Vintage refurbished Simms-Watts Echo Dek tape echo 1970's copicat echoplex space echo

very rare Vintage early 70's Simms-Watts "Echo Dek" tape echo. Completely refurbished and recapped by Aitken Audio in Sheffield, UK. I've only ever seen one other of these "mark 1" units in the last 20 years or so.
Cosmetically it has a lot of scratches and scrapes from it's almost 50 years of work! please see pics. But electronically, it's in great shape after the recap and service.
Originally these units used a proprietary tape loop that is impossible to obtain, so this one, like most echo dek's has been converted to use a WEM copicat tape loop, which are easy to obtain (but I'm including a set of 3-4 new copicat loops to get you started).
Sound and operation is similar to a WEM copicat, but I think the sound is nicer, it overdrives in a really cool way. It sounds amazing on guitar and synths. One really great feature, is you can use it as a studio effect too - the "footswitch" jack comes out at line level. So I used it a lot in mixing - send a signal into the input, and get line level output from the footswitch jack, just like using a space echo. 
There are three different delays speeds from fast slapback, to more of a full echo. The feedback control is great and the unit will self-oscillate really nicely if the feedback is cranked, great for dub FX. Also, the 3 delays can be switched on separately or together, in any order, so you can have different layers of echo at the same time. AND there is a "sound on sound" effect (if you switch the control to "play only") where it just keeps recording delays, but doesn't erase, so you get this really cool buildup of echoes that can go on forever like huge tape loops. The unit runs on 230V British voltage, so you will need the step-up transformer which I am including with the sale, to be used with US 110V voltage. Will be packed very securely for shipping!