There’s a decent chance you’ve heard of the famous Echoplex EP-3 Tape Delay from Maestro, made popular in the 70’s and 80’s by Andy Summers, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Brian May, among others. You may also know that these older units are finicky, tricky to repair, costly at times and not always the most road-worthy for the touring musician. That’s where today’s pedal comes in: the Belle Epoch Deluxe Echo Unit CB-3 Tape Delay is a wonderful re-creation of this famous piece of gear, with some modern updates and none of the hassle the originals have come to be known for.
Right away, you’ll notice the extremely pedalboard-friendly size and durable enclosure the Belle Epoch Deluxe is housed in, instantly one-upping the large, cumbersome yet fragile machines of the past. The tour-tough metal chassis is more than capable of taking a beating while you’re on tour, and with the replicated controls, discrete preamp and self-oscillating functionality of the EP-3, this grey beauty is already a winner before you even turn it on. Plus, the solid state design ensures no hassle with changing any tape cartridges, or any general upkeep that always arises with the others.
A six-mode “tape” echo program wheel starts off the control section of the Belle Epoch, allowing you to choose from classic EP-3, dark analog, roto-swirl, sweeping resonant filter, chorus and vibrato settings, the latter two of which are direct replicants from the classic Deluxe Memory Man by Electro-Harmonix. These six options give you more than enough initial echo ground to work with, providing an immense selection of tones from which to choose. The rest of the parameters emulate the controls found on the EP-3, including Depth (modulation intensity), Record Level, Echo Volume, Echo Sustain and Echo Delay. As you will be able to hear in our demo video below, we used an optional external expression pedal to control the delay time, giving us instantaneous switching of the delay (80ms-800ms) in real time. The expression pedal can also control playback volume, rotary speed and filter sweep, depending on which Echo Program you’re currently using.
Another great feature of the Belle Epoch Deluxe is the secondary footswitch, which is labeled Echo Osc. Hold this one down after you strum a chord or pluck a note, and the CB-3 Tape Delay takes off into outer space, providing the same self-oscillation effect that the original Echoplexes were famous for. You can tune this to your delight via an internal trimpot as well. Speaking of internal functions, the Belle Epoch Deluxe can be run in true-bypass or “trails” modes as well, access again via an internal slider switch.
Just the sheer plethora of options this machine gives you has to make you want to try it out, right? Well, have a listen below and hear for yourself – if you’re lucky enough to be able to grab one before they sell out the same day they’re released (which is EVERY time), you are NOT going to be disappointed, trust us. Cheers to the Catalinbread crew for a wonderfully reliable and sonically accurate portrayal of one of the most recognizable delays in the history of music – no more fuss and muss, no more ridiculous prices and, perhaps most importantly, no more messing around with ACTUAL TAPE. Get on the mailing list on Catalinbread’s website to make sure you get one the next time they are released….or you’re gonna regret it.
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