1960s Maestro Echoplex EP-1 Tube Tape Delay/Echo Effects Unit

Holy shimoli! Check this out! You never see these. A friend of mine offered to let me borrow this for a week or so to dig-into it. I feigned mild disinterest but he knew I was excited to fiddle with it. After hanging-out he went home and it collected dust for a few days. Today I set it back up and launched myself into space-patrol territory.

This unit debuted in the very early '60s and became a recording staple in all sorts of genres, but you hear it employed by various rockabilly acts in its first really successful use. It allowed that "slapback" sound to be carried on-the-road in a portable fashion, though most folks these days definitely leave these in the studio.

You can read-up on the history of these at the Wikipedia page for them, but suffice to say it's a fun box to have on-hand. I love getting it to oscillate just before feedback as it gets a delicious, thick, underwater (or surfing Saturn's rings) effect that you just can't quite get from anything but tubes and tape.

The owner had this done-over recently (and modded with an additional direct-in input jack) and I'm hoping he gets a ton of enjoyment out of it in the future. The video demo features a 1973 Fender Teleceaster Deluxe going into a mic'd 1967 Fender Pro Reverb.