Danelectro DTE-1 Reel Echo

The controls and features have already been covered in previous reviews so I'm not going to go over them again.

If you've ever used a delay before, there isn't much on this pedal that you won't already be familiar with.

I'm not sure what the "tube/solid state" switch does; it makes an audible difference, but it's not clear what it's actually doing to the sound. I prefer the solid state setting.

I'm stumped by the Sound on Sound feature. The manual could've done a better job of explaining it. You're supposed to turn the repeats/feedback knob to the max and turn the lo-fi/hi-cut knob to its lowest setting in order to use this feature, but when I do this and engage the SOS footswitch, I get treated to runaway feedback/self-oscillation.

I've only used the pedal for a total of about two hours since I bought it, so I may yet figure these things out.

Speaking of manuals, they used to be much nicer. The manual that came with this pedal is one page on a piece of plain white letter-sized paper. The manual that came with my Dan-Echo pedal was a nice little square booklet printed on thick beige paper, with a color, glossy cover. Looks like the bean counters over at Danelectro are having their way.

First off, I'd just like to point out that most of the ideas incorporated into this pedal were taken from a review of the Dan-Echo I wrote here on Harmony Central on 03/07/2001. From that review:

BEGIN QUOTE:

"Here's a couple of changes that in my opinion, would've greatly improved the Dan Echo and made it a more 'authentic' re-creation of a tape echo (or atleast, made it a more interesting digital delay - I've yet to hear a truly convincing digital emulation of tape echo in any price range, and even if it can be done, it's in bad taste):

1) The addition of a 'MODULATION' (LFO) control. Among other things, this would allow vibrato/pitch shifting effects and could be used to approximate "wow & flutter". In terms of pedal real estate, I would gladly trade off the HI-CUT or MIX knob for such an LFO.

2) Substituting the REPEATS knob for a *real* FEEDBACK control. With a feedback control, you could get "self-oscillation" (runaway feedback) effects and do sound-on-sound (where echoed phrases keep re-circulating and don't decay). At shorter delays and with a bit of modulation from the LFO, you could do flanging and chorusing - all from the same pedal!

3) A 'DRY' (bypassed) output jack in addition to the EFFECT output. This would be convenient for stereo and for parallel (rather than serial) setups. If Danelectro managed to pack a bonus output in their Cool Cat chorus, I don't see why the Dan Echo should go without one.

4) The MIX knob goes from dry signal only at counter-clockwise position to dry with wet mixed in when fully clockwise. Apart from the fact that it strikes me as counter-intuitive, this pedal would be much more versatile if the dry signal was completely absent when fully clockwise (center position would be an equal mix of wet and dry). For example, in a stereo setup (with a Y-cord and a mixer), you could have the dry signal panned one place and have the echoes coming from a different direction. Or you could split the dry signal, with one end going into a fuzzbox, phaser, or whatever, and the other going into the Dan Echo (wet signal only) - combine the outputs and you're in for some tasty effects!"

END QUOTE:

Not long after I wrote that review -- a few months, maybe a year -- Danelectro put out the Reel Echo pedal, which interestingly, incorporated *all* of the ideas I had suggested. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Hey, I'm not complaining about it or anything -- I'm glad this pedal was made and I must say that my ideas turned out well! -- but it would've been nice to at least have gotten a complimentary Reel Echo out of it.

I also believe that I inspired Danelectro's Spring King pedal, since a while before its release, I had sent the company an email suggesting they make a reverb pedal that used a real spring tank to compliment their line of practice amps, which didn't have reverb tanks. I haven't had a chance to try out the Spring King, but it can't be that bad if it's still on the market after all these years.

Well, enough of me tooting my own horn. How does this thing sound?

continued under "Overall Rating" section:

Can't say. Seems extremely well made. Though I'm likely to use this more for recording in my home studio than anything else, I wouldn't hesitate to gig with it.

continued from "Sound Quality" section:

As an effect in its own right, without comparing it to anything else, I think it's pretty darned good. It's the deluxe version of the Dan-Echo (and the Dan-Echo was already plenty good as it was). If you're looking for a pleasant-sounding, sophisticated digital delay with a few bells and whistles in a fun, eye-catching package that won't break the bank, you can't go wrong with the Reel Echo.

