The Catalinbread Belle Epoch Tape Echo, has tape echo sounds so authentic you’d swear there was a tape inside the pedal! Inspired by the Maestro Echoplex, EP-3 model, perhaps the most famous tape delay ever, the Belle Epoch features everything about EP-3 in a small, maintenance-free pedal format. The tape echo pedal was much more than just a standard digital delay with some filtering on the repeats. There are a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle traits of the Echoplex that needed to be implemented in order to be authentic. The preamp, the self-oscillation character, the ability to control the record level of the signal hitting the tape, the wow and flutter, the way the repeats decay, the way the circuit interfaces with the amp and other pedals – all these things were important to get right. The original unit was used as a musical instrument unto itself and this is what we captured with the Belle Epoch.

Power Supply Requirements

To power, the Belle Epouch uses a 9-18V DC negative ground power supply that can deliver a minimum of 70mA.

Mix

This control replicates the functionality of the Echo Volume control on the EP-3 and uses the same basic passive mixer circuit.

Tone/Record Level

This control sets how the tape or delay line is hit. It does not affect your dry signal and only affects the initial first repeat.

Sway/Mod

This control sets the amount of random tape wow and flutter effects in the echoes. At a minimum, there is no wow and flutter.