Echoes and effects
Binson Echorec 2
BINSON ECHOREC 2 - 1965 - Back in the day, Pink Floyd never had less than three Binson Echoes on stage - another, golden, brick in the wall of sound. This was the very cutting edge of technology when they were manufactured in 1960s Milan but you find them in many modern studios still today.
Used mainly by guitar players back in the day, although the original manual states it "adds swell, echo or reverberation to any signal from a guitar, disc or radio", they really do sound incredible on pretty much anything - if you don't expect clean echo repeats that is.
There are many opinions regarding input line levels and balanced or unbalanced signals - our experience is most Binson units handle them all brilliantly - with some attention to input level and output level of your signal it's not hard to find the sweet spot. Dialling down the input volume and turning up the echo volume you come close to a totally wet signal.
Due to how they age and were originally conceived Binson units produce amazingly vintage reverb and vibes rather than clean repeats. This unit was serviced by the same guy who originally assembled it at the Binson production plant back in the 1960s, when I brought it to him we found a note with his signature inside.
The typical Binson echo always use the same technology - a thick disc with a tightly wound wire that works as a magnetic memory - much like a short tape. These machines usually needs some minor tinkering to run properly and needs oil applied to the shaft powering the disc regularly.
The disc amplifier stage is tube based so great for distorted echoes while the irregular speed of the motor generate perfect vintage nostalgia often emulated by modern guitar pedals.
Binson EC10
BINSON EC10 - mid 1970s - Only for the real heads, this echo unit features the most magnetic heads of any Binson model - 10 repeat heads plus the erase head.
Made in very limited production run there are apparently two versions of this very model, with the engage head push buttons placed differently.
The disc is the same as on the later 1960s valve units but the heads and guts are quite different, the old tubes giving way to solid state transistors. The 10 dedicated push buttons engage playback on each head and the second set of 10 the heads feedback to the recording bus/head.
A closer look reveals a typical later era black Binson disc literally swarmed by play back heads resulting in unique control over the repeats, wether rapid fire smatter or odd rhythmic figures.
Binson stuck to their guns and except for a handful models the echo generation is always disc based. Our buddy Franco Avona who worked at the Binson plant back in the 1960s calibrated this one for us.
The design is similar to the EC3, EC4, EC6 and EC8 models and the output is stereo, one clean channel and one with echo signal only.
Binson ME8
BINSON ME-8 - 1982 - The last disc echo model Binson made is truly a great machine, generating the cleanest magnetic disc repeats we've ever heard.
The unit is laid out like a compact, portable 8 channel mixer with the disc echo hard-wired to each channel. Inputs have a 50/200 gain switch on each channel for low or high impedance.
This model offers separate Swell and Repeats options - and turning down the channel volume and raising the echo volume gives you wet echo audio signal only.
The disc is the black version featured in most of Binsons solid state models with Play Out and Play Back functions for each playback head.
You'll find a few spelling mistakes on various Binson unit control panels - this one says PLAY BACH instead of play back.
The back features 8 inputs, a mono as well as L and R, and a monitor output as well. There are two power outputs which was a feature more commonly found on Hi-Fi amps in the 70s.
Compact Phaser
COMPACT PHASER ROTOR MONSTER - 1970S - What is this Rotor Monster from Germany? Obviously inspired by the Schulte Compact Phasing A both by name and design, they most likely originated from different sides of the wall.
After a quick peak inside and we think this might a prototype of the Vermona phaser, manufactured by the East German company Vermona. The knobs and tolex is the same as used in their 1970s gear, like the drum machine ER-9 for example.
It's a quit a chunky effect unit, even bigger than the Schulte phaser. The sound is thin and front of mouth, similar to the Vermona phaser. The Vermona phaser was used by Kraut rockers such as Conny Plank, you hear it on the NEU! records for instance.
The print is professionally made - or at least semi-professionally, but quite faded.
Rotor Monster - now trademarked.
The unit originally had DIN in and outputs connectors that were switched to quarter inch jacks.
Davoli Echo 2K
DAVOLI ECHO 2K - 1970s - A unicorn, fixed-speed, magnetic disc echo machine much like the Binson Echorec units, with separate halo volume mounting the same technology as Lombardi mixers.
There are general controls for Halo volume (a less distinct repeat) and Repeat volume (classic echo bounce). There is a double function volume knob to control echo volume and clean signal volume separately.
The repeats are generated by a magnetic disc instead of the more common magnetic tape but the principle is the same. It mounts 6 heads in total; 1 recording, 4 repeating and lastly the eraser head.
The whole echo mechanism, disc, heads and electronics were lifted from Germanys Schaller echoes. You find them in a few other Italian devices as well, such as the Lombardi mixers.
