Watkins Copicat/Binson Echorec/Maestro Echoplex

FinsburyParkCarrots

I've owned a second-hand Copicat for eighteen years now. I did go the digital route a while ago, but I've a fondness for the old slapback tape echo. Does anyone else own one of these boxes? How do you use it?

who's_pearljam?

I had one of those things years ago and forgot about it until just now! There's a blast from the past! Is it one of those blue boxes with the clamp on top, kind of like an old typewriter cover? :cool:

I think it had the tape heads under one of the covers, and the tape was ALWAYS breaking. I never really used it a lot, and ended up with an Echoplex that was just a little bet less of a pain. Great sound on that stuff, though! It just wasn't roadworthy at the time.

Is yours working? I know that you have to clean the tape heads a lot, and the foot switches are touchy on them, too. Spray the connections and the switches with tuner cleaner, the WD-40 of the electronics world! (don't spray the tape heads, though. Use q-tips and denatured alcohol.)

FinsburyParkCarrots

Mine's working. Yep, clean the heads, and change the tape. And use that alcohol. I was lucky, when I was sixteen. I acquired this Watkins Copicat, and one of the old boys who was redecorating the house used to be in a band that toured with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, around 1960-61. So he met Hank Marvin and got tips on maintaining these things. He advised me on how to keep it going. My Copicat is a solid state, so it dates from the late sixties, a little later than the one he had, but the principles of looking after it were basically the same. Every so often, if it seems to stop responding to anything, I take it up to the local guitar centre and, for a reasonable fee, they get it going. It works, anyway. (Solid State: can't beat it.)

I saw John Martyn live last Monday (11th), and just as he was cooking I'd Rather Be The Devil, his Echoplex fucked up. He thought he'd killed it. While techies fiddled with it, the band rather sardonically played Stairway to Heaven (in the style of those old Hamlet cigar ads), for the repose of the old box. I've never tried an Echoplex. Doesn't Ed use one for his vocals, or am I dreaming that?

who's_pearljam?

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Mine's working. Yep, clean the heads, and change the tape. And use that alcohol. I was lucky, when I was sixteen. I acquired this Watkins Copicat, and one of the old boys who was redecorating the house used to be in a band that toured with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, around 1960-61. So he met Hank Marvin and got tips on maintaining these things. He advised me on how to keep it going. My Copicat is a solid state, so it dates from the late sixties, a little later than the one he had, but the principles of looking after it were basically the same. Every so often, if it seems to stop responding to anything, I take it up to the local guitar centre and, for a reasonable fee, they get it going. It works, anyway. (Solid State: can't beat it.)

I saw John Martyn live last Monday (11th), and just as he was cooking I'd Rather Be The Devil, his Echoplex fucked up. He thought he'd killed it. While techies fiddled with it, the band rather sardonically played Stairway to Heaven, for the repose of the old box. I've never tried an Echoplex. Doesn't Ed use one for his vocals, or am I dreaming that?

Cool that yours works! They are touchy things. Mine was a tube one. I love that old stuff like that.

Ha ha ,,, invented by Les Paul himself! The tape delay! We're going up to see him in New York next Monday. Ha ha, 90 years old and gigs every Monday night at the Iridium!

I don't know if Vedder uses one, though. The Eddie experts here would know I guess.
I saw Jimmy Page with his Echoplex in the early 70's It messed up on stage and he kicked it off its little stool and stomped on it and went on soloing.

John Martyn's GREAT!! Good you got to see him!

FinsburyParkCarrots

who's_pearljam? wrote:

I saw Jimmy Page with his Echoplex in the early 70's It messed up on stage and he kicked it off its little stool and stomped on it and went on soloing.

Ah, that explains the development of digital delay.

who's_pearljam?

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Ah, that explains the development of digital delay.

ha ha.,,, and probably explains the name: Stomp Boxes!

enharmonic

With regard to using alcohol on tape heads...the correct type is denatured alcohol. If you use rubbing alcohol on tape heads, you'll eventually ruin them.

Rubbing alcohol is bad stuff for tape heads.

FinsburyParkCarrots

enharmonic wrote:

With regard to using alcohol on tape heads...the correct type is denatured alcohol. If you use rubbing alcohol on tape heads, you'll eventually ruin them.

Rubbing alcohol is bad stuff for tape heads.

Yep, I knew that. I don't believe in wasting Guinness, anyway.

exhausted

Doesn't Ed use one for his vocals, or am I dreaming that?

ed used the new gibson digital echoplex for "arc".

http://gibson.com/Products/Amplifiers/Echoplex/