Catalinbread Belle Epoch Tape Echo

Don’t you just love to hear the sound of a good tape echo delay coming out of your amplifier, or stereo speakers, or a YouTube video? Of course you do, we all do! Problem is, to be able to get that authentic sound, you have to find AND be able to purchase a big, clunky machine, which may or may not even work properly, then take a short 6 week course on how to use it, switch tapes and keep up the general maintenance of the unit. Let’s face: most of us don’t have that kind of time, or energy. In come our friends over at Catalinbread, and their fantastic tape echo pedal, the Belle Epoch.

Based on one of the most famous tape echo machines ever, the Maestro Echoplex EP-3, the Belle Epoch conjures up everything you love about those old machines, but presents them in a nice, tidy and compact pedal, perfect for both the learning curve and easy transportation. One of the coolest parts about this recreation is the inclusion of a preamp, which the older units had, giving your guitar’s tone a little shaping and a little boost, even when the echo was turned off! Right away when you plug it in, you can feel that sense of vintage sound coming through your amp, making everything all warm and fuzzy inside.

The control section is extensive here, but worth delving into. Echo Sustain starts things by feeding the delay back into itself, even with the pedal off! This is a rad control, and mimics sounds the old echoes produced, by utilizing near-infinite repeats and self-oscillation. This control will also boost your volume in a split second, so watch out! The Mod knob adds in some of that classic “wow and flutter” everyone talks about, and does it well. Set this anywhere below 12:00 for some faithful sonic recreations, and go past noon to get into some insanely modulated territory. Rec Lev is the record level, or tone of the Belle Epoch. When dialed back, the effect is lighter, and when cranked, it becomes thick and nasty, which are both perfectly acceptable in the tape echo world. Mix blends your wet and dry signals, and Echo Delay rounds out the controls, supplying delay times from 80ms to 800ms, perfect for all your tape echo-emulation needs.

There’s also an internal control for setting the preamp’s gain strength, plus you can decide whether or not you want the pedal to be buffered or true bypass as well. The crew at Catalinbread have obviously done a huge amount of research and spent a great deal of time to get all the nuances and sonic imperfections of the EP-3 to be present in the Belle Epoch, and their efforts really shine through. Guitar whiz Eric Johnson has even said that this pedal is “the closest thing to a real EP-3 that I’ve ever played”, which is a pretty rad compliment right there. If you don’t believe him, you’d better just go ahead and check it out for yourself.