As to whether this thing is a perfect simulation of a tape echo, that's debatable.

If what you're doing is relatively straightforward, then yes, this pedal will do a passable job of sounding like a tape echo, but you could say that about just about any delay on the market that has three or more knobs (including the Dan-Echo).

Unlike the Dan-Echo, this pedal allows you to go into runaway feedback, which can be fun, but it's not the same as when you do it on a real tape echo.

The "warble" control, which is meant to simulate tape stretch and the slight fluctuations in motor speed you'd find on an old tape echo, will do a nice chorus at short delay times, but again, it doesn't really sound like what it's supposed to be emulating.

Overall, this is a fun pedal and an excellent digital delay that can do double duty as a simple chorus pedal, but the bottom line is, if you're a purist who wants real tape echo sound, you're going to have to cough up the cash to get a real tape echo (the only tape echoes I know of that are in current production are the Fulltone, about $1000, and the studio-oriented Blue Coconut, about $3000, while used units like the Roland Space Echoes are going for outrageous prices; if anyone knows of any real tape echoes that are currently being produced that I haven't mentioned, email me, 'cause I'd like to know). If you're not a purist and you're not doing anything specialized like dub reggae (which practically demands real tape in order for it to not sound like ass), this will get you 90% of the way there.

(FYI, I've been using the pedal with a Telecaster knockoff through an old Fender Princeton amp. The pedal is completely transparent, other than the effect; no clipping, no noise whatsoever.)

The controls and features have already been covered in previous reviews so I'm not going to go over them again.

If you've ever used a delay before, there isn't much on this pedal that you won't already be familiar with.

I'm not sure what the "tube/solid state" switch does; it makes an audible difference, but it's not clear what it's actually doing to the sound. I prefer the solid state setting.

I'm stumped by the Sound on Sound feature. The manual could've done a better job of explaining it. You're supposed to turn the repeats/feedback knob to the max and turn the lo-fi/hi-cut knob to its lowest setting in order to use this feature, but when I do this and engage the SOS footswitch, I get treated to runaway feedback/self-oscillation.

I've only used the pedal for a total of about two hours since I bought it, so I may yet figure these things out.

Speaking of manuals, Danelectro's used to be much nicer. The manual that came with this pedal is one page on a piece of plain white letter-sized paper. The manual that came with my Dan-Echo pedal was a nice little square booklet printed on thick beige paper, with a color, glossy cover. Looks like the bean counters over at Danelectro have had their way.

First off, I'd just like to point out that most of the ideas incorporated into this pedal were taken from a review of the Dan-Echo I wrote here on Harmony Central on 03/07/2001. From my review:

BEGIN QUOTE:

"Here's a couple of changes that in my opinion, would've greatly improved the Dan Echo and made it a more 'authentic' re-creation of a tape echo (or atleast, made it a more interesting digital delay - I've yet to hear a truly convincing digital emulation of tape echo in any price range, and even if it can be done, it's in bad taste):

1) The addition of a 'MODULATION' (LFO) control. Among other things, this would allow vibrato/pitch shifting effects and could be used to approximate "wow & flutter". In terms of pedal real estate, I would gladly trade off the HI-CUT or MIX knob for such an LFO.

2) Substituting the REPEATS knob for a *real* FEEDBACK control. With a feedback control, you could get "self-oscillation" (runaway feedback) effects and do sound-on-sound (where echoed phrases keep re-circulating and don't decay). At shorter delays and with a bit of modulation from the LFO, you could do flanging and chorusing - all from the same pedal!

3) A 'DRY' (bypassed) output jack in addition to the EFFECT output. This would be convenient for stereo and for parallel (rather than serial) setups. If Danelectro managed to pack a bonus output in their Cool Cat chorus, I don't see why the Dan Echo should go without one.