The repeats are muddy and just as the Binson or other disc-based echo-units the result is vintage vibe and nostalgia rather than actual echo repeats.
The input and output connectors in the back are original while the added echo signal output only, for an easy Send / Return, might not be original.
Davoli Echo K4
DAVOLI ECHO K4 - 1978 - As stunningly designed as it is rare, this is a very robust, fixed-speed tape echo unit with separate halo effect on each repeat head.
The unit is fixed speed and has a motor off switch as well as a record only function only - using it as a tape loop basically.
Separate treble and bass controls as well as Echo and Halo volumes makes it great for sound sculpting. There's a direct signal volume too, meaning you can dial down the clean output signal completely to obtain effect only audio output
The K4 has two separate inputs - depending on if you want to to use it as a send / return effect hence only need the wet, echo signal, or include the direct, dry signal.
This is a fixed speed motor echo, meaning you regulate the tempo of the repeats by choosing which of the four echo-heads to engage. The motor is quite loud and the tape wear is considerable so turning off the motor when not in use is recommended.
Under the lid you find the classic set-up of 6 heads of which one is the record head, four are playback heads for the actual repeats, and the last head is the eraser head.
Emthree PFV3
Emthree PFV3 - 1980s - Amazingly rare, battery powered, formant filter effect unit. Or you could also call it an equalizer with three fixed variables. PFV stands for Parameter Filter Vowels.
The 3 settings are in the vocal range, emulating vowels of the human voice. It kind of does the job depending on the frequency range of the instrument or sound you send in to it.
It was produced in Italy by Emthree, formerly known as Meazzi, probably in the early 1980s. Emthree had a unique military style design on a lot of their gear at the time.
It has two modes: 1. On / off buttons for each of the 3 preset vowel filters. 2. Gradual engage by using the three potentiometers. The two modes cannot be engaged simultaneously.
The unit is angled upwards towards the front by a detachable metal piece attached by two big knobs underneath.
The back sport a mono jack input and two separate outputs for high and low impedance.
Emthree Pulsatron Mixer
EMTHREE PULSATRON MIXER - 1980S - A mysterious, vintage guitar multi-effect that looks like its from the future in the 80s but sounds like it's from the 60s - Emthree does it again.
Contrary to its 1980s stereo look, the sounds this machine generate are firmly anchored in the 1960s. With such effects on board as Fuzz, Phaser, Tremolo and Chorus (actually a vibrato), this belongs on a Garage Rock guitarists pedal board. Or it could replace the pedal board entirely.
It comes with a large foot switch and has the classic, Hammond spring reverb as well as a compressor inside.
The Chrous, Tremolo and Phaser has variable speed and depth, the speed indicated by the lights under the plexiglass panel.
The transparent plexiglass allows you to marvel at the insides of this mystifying device. Mostly 80s micro components on view. The spring reverb is hidden farther inside.
The back sports the quarter inch, mono, jack output as well as the pedal input (remote) and the mysterious power DIN connector most likely attachable to a second Emthree amplifier. This unit was modded with a regular power supply connector.
Emthree Qasar Mixer
EMTHREE QUASAR MIXER - 1980s - Another stunning device from Emthree, this is a multi-effect and tape echo combo closely related to the equally awesomely named Pulsatron Mixer.
While the Pulsatron was conceived specifically for guitar players, the Quasar caters to a small band by adding 4 input channels with individual volumes completely separate from the dedicated guitar effects channel.
The 4 channels can be routed to the echo while the guitar has the effects center all for itself : Fuzz, Presence (compressor), Phasing, Chorus and Tremolo.
The tape echo is Emthrees' Computer Echo - a device that was also sold independently - a simple but effective, two repeat-head affair. But it makes up for its lack of extra heads by having variable motor speed.
Plenty of inputs here, two separate guitar inputs and low and high impedance for each of the 4 Instrument / Microphone channels.
Again Emthree opted for a DIN power cable solution to draw power from an external, separate amplifier. This unit will be modded with an external transformer. The Expander connector function is unknown.
FBT Elettronica R-21
FBT ELETTRONICA R-21 - 1980s - An electro-magnetic Leslie simulator for Chorus and wobble effects, based on the latest development in electro-magnetic technology.
The resulting effect is more of a chorus effect than a rotating speaker Leslie cabinet one. It's sounds great on guitar, synths and vocals as well as organs.
The design is simple and flat, made to sit on an amplifier or speaker and the build quality is heady duty. Each unit comes with its designated foot pedal without which it will simply not function. This can be remedied by shorting a pin internally if/when the pedal goes missing.
The variable speed of the chorus modulation is regulated by an internal plexi-glass disc, making the unit look like a tape echo device
The technology is quite one for the books, the variable speed range is expansive : it can go so slow you barely see it moving for that swooping effect you can't hear but you feel.
