The importance of the Echoplex?

[Freethinker]

Page acquired one of these right before the 1972 US Tour, giving a whole other dimension to his sound.

Besides being used alongside the theremin, Page also used it (albeit more subtle) for his guitar tone during solo's.

Now how important was the echoplex during these solo's? There are times you can hear it very clearly that the echoplex is being used (like boogie chillun), but other times.. not so much.

Sometimes it's used with a rather short delay (in the style of scotty moore), other times it's a bit longer.

So, according to you, which solo's are definitely treated with the tape delay, and at what speed/intensity?

Edited September 18, 2011 by Freethinker

[ro_a]

Page acquired one of these right before the 1972 US Tour, giving a whole other dimension to his sound.

Besides being used alongside the theremin, Page also used it (albeit more subtle) for his guitar tone during solo's.

Now how important was the echoplex during these solo's? There are times you can hear it very clearly that the echoplex is being used (like boogie chillun), but other times.. not so much.

Sometimes it's used with a rather short delay (in the style of scotty moore), other times it's a bit longer.

So, according to you, which solo's are definitely treated with the tape delay, and at what speed/intensity?

The Echoplex tape has one big reel in it. The tape winds back onto itself in an endless loop, unlike a two spooled reel to reel. The play head slides on a rail. This determines the length of the delay, and Page likes to move it around even as it's reproducing. The Echoplex is very important because of the way the sound decays upon repetition. The quality is totally unlike digital decay. The 1980s Boss delays from Japan are the best electronic analog version of this effect.

[sixpense]

Page acquired one of these right before the 1972 US Tour, giving a whole other dimension to his sound.

Besides being used alongside the theremin, Page also used it (albeit more subtle) for his guitar tone during solo's.

Now how important was the echoplex during these solo's? There are times you can hear it very clearly that the echoplex is being used (like boogie chillun), but other times.. not so much.

Sometimes it's used with a rather short delay (in the style of scotty moore), other times it's a bit longer.

So, according to you, which solo's are definitely treated with the tape delay, and at what speed/intensity?

Listen to The Rain Song from The Song Remains the Same and you'll hear the echoplex used as a brief delay, and then there is of course the middle section of Whole Lotta Love along with the Theremin. On many other tracks he used it as a delay/reverb during solos.

[huw]

The other thing to take into consideration is that the Echoplex had an effect on tone even when the echo wasn't switched in. The clean signal is still going through the EP3 and it acts like a little gain booster with its own tone. Lots of people who have played with these say that it becomes an important part of the base tone.

That's why these days you can buy pedals designed just to recreate the tone of an EP3, without adding delays.

This isn't the original or only one available, but just as an example:

http://www.xotic.us/effects/ep_booster/

[JimmyPageZoSo56]

I am going to be buying an Echoplex from a guitar shop right by my house soon. I can't wait to run my theremin though it!