Echoplex Evolution

Strymon’s standalone emulation of an Echoplex offers a host of adjustable parameters to tailor your sound

- Trevor Curwen

The Echoplex single-head tape echo is right up there in the pantheon of iconic guitar effects, not just for its obvious echo functionality but also the sound of its preamp, used by players like Jimmy Page and EVH, to enhance guitar tone with or without the echo. Strymon has previously released pedals offering the tape echo sound - in particular the twin-footswitch El Capistan that features three different tape echo types, including single-head - but the company has now released a smaller pedal, the EC-1, which puts the focus solely on that single-head sound, building on the algorithm and the 'dTape' technology used in El Capistan.

Where other popular tape echoes worked by having a fixed-position recording head and several fixed-position playback heads, the Echoplex had just a single-playback head (hence the single-head classification), but it had a moveable recording head that slid on a rail so that the distance between the two heads determined the delay time, the tape speed being constant. It was available in different iterations over the years, most notably the EP-2 with a valve preamp, and the long-running solid-state EP-3.

Strymon has modelled the new pedal ona unit in its possession: an EP-2 that was modded by the legendary technician Cesar Diaz for a warmer sound that is closer in frequency response to an EP-3 - effectively, says Strymon, putting the best aspects of the various vintage Echoplex models into a single unit.

In Use