4) The MIX knob goes from dry signal only at counter-clockwise position to dry with wet mixed in when fully clockwise. Apart from the fact that it strikes me as counter-intuitive, this pedal would be much more versatile if the dry signal was completely absent when fully clockwise (center position would be an equal mix of wet and dry). For example, in a stereo setup (with a Y-cord and a mixer), you could have the dry signal panned one place and have the echoes coming from a different direction. Or you could split the dry signal, with one end going into a fuzzbox, phaser, or whatever, and the other going into the Dan Echo (wet signal only) - combine the outputs and you're in for some tasty effects!"

END QUOTE:

Not long after I wrote that review -- a few months, maybe a year -- Danelectro put out the Reel Echo pedal, which interestingly, incorporated *all* of the ideas I had suggested. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Hey, I'm not complaining about it or anything -- I'm glad this pedal was made and I must say that my ideas turned out well! -- but it would've been nice to at least have gotten a complimentary Reel Echo out of it.

I also believe that I inspired Danelectro's Spring King pedal, since a while before its release, I had sent the company an email suggesting they make a reverb pedal that used a real spring tank to compliment their line of practice amps, which didn't have reverb tanks. I haven't had a chance to try out the Spring King, but it can't be that bad if it's still on the market after all these years.

Well, enough of me tooting my own horn. How does this thing sound?

continued under "Overall Rating" to get around Harmony Central's length restrictions:

Can't say. Seems extremely well made. Though I'm likely to use this more for recording in my home studio than anything else, I wouldn't hesitate to gig with it.

continued from "Sound Quality" section:

As an effect in its own right, without comparing it to anything else, I think it's pretty darned good. It's the deluxe version of the Dan-Echo (and the Dan-Echo was already plenty good as it was). If you're looking for a pleasant-sounding, sophisticated digital delay with a few bells and whistles in a fun, eye-catching package that won't break the bank, you can't go wrong with the Reel Echo.

As to whether this thing is a perfect simulation of a tape echo, that's debatable.

If what you're doing is relatively straightforward, then yes, this pedal will do a passable job of sounding like a tape echo, but you could say that about just about any delay on the market that has three or more knobs (including the Dan-Echo).

Unlike the Dan-Echo, this pedal allows you to go into runaway feedback, which can be fun, but it's not the same as when you do it on a real tape echo.

The "warble" control, which is meant to simulate tape stretch and the slight fluctuations in motor speed you'd find on an old tape echo, will do a nice chorus at short delay times, but again, it doesn't really sound like what it's supposed to be emulating.

Overall, this is a fun pedal and an excellent digital delay that can do double duty as a simple chorus pedal, but the bottom line is, if you're a purist who wants real tape echo sound, you're going to have to cough up the cash to get a real tape echo (the only tape echoes I know of that are in current production are the Fulltone, about $1000, and the studio-oriented Blue Coconut, about $3000, while used units like the Roland Space Echoes are going for outrageous prices; if anyone knows of any real tape echoes that are currently being produced that I haven't mentioned, email me, 'cause I'd like to know). If you're not a purist and you're not doing anything specialized like dub reggae (which practically demands real tape in order for it to not sound like ass), this will get you 90% of the way there.

FYI, I've been using the pedal with a Telecaster knockoff through an old Fender Princeton amp. The pedal is completely transparent, other than the effect; no clipping, no noise whatsoever.:

it's easy to use, but you'll need to spend time with it , lots of combinations here , ddon't dismiss it , theres stuff you can do that isn't apparent at first. SPEND TIME!

