Sounds great in both applications. I was previously using a Boss DM-2w, which is a fantastic pedal. The Echoplex seems to stand out a more in the band mix. The DM-2w is warmer/darker sounding, but the tap tempo option on the EP is an advantage over the DM2. It is also very quiet. I have the MXR Joshua delay as well, and that has a bit of hiss when running in the loop of my amp. It’s not a deal breaker, as that is an incredible pedal as well, but I was surprised by how quiet the EP is. Overall a great delay pedal.

I was pretty darned sure I was going to get this and have the experience of "why the hell did I buy this...and for all that money?". Well, I was completely wrong. This pedal is fantastic. Well-made, easy to use, and it sounds perfect. You get an authentic Echoplex sound with or without the vintage-sound switch engaged. It's uncanny really,..I've been fooling with guitars and amps since the mid-70's and have used the real thing (and even sold a few)-this might not be an identical experience, but you can actually use this like you would an Echoplex and be fairly satisfied. Is it worth $200 to you?...maybe. It's an awful lot of money for what should sell for half it's cost, but nothing else to my ears comes close to what it does.

Overall this is perhaps the best tape delay emulation I’ve ever had the pleasure of sounding like Jimmy Page at Madison Square Garden in 1972 through. All you need is a bow across the strings. The gain on the mix level is rather huge, pretty sure it's boosted by a few db at max setting, making it louder than the dry guitar signal at higher settings. It sits about even at less than 50%. Perhaps this is trying to be faithful to the original tape delay unit, even though they put the preamp section of it in a different pedal. A tap switch is essential with this, my only wish would be expression pedal compatibility. This would propel the pedal to brilliant modernized classic. It’s survivable without, but sort of contingent on the limits of foot tap speed, which most/all human guitarists are not blessed with 64th note tap ability to get to very tight slap back or doubling. Have to use the knob for this, where an expression pedal would cover full range easily, as it does on other fancy modern delays. Also you could take better advantage and control of those cool "tape speed change warp effects" produced. This aside, the most important thing is the pedal really sounds fantastic, true to the vintage tape delay it is emulating to a fault really. In oscillation (or just before it) this really shines. Has a wide delay range of 4ms to 750 ms, which sounds longer in practice...it feels like seconds pass before it comes around again. The "tape age" push button can be engaged via foot (gently though, the plastic knobs don't inspire a ton of confidence to withstand, well...standing on them). Provides that quintessential chorus warble of old tape very well. My only real complaint that dinged it one star, is the switch to engage the pedal randomly provides a jarring POP! Really Dunlop? In a pedal of this ambitious sonic quality? Seems to be in true bypass switch wiring, output post effect, so you don't hear the pop repeating in infinite delay at least. This oddly diminishes slightly with subsequent foot stomps…then abruptly returns for no particular reason...as if just sitting there it is slowly building up loud pop energy to be unleashed whenever it feel like it. I expected less or no POP from the switch on this pedal.

After totally loving the Dunlop EP-1 Preamp, I had to know...so I bought the EP-3 Delay--and I wasn't disappointed. Understatement! Holy mackerel, wait 'till you all hear this...IMHO, YOU NAILED IT!!! I'm speechless, you guys...thank you all so very much-- you gave me back my beloved Echoplex, my irreplaceable space music tool to get me the heck off of this planet. Seriously, folks, it's so close that I think even experts will be fooled in a blindfold test, although the tape Echoplex would make random physical noises itself, emanating from the tape transport, giving itself away... I'm glad the Dunlop team didn't include that. What it DID include is nothing less than flabbergasting. OMG, I'm in the future...! I literally feel like a kid under a Christmas tree. I have a spot-on Echoplex that fits in my shirt pocket, with TRS stereo inputs and outputs, true bypass, the true Echoplex time scale of 750 milliseconds, or up to four seconds of near-perfect 'tape' delay with tap tempo (accessed by a standard MXR Tap switch), Constant Headroom technology that allows for a swing of 20 volts (read: really high gain possible without extraneous distortion), again like the OG Echoplex tape delay; and other 'hidden' controls, like the coolest feature of them all, the 'Age' variable preset control, which accurately models the vicissitudes of tape transports and tape saturation, randomly changing pitch and affecting feedback and equalization as well. Well well. For being "speechless", that's a long speech, y'all, but amen I say to you: Look no further, space pilots--mark my words -words -words -words -words -words -words -words.

It can be utilized many ways. From subtle to full on creepiness. Make sure it's last in the chain.

El producto me llegó muy rápido y en buenas condiciones

Spot On. Very profesionel.

Comprei para substituir um MXR Carbon Copy, o qual nunca foi exatamente o que eu queria. Cada vez que toco com o EP103, fico me perguntando por que demorei tanto tempo para fazer isto. Excelente!

A sure-fire classic - I've had it for years and it's become an integral part of my sound. Also very tweakable and has a small footprint.

Abbinato al Preamp Dunlop sempre Echoplex si ottiene il massimo sound vicino all'Echoplex originale che costava un occhio. Il tutto sembra quasi accompagnato da un leggero Chorus. Si possono ottenere Suoni molto simili per esempio a quelli usati da Andy Summers nell' album Mysterious Barricades. Lo raccomando anche ai bassisti che vogliono cimentarsi in parti soliste impegnate e sognanti. Cinque stelle alla Dunlop per il risultato più che soddisfacente e ad Amazon per la velocità di spedizione.