Line 6 DL4
With Hank Marvin the man of the moment thanks to that Mattessons advert, the bumper tape delay feature in Guitarist magazine issue 357, on sale 29 June, couldn't be better timed.
Genuine tape echoes like Hank's (check out the mag for the full skinny from the man himself) sound wonderful, but can be rather noisy and a tad unreliable. Click onwards for our choice of five modern units that do a great job in mimicking a tape’s classic tones. First up...
From bedroom-only players to stadium-rockers such as Kirk Hammett, thousands of guitarists swear by this green meanie when it comes to delivering versatile delay effects. It offers an eminently usable tape echo preset - plus a great deal more.
Fulltone Tube Tape Echo
Not the only genuine tape-based echo available today, but certainly one of the very best and, unlike the original units, this isn’t prone to breaking down at the drop of a hi-hat.
It’s built to Fulltone’s typically high standards, so if you can find one (and you can afford it), get your wallet out.
BOSS RE-20
This impressively authentic and modern recreation of the classic Space Echo does away with the tape, but loses very little of what made the original sound so good in the first place.
It’s an especially good choice for fifties and sixties sounds.
Hughes & Kettner Replex
An incredibly versatile yet slightly intimidating tube-driven delay that, thanks to its innovative Vintage Factor pot, can mimic genuine tone degradation extremely accurately.
Easier to use and more reliable than an Echoplex, this is a wholly professional unit.
Vox Delaylab
Among the DelayLab’s myriad features are a number of excellent tape echo simulations, and any three of its presets can be assigned to the unit’s footswitches at a given time.
It sounds great!