EXCLNT SLAP BACK Does everything you'd expect , plus in tube mode, with knobs turned all the way left can get a tube rectifier SAG thing awesome! it can mellow out a overly bright amp in this way and smooth it out. I think the peope here that give this a low rating either havn't spent enough time with it or their expecting a single pedal to perform mircles with a rig thats suspect to begin with . with a decent slightly overdriven tube amp it awesome , ITS NOT AS GOOD AS AN ECHO PLEX and WONT DO EVERYTHING THAT AN ECHO PLEX DOES but it will help you make music , i'm giving it a 10 to compensate for the chuckle heads here who rate this WAY low , the tube sag effect (dial it in) alone is sweet.

no opinion

no opinion

i use an (OLD SCHOOL) crybaby wah (analog) a boss CS-2 compressor, BD-2 blues driver, sometimes a boss chorus and this REEL ECHO into various FENDER, SOVTEK, CARVIN amps, it allways turn key ... look around at other pro pedal boards you'll see this on it.

It's pretty much a case of plug in and go really. Repeats knob changes the number of echoes, Mix alters the proportion of dry to wet signal, lo fi determines how much high end is rolled off, tube / solid-state affects tone and warble is either on or off. It's dead simple.
I'd only give it a 9 because you do have to understand what everything does first, but then to be fair making it any easier to use would severly reduce the variety of sounds avaliable.

I was stunned.
I was initaially after a Memory Man deluxe, until I saw the price tag. I figured that this could be a nice alternative, how right I was.
I'm playing through a Mexican Fender Tele Nashville, usually with the strat pickup engaged > Vox AC30 CC2 > Snarling Dogs Black Dog distortion pedal > Danelectro Reel Echo.
I first plugged it into an old 9v adpater i had, it buzzed and hummed like anything. I then replaced the adapter for a standard battery and it was dead silent, I think i had a duff plug to be honest.I was really worried about losing tone as i love the combination of my tele and vox but I haven't noticed any tone drop or hum wahtsoever since, it's like it's not even there.
I've only used the smaller delay times, usually under 375 but if you need something with really long delays this pedal can do it too. I've never used an echoplex or anything like that but I've heard samples, this thing sounds pretty damn close. The Warble feature is absolutely fantastic, I was initially planning to get a chorus pedal aswell but I just dont have to now. It's a really subtle pictch deviation but it adds alot of depth to the sound.
teamed with high gain and ringing strings you can get some epic feedback sounds with it too, just playing with the delay speeds and repeats.

It seems sturdy enough, all metal casing and solid switches. The jacks are very tough, which suprised me as they were a big problem with another danelectro pedal I have. The battery lid is made of plastic but to be honest you've gotta be pretty careless to damage that.

I play in a small indie band, play alot of dark riffs and choppy chords, rarely high distrotion. We also have alot of breakdown passages which always seem to lack something, I have tried tremelos and reverbs but they just don't give it the wide open feel that I am after. This pedal does. It's epic, gives me just what I need.

(It works great for building into kicks aswell, just getting noisy before a bigger bit and ambient noises, Miles Kane of the Rascals/Little Flames-esque)

For me the warble function is the thing that really makes it shine, it's so subtle but so powerful, something that i really think I would miss if I were to get a Memory Man.

This pedal seems to be able to do it all, from really subtle filling out to screaming totally over the top feedbacks and delays, the sound on sound function makes it dead easy to loop things aswell then play over them.

Basically it sounds increbile, has great functions, easy to use and comes with a very reasonable price tag. get one bought

First off the instructions are "OK" at best. But if you've played with a delay before you pretty much know what it does and how to get the sound(s) you want off the bat.

Mix knob: how much delay signal is put in (Maxed out is delayed signal only)[kinda useless maxed out]

Lo-fi knob: adds a high frequency cut on successive repeats. (But also reduces amount of repeats, works in junction with repeats knob)

Repeats knob: How many repeats (with lo-fi knob turned all the way down and repeats all the way up, it gets an almost infinite repeats feel, which is fun with the sound on sound feature!)

Speed Slider: controls how fast the delay repeats. 0 to 1500 milliseconds (1.5 seconds)

Tone switch: "Solid state" and "Tube" I???ll talk about this in the sound quality portion.

Warble switch: turns warble ON and OFF; again talked I???ll talk about this in sound quality.

