I love your channel. It is informative and relaxing at the same time. You are the Bob Ross of amp repair. When I am awake, I learn a lot. When I need a nap, you are also very relaxing.
Hi Daniel. Laughed out loud at that. So... a little resistor over here... where does it want to be? How about right here by this big old capacitor... just tease it in....
That’s a “modern” one the earlier ones were valve powered. The old tape echoes were revolutionary in their time and I wouldn’t dream of playing without one in the early 1960s in fact I’ve still got a couple including an old Watkins Copykat somewhere. Those tape loops didn’t last long and as poverty stricken teenagers we soon learned how to splice our own from a reel of old reel to reel tape, much cheaper than buying the tapes sold by Watkins. Keeping the tape heads and transport mechanism clean helped a lot but the machines were far from perfect, the first Copykats didn’t have an erase head and had a permanent magnet in the tape tension arm, the socket it fitted in could still be seen on later machines with erase heads! Those old tape echoes did have their own sounds but these days I use pedals from Catalinbread and Strymon which make a pretty good job of capturing a lot of the characteristics of the old tape machines and more without the hassle.
Thanks for this, back in the early seventies I had this exact Watkins echo. I was playing through my 1960 strat into my early Vox AC 30. 1963. It was a great sounding effect. The amps gone, the copycats gone. The strat is will go to my son. Serial number 53271.
Thanks.I have an original early sixties copicat(valves and no circuit board, all wired to a tag strip).The three push buttons switch on each head,No1 first head etc.Push all three you get all three heads playing back.The erase on the early models, like mine have a magnet in the tape tensioner to erase the previous recording.It also has a large brass flywheel to minimise fluctuations in tape speed.love your uploads.
Very interesting thanks I didn;t realise there was a valve version. Ah the buttons make sense now, you can change the delay time doing that. I initially thought it was a vari-speed motor (wonder why they didn;t do that?)
Hello Stuart. A perfect verbal demonstration that instantly brought back memories of these use to sound. That's the first one I have seen in a lot of years. Great video. Take care Stuart.
I had the earlier valve version with the double hinged lids. That worked much better than the later solid state one I purchased at a later date. I used to make my own tape loops as the Watkins ones were quite expensive but it was impossible to produce a perfect splice. This resulted in a muted sort of click each time it passed the record head. The only problem I encountered was the build up of oxide on the heads, they required constant cleaning. It was a very effective unit and worked really well with my futurama III guitar and my Selmer little giant amplifier. Thank you for resurrecting happy nostalgic memories.
Thanks for this. Yes the wear on the tape and heads is quite large, particularly the tape. I hope you enjoyed the totally transparent sections on that tape loop!
Those old tape delays are so cool. Here in USA the Echoplex seems to be the most popular one. Haven't seen many of these WEM units... in fact this is first time I've been able to see one in any detail.
I had one of these in the 70's. I traded it in for something else of which I can't remember but, it ruined my experience of digital units that are so clean you can clean your teeth on them and absolutely souless.
@@stuartukguitarampguy5830 I recorded clarinet through it in a spacey way, despite the fact I couldn't play clarinet into a bare chassis tube amp into an Akai 4000ds reel to reel. Still got the tape and machine but wouldn't hold up much hope of all being intact. This was the seventies after all. Now I think of it still got the clarinet.
Oh, yes, I once had one of those. It's main design flaw however is the missing pinch roller. I even modded my own one by adding a pinch roller mechanism afterwards. 😂 And it of course wears out those short tape loops quickly.
@@stuartukguitarampguy5830 Yes. Another problem is that there is no decent low friction bearings in the wheels of that red part which keeps the tape loop tight. If those rollers becomes dirty or worn out, it makes the wow and flutter even worse. And those trasistor circuits are probably more hissy than tube circuits. 😀
Thank you Stuart. It was interesting to see one of these solid state Copy Cats again. I had one in the 1970's which I refurbished and used for a while, but it never quite hit the spot for me and I went back to an Echoplex. I was after the valve driven Mk 1 version of the Copy Cat, but I was always beaten by another buyer when one came up for sale so never got to use one in the end.
At 5:52 I can see a medium size blue capacitor on the circuit board which is trying to vent it's guts out; probably has dozens more bad electrolytic caps Inside the unit. But yeah, let's just change the power cord because that's all the customer wants.....sheesh 😖. Repairing audio electronics isn't "magic", and there's no amount of magical touch that will bring this unit back to life. It needs parts and serious labor, and I don't understand why any tech would take this unit on for a band-aid repair when the customer's obviously not willing or able to spend the money to do it right.
You have some strange ideas! A 'tech' will do whatever is asked of him/her. If he'd asked me to put a new mains plug on, I would have. It's like taking your car to the garage and asking them to fix the indicators. The mechanic says "Sure but you realise the exhaust needs replacing too?" You say "Thanks but just do the indicators." According to you, the mechinic should replay "Sorry, I'm not taking this on." ..... Rrrriiighttt.....
@@stuartukguitarampguy5830, no, this is more like taking your car to the shop because you want them to weld a noisy exhaust leak and the mechanic says to the owner of the vehicle "but your gas tank is leaking"....💥 🔥
@@stuartukguitarampguy5830, Now replace this scenario with you going to the Doctor and saying "I just want you to remove this one itchy mole" and the Doctor says "but you have a small melanoma as well and require surgery before it spreads and kills you". And the patient says "but that spot doesn't itch yet, so just do what I want and I'll be on my way...."💀☠
Agreed but his need was a bit unusual. He just wanted to show it to his schoolkids as an exampole of early gear. I don't think he's ever going to use it in anger.
A great episode, Stuart. Until today I've only seen the Watkins in photos. Albeit noisy, and wrought with wow and flutter, I too believe a new spool of tape will improve the signal integrity. Also a head realignment is warranted as well. There was a distributor here in the states that offered tape reels for the Echoplex. If they're still in business it stands to reason that they may have a Copy Cat loop, or be able to splice several spares for that unit. Well done, as always, Stuart. Enjoy the impending weekend. Cheers!
Hi Stuart, I bought my copicat from a second hand shop in South Wales about 40 years ago. It stopped working about 20 years ago and was put away in the attic. I finally got around to restoring it 3 years ago. Re-capped, erase oscillator circuit replaced, (which was the reason for the original fault) and a mains and output socket fitted. I have my own tape that I can splice to size. I also noticed that the serial number was scratched off so it was probably stolen from a pub in South Wales in the 70's where they were like a house effect unit for the guest guitarists, who all played Shadows music. It now has a great useable sound full of character. Sound example: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CRhthK_g_J8.htmlsi=XuU7sUkBsOnRnSUx
My friend gave me free of charge a VOX echo chamber which is valve based from I guess 1960's maybe but some time later I thrown it out in the 1980, it must be a very rare machine these days. I wonder how much it would have been worth to a collector?.
Nice one Young Stuart. Personally I think the owner needs to put the thing in the bin! Probably needs new heads (not only the tape!) Had one back in the mid sixties and one of the problems was the tape would eventually decompose and block the heads up with oxide!!
hello i have a leslie combo pre amp 1V. is for a organ but want to know if you can make it in to a stomp box so i can use it maybe it will be a cool project thanks and love your work thanks for helping us with your know how.from los angeles c.a.
@@stuartukguitarampguy5830 , And here I thought you believe that the customer always knew best and it was your job to give the customer what they wanted....../s
would the chassis of the delay be grounded through the body of the instrument cable to the amplifier? or is that too high of an impedance to be effective?
