Klemt

[Stubert]

Has anyone here own or have tried one of these ? I am asking because I have three now, and after having them serviced and fully running they sound to me the best retro sounding tube tape echo ever.

I often get carried away with enthusiasm for new bits of kit but these babies and the matching M40 amps sound terrific.

[dave robinson]

I have never had the opportunity to try one of these, but always heard good reports about them. The nearest I owned was a similar Dynacord machine with the push buttons and it sounded terrific, the only problem being that the heads were in the wrong positions to get the Shadows echo patterns. I don't know if the Echolette has differnt head positions, but I believe that Hank was seen with one in a photo back then.

[sixstringsid]

where I live klemt means starving, e.g. "gooin for me jackbit, am klemt dee arth"

[Paisley]

I have the Echolette 5; it was a hard call finding one in Australia, but one finally came up a few years ago. It's in need of a bit of TLC, but even so it still sounds great. I've had a number of tape echoes over the years, & still have a SRE-555; they all had their own quirks & perks, however this one definitely has the most unique character of them all.

For those of you who remember the Australian band "The Atlantics", the Echolette is the unit they used on "Bombora" back in the early '60s.

[cockroach]

There were a few of these units around here in South Australia in the '60's and '70's, more often used as PA- in fact, I was playing bass in a jazz trio in the mid '70's when we took on a vocalist who had that setup with speakers as his PA- I was amazed- it was the best PA I'd ever heard or sung through.

Earlier in the '60's here, there were a lot of European migrants as well as British who came to live in South Australia, and those musician guys often used Echolette, Dynachord and Meazzi gear- often in ethnic bands - Italian, German, Dutch etc- often with accordians and the like!

Very good quality stuff indeed!

[gibbo3272]

Les Green from the Denvermen also used one.
Geoff

[cockroach]

Ah, The Denvermen- would that unit have perhaps been used on 'Surfside'?

I suspect that the European sound gear back then (from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Italy etc) in the early-mid '60's would probably have been the best available.

Maybe not guitar amps etc (the UK made Vox, Selmer, Marshall were 'industry standard' along with US Fender amps) but for PA, echo units and speakers, and microphones etc, that European stuff was the canine's testes..

[shadowtonio]

hello echolette users,

here the Nelson echolette, modified Echolette, sounds like the long tom, belongs to a collector in Holland.


cheers, tonio

[dave robinson]

I got my hands on one of the Klemt Echolette machines and I love it to bits as it sounds amazing. I know the heads aren't spot on for those Shadows patterns, but they are very workable and the machine adds a lovely vintage tone to the mix. I've had three of the similar Dynacord Echocord machines, but this is more suited for Shads stuff and it's a keeper. There's a magic in the tone but I can't say hand on heart that many people would hear it in a mix, but I know it's there.

[nivramarvin]

KV101966Echolette k.jpeg (40.73 KiB) Viewed 15271 times

Back in the sixties I had this Echolette. Must have been a prototype, because I never saw any similar again.