Gear In-depth & Longer Blogs — Roland tape echo

When Dan from That Pedal Show called in at the Soundgas HQ to choose a Roland RE-201 Space Echo for their new Pedal Barn, it’s fair to say he was somewhat blown away by the Soundgas Studio. On that night’s show, he told Mick that when he dies, he wants to be stuffed and put on a chair in there with his Tele!This was Dan’s second visit; it’s always a pleasure to host someone who’s as passionate and animated about gear and sound as we are. The first time, he came to collect a Gurus Echosex 2º for a Binson...

A blog post going into some of the history and features of superb Korg's tape echoes, and also some useful information if you are asking yourself "Should I get a Korg Stage Echo or a Roland Space Echo?".

Roland’s black, green and silver (and later black and orange) Space/Chorus Echo units are familiar to nearly everyone who’s been involved in music-making over the past four decades - they are iconic and ubiquitous. Korg’s echoes are more down to earth - in livery as well as name. Swapping Space for Stage and jazzy colours for the muted - almost gothic - dark grey/black contemporary to their synths, Korg Stage Echoes are much less common than their cosmic cousins and, as a result, there are many yet to encounter them.

We recently had the Grampian 636 you see below come up for sale by sealed bids. This blog post is about that unit, as well as some history and technical information about these superb, legendary machines. If you are looking to buy a Grampian or have one to sell in any condition please get in touch. UPDATE: we compiled all the demos of this Grampian into this Youtube playlist. I first encountered one of these unprepossessing grey boxes while trawling ebay many years ago. As ever, I was looking for inexpensive old effects that would sound different to the run of the mill...