Our recent video on the Space Echo has been surprisingly, especially to me, popular! I am not sure why. Is it the ever-increasing interest in vintage gear or do many people share my love of dub effects?
I suspect the former. There is something intrinsically more interesting in hardware than the software emulations. My love of echo dates back to my youth and listening to dub reggae at the local ‘Caribbean Club’ in Oxford. I bought the Space Echo, however, for my guitar having seen U2 on the Boy tour, and marveled at the sound on tracks like “I will follow”. It resided in my guitar rig throughout my playing career but I then stupidly sold it after going to a demo of a new fangled device.
I was invited to the launch by Yamaha of their amazing device the ‘SPX 90’. I came away stunned! It did everything and more, in stereo! I sold my Space Echo and my Yamaha R1000 reverb and bought one. The SPX was great and I still own several varieties today, but it was crap on guitar. In bypass it was fine but the moment you put it on the level dropped… rubbish…. I ended up buying the Space Echo back a few years later and I’m glad I did. The R1000, though, will not be returning…