Well, we’ve got some more Strymon for all you pedal lovers out there, and this is absolutely one of our favorites that they produce. The El Capistan is a dTape Echo Delay, emulating the sounds and tones of classic tape echo machines of decades gone by, and doing a phenomenal job at it. Giving you a plethora of sonic options to choose from, you’re going to spend days, maybe weeks even, immersing yourself in all of it’s echo delay glory.
Time, Mix and Repeats are pretty standard fare here for the start of the control section, with the overall Delay Time ranging from 25ms to 1.5 seconds, depending on which mode you’re in (more on that in a sec). The Tape Age is a rad control, as it recreates the limited bandwidth that regular tapes in a traditional tape delay machine achieve as the tape itself wears out, getting darker in tone as you turn this knob clockwise. Wow & Flutter is a great knob as well, giving you control over the modulation aspects of the delay. As the older tape machines require a lot of service and upkeep, this knob lets you decide on tones from either a newly-serviced delay, or one that is need of some repair, opening up a ton of sonic possibilities.
The Tape Head toggle switch lets you select between 3 offerings: Fixed Head means the playback head is in a fixed position, and you use the Time knob to vary the tape speed. Use the Mode toggle here as well to select short, medium or longer delay times and tempos. Multi Tape Head allows 2 of the 3 playback heads to be selected at the same time, with differing configurations selected by the Mode toggle. Finally, Single Head mode fixes the tape speed, but lets you adjust the position of a sliding record head, for normal or double speed. Set the Mode toggle to C here, and the El Capistan becomes a looper, using the Tap footswitch to select beginning and ending tape slice points for your recording.
Speaking of the Tap footswitch, this soft and barefoot-friendly button lets you control the delay time on the fly, something that we all find extremely useful in the studio or live. An Expression pedal output jack on the top also lets you connect either an Expression pedal to control whatever parameter you’d like, of a classic Favorite switch, made famous by Strymon, letting you instantly load your favorite setting with the click of a button. Stereo Outputs round out the top controls, allowing you to witness the magnificence of tape delay the way it was truly meant to be heard.
Hang on, not done yet! The El Cap also features an entire set of Secondary Functions, accessible by holding down both the Tap and Bypass footswitches simultaneously. These include Low End Contour (low frequency of the echo repeats), Spring Reverb (sets the mix for the integrated spring reverb tank), Tape Bias (set for lower headroom and reduced echo volume, or more headroom and cleaner echoes), Boost/Cut (+/-3dB) and the awesome Tape Crinkle (adds in tape friction, creases, splices and contaminants to the sounds), to make even more incredible noise come out of this little gray wonder box. This whole list of secondary controls will open up the El Capistan in more ways than you thought were possible, letting you truly dial it in to your specific and exacting specifications.
Working for months to recapture these revered tones, Strymon has managed to capture the warmth and saturation from those old tape delays, with some great modern upgrades (and no maintenance or master’s degree to keep it up and running). The El Capistan boasts so many controls, you’re going to wish you had an entire pedalboard made up of just Favorite switches, so you could remember all the rad settings you’re going to discover. These guys keep on killing it in the effects field – we’re hoping to get a crack at their new overdrive pedal here in the next little bit, so check back with us for that. In the meantime, check out the demo video below to see what this guy is all about, and head over to the Strymon site for more info on all their great effects.
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