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I'm trading a guitar for a working Roland RE-150 Space Echo.

I'm getting a stupid good deal on it.

What should I ask about the unit? Even in non working condition, I'm still +$150 on value.

Really excited. If all goes well I'll post pics and clips tomorrow.

The most important thing to look at is basically everything dealing with the tape. The motor, the felt and the tape itself.

things to check would be the condition of the heads and the condition of the rubber pinch roller. youll want to replace the felt and the tape. you can find them on ebay.

Get a demagnitizer. See how clean the heads are. Make sure the motor works (most important, probably). You can make the tape and buy replacements for it. The belt you can buy for around $15, but a running motor is the most important. Oh, maybe bring an old credit card or cassette tape and run it across the heads to see that they read (though, probably not the most likely problem and only if there is no tape or there are other problems). General cleanliness and stuff too.

Felt as other people has mentioned.

UG (who's already chimed in), culturejam and rfurtkamp would be good people to talk to.

here is some good reading on the general maintenance you'll need to do.
http://www.soundfirst.com/cleandemag.html

If it's been used a lot there's a chance the motor will need to be rebuilt, considering they're so old the bearings wear down and need replacing. That's probably the only horrendously laborious thing you might need to do, unless there's a dead capacitor but apparently thats not too common.
I was thinking it would be a massive pain in the ass thing to work on when I got mine but it really isn't that bad, you will need proper metal polish and isopropyl alcohol to clean the heads regularly but yeah.
If it hasn't been well maintained inside the tape bay definitely spend a few hours meticulously cleaning everything that comes into contact with the tape and get something like this http://www.echofix.com/collections/diy- ... -over-8000 to replace the felts, pinch roller, tape etc.

Now why don't they have a site like that for the multivox mx-312? Dang it. haha. Awesome site, thanks backwardsvoyager (space echo is on my list too).

I have a 150.

The big thing that people forget is to clean *everything* that the tape touches - there are so many tape guides etc on it that folks forget exist they're often filthy.

I'd check the felts etc before replacing, but yea, have them on hand.

Order multiple tape loops now. Order more when you use half.

Get yourself a 1/4" footswitch for the unit.

If it doesn't oscillate wildly at about 2:00 or so on the dial or beyond, the heads are probably dirty and/or the tape is shot. If you're not getting it at 3:00, definitely so.

Set the levels higher than the bouncing VU meter would indicate - don't PEG it fullbore, but don't worry about the red. Most of them like to be hit pretty damn hard.

The output level switch is also stupid important - figure out which of the three settings sounds best with your setup, and roll with it.

If you're diagnosing issues with the echo itself, oscillation, etc - use the second out. It's 100% wet and will faciliate solving issues.

Motor may not be shot, they're more resilient than people give them credit for especially if it hasn't been wrecked.

lordgalvar wrote:Now why don't they have a site like that for the multivox mx-312? Dang it. haha. Awesome site, thanks backwardsvoyager (space echo is on my list too).

If you're unsure about something with it it's worth dropping him an email, the guy who runs it is nice and will answer any echo-related questions regardless of whether you've bought stuff.
His parts are a tiny bit expensive but it's all custom fabricated to fit and includes worldwide shipping. If it weren't for him i'd probably have given a tech hundreds to repair my 201 which didn't even end up being broken.

Yea, I've had good luck ordering stuff from the dude myself.

Haven't needed to in a while as I'm well stocked and my unit was serviced before I bought it (and I do seasonal teardown like I did on my old 301 that kept the damn thing running without issue for over a decade).

It was just a good site to have handy if I ever pick up a space echo. I don't know what is going on with this mx312. It's like somebody tried to mod the motor controller with a shut off switch and totally screwed up. It is such a rats nest of wires in there. They also added automotive fuse holders in there. Everything works on it except the motor (but it isn't frozen, spins great). Everything else works on it. The belt I ordered was too big, but nothing is running anyways.

Great info breaux.

I'm trading an old peavey falcon with a Duncan lil 59.

Y'all are really sleeping on this choice pedal called the Strymon el Capistan. Definitely google it.

Y'all are really sleeping on this choice pedal called the Strymon el Capistan. Definitely google it.

Sounds nothing like an actual Space Echo!

rfurtkamp wrote:

Y'all are really sleeping on this choice pedal called the Strymon el Capistan. Definitely google it.

Sounds nothing like an actual Space Echo!

Yeah, it doesn't sound like any tape delay I've played or own.