In the back we find a jack audio input and output connector as well as the foot pedal connector.
Maestro W-3
MAESTRO SOUND SYSTEM FOR WOOD WINDS W-3 - 1960s - Did American Maestro / Gibson give us the first multi effect pedal ever? Heavenly odd timbres comes out of this thing - unlike anything else - really.
Originally conceived either for wood wind instrument players (clarinet, flute, oboe etc) or to imitate them, the Maestro was championed by Jazz sax player Eddie Harris and originally came with a pick up microphone to attach to your horn.
The W-3 works well with guitar, organ, drum machines or pretty much anything with a fairly straight, unmodulated tone. The rocker switches are comb and formant EQ filters as well as tone generators for the bass and contra sounds.
These preset sounds can be engaged individually or combined. Some of them actually come fairly close to imitating instruments, the oboe is spot on for example.
The W-3 adds a Contra tab switch that generates a note two octaves lower than the signal, great for beefing up pretty much anything. Other than that, it's identical to the W-1 and W-2.
The W-3 was the third of 3 models manufactured by Gibson and engineered by certain well known synth pioneer - Tom Oberheim. It was a succes for the company and you can hear these units in action on Funk and Soul records from the 60s and 70s.
Maestro USS-1
MAESTRO UNIVERSAL SYNTHESIZER SYSTEM - 1970 - Gigantic, multi-effect machine originally conceived for guitar butcan with some careful volume tweaking sound great on pretty much anything.
The USS-1 as it also referred to, is actually a compilation or best-of effect of a bunch of standalone pedals priorly released by Maestro. The brain behind some of the effects was no one less than a young Tom Oberheim - of later synth fame.
The effects are as follows : Waveform, Filter & Sample/Hold, Phaser, Envelope, Sub-harmonic. The Sensitivity control slider affects the envelope and sub-harmonic, while the speed affects the phaser and filter LFO.
The individual effects are quite limited on their own, it's when you start combining them that the USS really shines. It's important to stress that these boxes need to be well calibrated.
While operating the Maestro USS, dialling in the right sensitivity and keeping the input volume at the right level is key.
The back has an output and input jack, as well as two connectors for pedals to control the speed and frequency.
Montarbo Phase Shifter
MONTARBO PHASE SHIFTER P.B.2 - 1970s - Gorgeous and heavy duty, steel combo pedal made in Italy.
Made for guitarists - Buzzer and Phase Shifter - or Fuzz and Phaser - it houses two effects in one.
The buzzer is a noisy distortion effect while the phaser offers a bit more control of parameters. .
The phase shifter sweeps through the frequencies like most phasers do, but also adds a bit of frequency vibrato.
Montarbo was quite design forward back in the day and this pedal is stunning to look at. There was also a Flanger in the same finish.
No surprises in the back, input and output jacks along with a power switch.
Mooger Foogers
MOOGER FOOGER PHASER & RING MODULATOR - 1998 & 1999 - Was it these classic effects introduced by Moog in the late 1990s that started the resurgence and re-evaluation of 1970s vintage gear?
Quoting Moog Industries themselves : "the Mooger Fooger pedals were direct descendants of Moogs modular synthesizer systems of the early 70s".
The first of these to go on the market was not the phaser, it was the MF-102 Ring Modulator, that was released together with the MF-101 Low Pass Filter. After that though the phaser followed, it's one of the few 12 pole phaser ever released in pedal format.
The Mooger Fooger MF-102 Ring modulator operates by multiplying the input signal to create a wide range of different, trippy sounds, from bell-like gongs to chopped up tremoloes.
The Mooger Fooger series consists of 8 pedals to our knowledge, with every April's Fool introducing a new, fictinal one.
The back offers plenty of extra ways to interact with the effect: pedal controller inputs, LFO outputs, sweep in, and more. A great asset for sound sculpting and of course syncing with other machines.
Mu-Tron Phasor II
MU-TRON PHASOR II - 1977 - In the words of the Mu-Tron makers themselves : “Mu-tron Phasor II is a new, advanced phase-shifting device designed to give the musician true state-of-the-art performance in a rugged, compact package at a very affordable price".
Rugged indeed, this pedal is very nicely made and heavy to boot. American company Mu-tron also gave us the bigger phaser with the Mu-Tron Bi-phase, which apparently is equivalent of two of these.
The Phasor II is a fantastic vintage 70s phaser and once you start listening for it you'll hear it on many recordings from its era of production.
The 3 knobs control the rate, depth and feedback of the modulation. Rate controls the speed of the sweep.
Depth controls the depth/amplitude of the sweep (the size of the range in which the effect modulates).
