« Best Tape Echo without tape »

I have played countless delay pedals and rack mounted delay units and my hat goes off to the Wampler stuff. He has devised a fantastic sounding tape delay with real tape characteristics that make this pedal very enjoyable to play. Let us start off by saying that I'm more of a digital delay and analog delay guitar player. I don't normally care for the tape delay because I'm not really looking for the vintage feel or vibe. Not that you only have an older sound with tape delay but for me it is a mentall block and vintage type tones only come out of my playing when I messing around with a tape echo.

I have played with original Maestro echo plex, I have played the Fulltone version, I have used the Strymon El Capistan and they all sound fantastic. I have played many more but I think these mentioned are the cream of the crop IMHO. Wampler has delivered a tape pedal that is very simplistic and very affordable that will get you those classic tape delay tones you are looking for. This pedal sounds so fantastic that it is making me rethink my attraction to digital delays.

The layout as follows....

• High grade film capacitors and resistors picked for their superior sound and response
• Completely true bypass
• Battery connection and 9v power jack (barrel plug like Boss)
• Controls: level, repeats, delay time, modulation depth, tone control on repeats (darker or brighter echoes)
• About 600ms of delay time available
• Ultra-bright LED for ease of use
• Powder coated durable finish
• Max delay time: About 600ms...


UTILIZATION

This unit is so easy to use when playing live or even just coming up with creative tones jamming in your home. I love the way it feels and responeds to your pick attack. It doesn't overpower it like many delay can or even clog up your tones with saturated repeats that keep going.

Very is to set up and start getting some cool tones. Start with the depth knob over towards 8:00 and get a chorus feel and flick it way up to get a crazy repeats that sounds un-tamable.

One thing I would like to see is, putting it in the same size pedal box as the Analog echo. I don't see out it would be difficult to get it a little smaller. It would save some room for me on my pedal board.

SOUND QUALITY

I love the way this sounds when coupled with a clean amp. Get a slightly dirty amp and a Strat and get some cool Pink Floyd type tones.

I use this with a Strat and a Fender HRD. Sounds killer when couple with single coil guitars. Use it with a Tele and you can't help but lower the depth and repeats and get a cool slapback echo.

I don't hear to much wow and flutter like you would a real tape echo and I think that is my only beef with the pedal. When I owed an El Capistan that was a great features that this pedal can't really do. But between this and the EC I would choose this pedal

OVERALL OPINION

For the price of $200 you can't go wrong. The El Capistan is $300 and the Fulltone is $1000 and aold Metro will be around $1000, so you can't go wrong with this pedal. There is thing this pedal will not be able to do that a real tape echo can do like get old and the tape gives a different tone or all the features the Capistan can do. With the Capistan I felt like the repeats were getting out of control and sometimes it would be hard to tame it. I don't have that problem with this pedal. It sits real nice in your guitar mix and compliments what you are doing rather than take it over.

I recommend this to anyone who wants to get a solid sounding tape delay and with out much to spend.