Tech
Strymon Announces New EC-1 Single Head Tape Echo
A Chance Encounter With An Immaculate Vintage Tube Echoplex® Bears Fruit
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA - February 25, 2025 - (500NewsWire) -- Strymon Engineering (www.strymon.net), the Los Angeles-based company behind premium products for the guitar, plugin and Eurorack markets, announced a new single head tape echo pedal in their newer small format today, called the EC-1. Initially based around the award-winning dTape algorithm that helped to make the El Capistan pedal an industry titan, development took a different turn when Strymon acquired an immaculate and heavily modified tube Echoplex® EP-2. The new true stereo pedal features two models of the EP-2's tube preamp with variable gain, as well as a three position Record Level switch that allows for additional gain control. Glitchless tap tempo allows tapping in new tempos without tape artifacts, and the Tape Age and Mechanics controls modify a large number of parameters under the hood to deliver authentic tape behavior at any setting. Other features include TRS stereo Ins and Outs, full MIDI implementation, TRS MIDI, a rear-panel audio routing switch, USB-C and 300 presets. Being true stereo, the EC-1 processes the left and right inputs independently, allowing it to be placed anywhere in the signal chain.
"We decided to start the project by investigating the preamps from tube echo units, so I bought an original Echoplex® EP-2 to begin the process", said Gregg Stock, Strymon CEO and analog circuit guru. "It showed up in pristine condition and sounded amazing, and we found out later that it had been heavily modified by storied guitar tech Cesar Diaz. His mods created a single unit with the best attributes of both tube and solid state Echoplexes, so we spent a bunch of time figuring out how to recreate its behavior." Pete Celi, Strymon co-founder and DSP maven said "it was so clean and mechanically stable that other nuances stood out more prominently - chief among them being some capstan-induced variations that help to widen the spectrum of the repeats. With the Mechanics control at around 1pm you get a hyper-authentic representation of that golden EP-2 unit, with a high-speed flutter that adds dimension to the echoes."
EC-1 is available now directly from Strymon and from dealers worldwide for $279 US.
Videos covering the launch and sound samples can be found at https://www.strymon.net/products/ec-1 and on Strymon's YouTube channel. For additional information please check out the Strymon website at https://www.strymon.net, and contact Jack Heine at [email protected] for all media or press inquiries.
About Strymon:
Based in Westlake Village, CA, Strymon Engineering manufactures an award-winning line of guitar effects pedals, Eurorack modules, processing plugins, MIDI interfaces and hyper-robust power supplies, all designed and built in the USA. Their products are mainstays in the rigs of top recording and touring professional musicians worldwide, helping these players craft their own signature sounds with creative, powerful and road-worthy gear that sounds like nothing else.
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