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Catalinbread Belle Epoch Tape Echo Delay Pedal
For sale is a Catalinbread Belle Epoch, an outstanding Echoplex EP-3–style tape echo pedal in excellent working and overall cosmetic condition*. It delivers the warmth, character, and musical repeat behavior of the classic Maestro Echoplex tape unit in a compact, pedalboard-friendly format.
The Belle Epoch faithfully captures both sides of the vintage Echoplex experience: the rich, tape-like delay repeats and the desirable EP-3-style preamp character. Its discrete preamp adds the familiar warmth, fullness, and subtle push that guitarists love from an Echoplex, while the delay section produces everything from tight rockabilly or blues slapback to spacious vintage lead echoes, modulated tape warble, and runaway self-oscillation textures. The pedal covers an authentic Echoplex-inspired delay-time range of roughly 80–800 ms.
Controls
The controls make it easy to shape the effect very precisely:
- Echo Sustain controls the number of repeats, from a single quick echo to long, evolving repeats and self-oscillation at higher settings.
- Sway / Mod adds adjustable tape-style wow and flutter, ranging from nearly clean repeats to more animated, aged-tape movement.
- Tone / Record Level determines how hard the delay line is driven, allowing you to set the presence, warmth, saturation, and attack of the first repeat without changing the dry signal.
- Mix blends the dry guitar with the delayed signal, from dry-only to fully wet.
- Echo Delay sets the delay time and is designed to react like the original Echoplex slider, including the wonderfully musical “lag” when adjusted in real time.
*Condition
This pedal is fully functional, extremely reliable, and ready to go on a working pedalboard or in a studio setup. The enclosure and controls are in excellent condition overall. There is only very minor cosmetic scuffing on the bottom base, visible in one of the photos; it has no effect whatsoever on performance.
A fantastic-sounding, highly regarded tape-style delay with the added magic of the Echoplex-inspired preamp. Great price for an excellent piece of gear.
