I got this pedal to replace the fifty pound reel to reel tape player I pulled out of a dumpster behind a radio station. I read somewhere that if you plug some of its inputs to some of its ouputs and whatnot, it basically becomes a HUGE echo machine. Anywhay thing sounded sweet but it didn't really fit on my pedalboard, and I got sick of lugging it around. The reason I liked it so much was that you could push something up against the reels and get the echoes to warble, which makes a NATURAL CHORUS ON THE ECHOES ONLY which sounds completely different than what you get if you just use a chorus pedal. It sounds super.

For being digital this thing sounds very realistic. Obviously not as good as an echoplex or a fulltone tte. but uh.... duh. As far as I know its the cheapest echo you can get ANYWHERE that is capable of doing the pitch deviations in the echo. You can put a vibrato in front of a delay or whatever, but then your whole sound becomes chorused, this thing lets your dry signal stay in tune and warbles up your echoes as they layer on top of eachother and gives it a really pretty chorus sound. It also seems to respond by getting a little more warbly when you really dig in, so I guess it's sort of dynamically responsive. Which is really cool.

The feedback knob is a little touchy and it took me a bit to get a feel for it. (Not nearly touchy as the reel to reel machine.) With my analog delays the repeat and level controls just do what they say they do, but with this thing If you change the mix/level control it seems to effect where you have to set the feedback to decay quicker or slower. I use it for a sort of a washed out delay with a quite a bit of the feedback knob and not as much volume on the echo, just quiet enough that you could mistake it for a reverb.....and you can sort of throw that chorus in there.....I like it.

I personally still prefer the beastly reel to reel machine, and I'm sure I'll record it, but for touring in two man baby-band where YOU have to load all your stuff in and out and you already have four 50+ LB. amps and three guitars plus a drumset and two beastly pedal boards.......yea, for that I prefer the little tiny pedal. And It does sound good really. Way better than those delays that blatantly flaunt their biggest flaw; "Digital Delay" digital delay sucks. Line 6 sucks, Boss usually sucks. YEA.

I wrote a review in 2007, and since then have become impressed with this little extra in the Reel Echo device: stereo output. You can run the signal to two amplifiers, one signal "wet", the other dry, but the key here is TWO amplifiers. 2 small combo amps can be had for less money than one larger one, and the tonal possibilities become endless.

I was hoping to make a find with this pedal. Unfortunately, I got a usuable delay pedal at a reasonable price. I have owned several tape delay units and there is no way I could say this pedal could replace the sound of those. With that being said, I still use this pedal because my tape delay units are no longer working and were very unreliable, usually breaking down at the worst time. I have had no such problems with the Reel Echo Simulator. Its good, just not great, but for the money I really can't complain.

This is a very nice delay unit for the money. This is as close as it gets to a real tape delay without having to sell your kidney to buy a real tape unit. Once you get the feel for the settings you can get a pretty amazing sound. This delay is made for the rest of the people like us. You get the tape sound without the empty wallet. If your not a prof. and are not so anal about it not being a true tape delay...this is for you. Well made and it just looks really cool on the pedal board.

Lots of features, but not a dead ringer by any stretch for a real tape echo like a Fulltone TTE or original echoplex. Of course if it was a dead ringer it wouldn't cost what it does. It's digital so expect some of that fraying on the edges of the sound that comers w the territory. A good value if you don't want to take the plunge for the real units, which are very pricey.