And last the feedback rate controls how much effect signal is sent back to the effect input for even more effect, it can literally feed back much like an amp. Connectors are input and output audio jacks.
Roland Chorus Echo Re-301
ROLAND CHORUS ECHO RE-301 - 1977 - The Space Echo series are classic go-to tape echoes, and this top of the line model adds both spring reverb and chorus effect. For the duration of long career in music there's always been at least one model of these around.
Peak Japanese build quality and engineering skills has resulted in an iconic effect device - you'll find a model of a Roland tape echo in estimetely 100% of recording studios world wide.
The Re-301 was produced by Roland during the company's very peak. It has variable motor speed, 4 repeat heads with a spring reverb as well as a Chorus effect section, which is basically the incorporation of the Roland DC-50 stand-alone chorus machine.
The unit also features the Sound on Sound effect, effectively dis-engaging the eraser head resulting in the analog equivalent of the modern loop pedal, allowing you to overdub endlessly.
A gut shot reveals the echo mechanism and tray that many tape echo devices copied or replicated.
Close up shot of the repeat heads, this one has some wear from an estimated 40+ years of use.
Schaller Yoy-yoy Bow-wow
SCHALLER YOY-YOY BOW-WOW - 1970s - A west German, well-built phaser and wah pedal that actually sounds like it's name.
Great no frills design with a rather chunky body painted hammered silver. There are a few different versions of this pedal, this is the second version.
The Yoy-Yoy is a phaser-like frequency sweep while the Bow-wow is a classic wah. Great vintage tones here, especially the Yoy-yoy is fantastic on pretty much whatever you plug in.
The Schaller also triples as a volume pedal by pushing down hard, quite useful.
These are classic pedals used commonly by Garage and Rock bands in 1970s West Germany.
The pedal is battery powered.
Schulte Compact Phasing A
SCHULTE COMPACT PHASING A - 1970s - "A piece of recording history that shaped the sound of Krautrock" to quote Hainy. And it has both "number one" and "1" written on it. And A.
It really is a standaout phaser : organic and complex enough to modulate whatever you heart desires in multiple ways.
Inside we find a unique optical engineering approach: two LFO controlled lightbulbs that affect light-sensitive resistors. If LFO is disengaged by the foot switch the unit works as an EQ or filter.
The Schulte Compact emulation is quite varied, it can add a slight frequency vibrato to the processed signal. It's featured on a slew of Krautrock recordings, the quintessential track that's almost a demonstration to the Schulte phaser being Wolfgang Riechmans "Traumzeit".
It only accepts mono audio input but can actually create a stereo audio signal if you attach either a Stereo jack or DIN output connector in the back.
The foot switch is crucial, not so much for shutting on and off the LFO but without it the Schulte phaser simply won't phase at all. A workaround to not owning / finding the switch is to connect an empty DIN connector.
EXH Small Stone Phaser
SMALL STONE EH4800 PHASE SHIFTER - 1975 - A New York-made icon, Electro Harmonixs' Small Stone Phase Shifter is just legendary.
After having introduced the Bad Stone phaser in the early seventies, Electro Harmonix perfected the pedal and released a number of versions that became the go-to phasers for guitarist in both Europe and the US.
The Small Stone can be powered by either a 9 volt battery or a power adapter with a Centre Positive Polarity and mini-jack sized connector.
The phasing action is best described as creamy, front to back of mouth if you understand what we're talking about.
The small Stone is best suited for low volume signals, from an electric guitar or a Hohner Clavinet for example, due to the specific input impedance.
Underneath is where the battery hatch is hidden.
Solton Cathedral Echo 2000
SOLTON CATHEDRAL ECHO 2000 - 1980s. Borrowing freely from the Roland Tape Echoes this unit share many of the same functions. And sounds fantastic. A great tape echo and spring reverb machine that's almost a clone of the Roland RE-201
The four repeat heads are engaged with double sets of switches for echo (one repeat) or repeat (many repeats) mode. On board is also the famous Sound on sound effect, disengaging the eraser head and turning the unit in to a loop device.
Very sturdy build quality - this was manufactured by the German Solton, not to be mixed up with Italys Ketron, although they did collaborate on many devices. This particular unit produces repeats with a nice wobbly vintage feel to them.
The front panel feature almost the same controls as the Roland RE-201 - down to the Sound on Sound feature. The spring reverb is called Cathedral effect instead of Reverb.
Under the hood we find the standard first recorder head, then four repeat heads and finally one eraser head. The tape loop is short on these models but the next version, the Solton Cathedral 3000, shared the same length tape as the Roland echo machines, utilising the same tape tray design.
In the back we find the same foot switch controls as the Roland echoes.