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I've had a pretty shitty week emotionally, so after I found out that I got a second job today, I decided to pop on over to Guitar Center and see what caught my eye. I spent a few hours checking out Les Pauls, as I've always wanted one but never found one that really made me swoon. I spent an hour with a 2012 Traditional that was visually stunning and supreme sounding, but just average feeling in my hand. I really wanted to buy it, but not enough to plop down $2K for it. So I decided to do the responsible thing and put it back on the rack and see what they had in the used pedal section that might catch my fancy.

There wasn't much there today, but for some reason something that had been sitting there for a few months was calling to me more than usual. I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it out. After spending more than an hour with the Gibson, I knew in 3 minutes that this thing had to be mine... so I brought it home with me.

It seems to be in perfect functional and 9/10 cosmetic condition. There are just a few nicks in the tolex, and the latches for the top part need a little bit of work... but it's got that fucking magic sound. I've got an El Capistan and a Timeline that I really really love, but this thing is in a whole different world. It's seriously tone magic. I was just plugged into a Blues Jr and it made that little amp come alive. I can't wait to play it through my personal amps.

Oh yeah and it even came with the original footswitch. Score! The employee who took it in is apparently something of a tape unit aficionado, and he said that it's the cleanest one he's ever seen come through the store. I'm so happy I can't even express it properly. I'm definitely over the funk I've been in this week.

Fuck yeah dude. Congrats. I want one like nothing else.

Congrats! It looks awesome.

grats!

Most groovy.

Fuck you. So jealous!

Nice score. The sound truly is magical. Will be interesting to see if you keep those Strymons around.

I have a re150 (similar to yours, but no reverb) and they really are something else. I fear the day i burn out the motor on mine, but wouldn't hesitate to replace it with a new one, they seem to make anything played through them sound immense.

Are motors available again? Last I knew they weren't. Though there was a guy selling a kit with instructions to rebuild Space Echo motors.

Thanks guys! I'm loving this thing so far. It's not working perfectly with my Egnater (I really need to figure that out) but it sounds like fucking heaven with my Bassman. I can't wait to slam it with a nice fuzz.

codetocontra wrote:Nice score. The sound truly is magical. Will be interesting to see if you keep those Strymons around.

I doubt I'll get rid of them. I've not had too much time with my Roland yet, but I'd say that the El Capistan can get pretty damn close to the tone of a real tape delay. Maybe not this one in particular, but now I can say as a tape delay owner that it holds up tonally.

Where the El Capistan falls short is the feel that you get of using a real tape delay - particularly, the response and the inconsistencies of using a real tape machine.

And I don't think it's really even fair to compare it to the Timeline when you consider all of the other non-tape things that it can do.

The motors are periodically available again if you look.

The other thing that the tape units will do is the "you still have echoes while it barely oscillates" setting.

And a good portion of the magic is the preamp, they truly are ridiculous to what they do to the right amp.

I'm extremely impressed with the way that it sounds when it's set to just shy of oscillating. That's another thing that the El Capistan doesn't get right. Don't get me wrong, I love the way the El Capistan sounds when set similarly... But it's just a completely different beast.

lol am i the only one who thought you meant an EHX holy grail..?

for real, a great buy. it's a pain in the ass (in my opinion, when it gets funky), but it's one of those pieces that's totally worth it.

Awesome man, congratulations!