Echo advice on YouTube...

[David Martin]

Happened across this... what do you think?

[Didier]

This has been shown many times before, and I have never been totally convinced. Of course you can get interresting echo patterns, but you will no excatly emulate those from the early years, and you will certainly not emulate the Meazzi tone.

Didier

[Bluesnote]

I was thinking about purchasing the Behringer version of this pedal when I was in Canada a few weeks ago. I saw this Youtube vid and wondered if I could get a cheap Shads sound out of it to get me by at the time for roughly under 30quid.
In the end I did'nt get it. Someone on here(cant remember who) put me off the idea after suggesting that I'd probably get as good an echo off the DA5 I was using. I used to have that Boss one in the vid but when I was using it I was'nt doing Shad stuff at the time.
It was the eighties and I was using it for the delay sounds of that era with the band. I eventually got rid during one of my selling sprees

[Bojan]

I think it sounds great!! I think this guy has found a good way to make two relatively cheap and straightforward delay pedals sound like a proper multi-tap echo machine. Perhaps finding a lot of different echo patterns to match all the Shadows songs would be a little more complicated, but the pattern he has created sounds very good to me.

[David Martin]

You can achieve even better results with the Line 6 Stompbox modellers - in effect you can place four single head delays in a row - with vintage tonality on either the original signal, the echo or both, and vary the head timings to precise millisecond increments, then, depending on the model you choose, you can have up to four different settings per "scene" (which equates to all the buttons you can see on the board) and many different scenes too... So you can produce all the different Shads scenarios you could want, adding reverb, volume pedal (if you add it) and Leslie cab for later 60s Hank, and dual tracked guitar with distortion for Warlord etc...

And when I eventually get round to recording, I will post a clip or two...

[geronimo7476]

I did that when I first started recording with two cassette recorders and two Ibanez echo pedals over twenty years ago in South Africa. I also used that method at gigs keeping the one with the slower taps on for the faster tunes, adding the faster repeats for the smoochy tunes like Cosy, Sleepwalk, Wonderful land etc.
Just the fast repeats for RnR 'slap backs' and of course both off for just about all else. I never had to reset anything throughout the gig.
We also made our own reverb units by winding a length of thin galvanised wire on a rod with our fathers drilling machine, stretching the 'spring' a little and hanging it by rubber bands on a series of hooks snaked around a board. the one end of the coil was pierced through the diaphram of one of my Vox speakers and 'puttied' into place, the other end fastened into a 78 stylus which we plugged into one of the unused channels, giving me control of my home made reverb!!
Cumbersome as this very crude device was, It worked and very well at that and I was extremely proud of it!! That fabulous swishing reverb sound on the damped strings of 'Pipeline' would be a good example of what I would get. Mmmmm fond memories of those days! I wonder if there are other similar stories

Cheers CC

[roger bayliss]

Yes I have seen this before myself and thought it a good idea... certainly some cheap echo pedals around that do warm echo vintage sounds the only problem is woild they do 'That Sound'... I think if they could then the other echo units that Charlie Hall has programmed would but hey don't because the final icing on the cake is in the Meazzi pre-amp ... if head timings and warm echos could do it that would be smashing but I think the final finish on the sound would be missing somehow... yes it's useful to do this stuff and have other ways of producing the echos and it's very usable for live work but for the final touches on a that sound recording it probably will not suffice in that context... unless you know something different David ... go on prove me wrong I certainly like the idea of that Line6 effects unit... got it all for about £350.00 .... would appreciate hearing your efforts David

[Didier]

the final icing on the cake is in the Meazzi pre-amp ...

Not only the Meazzi preamp, but also the record/play circuits which are everything but linear and neutral.
You can't emulate Hank's early sound by just using the same echo pattern, you also need to emulate both the direct and echo signal tone from the Meazzi, and that is much more difficult...
If you want to test this double delay pedals solution for cheap, get yourself a pair of Behringer DD100 pedals, which will do the same as the Boss DD-3 for less money.

Didier

[almano]

Hi, has anyone else tried the BOSS RE-20 Space Echo yet? Apparently it's supposed to be the digital version of the analogue Roland RE-201 - and I have to say that to my ears it sounds "right on the button". In fact I got one the other day, and compared to my Line 6 DL4 - I think I prefer it as a closer approximation to the HBM sound. I'm actually repairing a '61 Watkins Copicat at the moment, and I'll be more than interested to hear how an authentic vintage piece of equipment sounds compared to today's digital variation when I've finished the job (or long term exercise should I say!). I rather think the vintage valve gear will be the winner somehow! By the way, I'll also be running it all through a vintage AC15 - which is also being refurbished. With any luck I may even sound like Hank at the end of it (some hopes!)
All of this enthusiasm comes about because I've just had my interest in guitars rekindled after a more than 30 year break - and I'm currently getting all my ancient gear back into working order as far as possible - now, if only I can do the same with my fingers!
Cheers, Almano.

[Didier]

Hi, has anyone else tried the BOSS RE-20 Space Echo yet?

I have a friend who had one, but I am not sure he still has it. I heard a few times, it's OK for modern Hank's sound, but not for Hank's early years sound.

Didier