Jim Echoplex EP103 Delay

116
GUITARIST OCTOBER 2016
BRAND NAME OR ROUNDUP TYPE
T
he original Echoplex tape echo contributed
to many classic music performances. Jimmy
Page used one live with Led Zeppelin it was
especially prominent in the violin bow section in Dazed
And Confused. Then there’s John Martyn’s Echoplex-
driven performances on the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle
Test, Andy Summers’ use of one with The Police, and
Brian May using two units live for the stacked guitar
harmonies on Brighton Rock. There are plenty more
Featuring a certain simplicity of operation when
compared with multi-head echoes, the Echoplex had
just one fixed playback head and a sliding record/erase
head, the delay time being set by the distance between
the two. It was launched in 1961 and was originally
valve-based, until settling on the solid-state EP-3
model, produced from 1970 to 1991, featuring an FET
preamp that many guitarists used (with or without
delay) to colour and drive their amps.
Jim Dunlop acquired the Echoplex name some
years ago and recently introduced the Echoplex EP101
booster and tone-conditioning pedal, designed to
emulate an EP-3’s preamp. Now, with the release of the
EP103, its the turn of the actual tape echo.
Sounds
In a solidly built enclosure the same size as MXR’s
Phase 90, the EP103 looks smart with cool chickenhead
knobs above the silver logo. The EP103 is set up by
default for standard pedalboard mono use and can
support stereo operation by using TRS splitter cables
and setting an internal switch. There are also options
available for a Wet mode, where only the wet signal is
outputted, and to change the bypass mode Normal
operation via a true bypass relay can be changed to a
buffered Trails option that allows the repeats to ring
out and die naturally after you hit the bypass switch.
JIM DUNLOP
ECHOPLEX EP103 DELAY
£189
ABOVE Press and hold
the Volume knob to
simulate “the sonic
qualities of an ageing
EP-3” , says Dunlop
RIGHT The EP103
comes in at the same
size as MXR’s Phase 90
The name remains the same, but the Echoplex evolves nd out
how Dunlop has reimagined classic tape echo as a compact pedal…
Words Trevor Curwen Photography Adam Gasson
GIT412.peds_dunlop.indd 116 01/09/2016 13:09

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