Dunlop EP103 Echoplex Delay

No joke: about 30 years ago, I found an original, working Echoplex unit for $20 at a giant yard sale, lumped in with all of the household tools. I’m a huge fan of both Eric Johnson and Andy Summers, so I took it home and enjoyed it for about a year. Well, everything except for the noise, which I couldn’t tolerate. I’m a snowflake when it comes to signal clarity.

I’m happy to report that the Dunlop EP103 is an amazing replication of the original technology, minus the extraneous noise. One thing I really appreciate about it is that the pedal’s modulation level can be manually adjusted, and I got this dialed in perfectly. It’s excellent with both clean and overdriven tones; I found that I like a little less modulation for distortion.

As Dunlop states, “The Delay control sets the time between repeats—from 65ms to 750ms—the Sustain control sets the number of repeats, and the Volume control sets the output level of your repeats. Where the sound of this pedal really shines, though, is in Age mode. By default, your pedal performs as a perfectly-calibrated, factory-fresh tape echo machine would— bright and clear tape with subtle wow and flutter modulation. A quick push of the Volume knob lets you ‘age’ the sound of your repeats, darkening the tone, upping the tape saturation (distortion), and increasing modulation and tape distress as you turn the knob clockwise.” You’ll be able to hear this in the linked video demo.

This pedal is clean, and all controls work perfectly. I bought it used, but have only played it at home. I love this pedal, but I’m scaling back my delay collection and streamlining my small pedalboard. My echoing days aren’t over. Over. Over. Over just yet, but I’m thinning the herd.

Any questions? Need additional photos or more information? Please reach out. $15 gets this shipped safely to your door, and I’ll refund any overage. You may also pick up this pedal for free in the Metro Atlanta area.