Where to begin. I bought this looking for a delay, DUH. I wanted an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man. Until I saw the price. Now I???ve never played with and echoplex, but have heard one on Youtube, which severely compresses their audio, so I can't really say "Oh this pedal sounds dead on", or "man this pedal is ugly and I don???t like it cuz I can't spend hundreds on tape and new tubes". So I don???t really care. I just wanted an effing delay pedal.

I open the box and plug it in; as soon I turned it on I noticed it actually repeated the click of the unit's engage button! I was like ahh **** I bought a ****** pedal. Then I tweaked some knobs (ooh that sounds wrong) and got a PERFECT SLAP BACK DELAY!

the tone switch is kinda weird, the Solid state is pretty much just your exact signal while the Tube is more of a mid cut bass boost on just your repeats, not you actual tone. Both are nifty.

The warble is more of a weird chorus, but again is useful. Especially when oscillating, it adds a little something to it. I don't use it for anything but making whacky noises.

A little let down is when you get a cool repeat and feck with the time slider it doesn't pitch shift. Instead it cuts it shorter and shorter until you get crazy glitchy sounding noises, again, totally usable.

It's made of metal. It's HUGE. It competes with my Bug Muff Pi and Digitech Whammy. Speed slider is made of plastic, but seems fairly solid, all the knobs are very solid. I dont think this thing'll be dying on me any time soon.

Dunno, i just know they have like a one sentence description of this pedal on their own website. I don't think they'd be very helpfull.

I play blues, punk, and garage. This pedal is perfect for me. Plus it looks AWESOME!!! It ain't a Deluxe Memory Man, but it's up their on the list of memorable delays.

Very easy. If you can't figure this out, I wonder how you can start your car.

Here's the part I love. It sounds much like an echoplex. Any complaints I read here by die hard echoplex lovers (grungy, noisy, etc.) also apply to the echoplex. This is all the stuff we've ended up missing when we went digital. I play a lot of reggae and a digital delay doesn't get it if you want to add some dub flavor. Wheel up, soun' bwouy!!

Built like a tank. Heavy.

whaaaa???

veeery cool. I pretty sure this will make a permanent home on the board.

Definitely sounds different than the boss dd3. Takes up a lot of real estate. Looks like fun.

Sounds great and usable. Cool light mint green color, metal case. Slider for the speed control. Feels substantial. Retro knobs. Lo-Fi knob gives it that hi-cut rumble and fade. It must be good cause it takes me back. Not an echoplex but same neighborhood. You can see its intent and with that in mind, you can get what you like about the old echoplexes. The trade off is completely worth it. They were such a pain in the ass. Noisy, lots of maintenance. You always wonder if its gonna die on you and kill the show. I used mine as a doorstop until I gave it away.

It will give you that effect without all the headaches. I was so happy when digital delays happened. Nice and clean with no noisy tapes. Who knew we'd miss it?

It's pretty amazing. You can flavor it to taste. It has a warble feature that makes it sound like an echoplex with some wear, that could use a tune up. F'ing great. Solid state or tube tone. Clean or funky dirty.

NOT A DIGITAL DELAY. Or a Fab. Lots of fun. The Boss is an effect, the Dan is more like an instrument, like an mpc. I dig it.

Features:

Mix (goes 100% wet)
Lo-Fi (progressive delay high frequency attenuation)
Repeats
Delay Time (slider)
Tube/Solid State switch
Warble on/off switch
Sound On Sound switch
Dry and Wet out

It's more or less clear what most of these do, but it still takes some work to dial in the sounds I want. The Sound On Sound is simple to use, as long as you realize that what it's doing is letting you play without recording while the thing you just recorded keeps playing in the background. Make sense?

I haven't found this to be noisy, as some have claimed it to be. The Reel Echo is obviously trying to emulate vintage tape echo sounds, and in some respects it succeeds, but mostly it fails.

I've never owned a tape echo, but I've heard plenty of samples, and played through more sophisticated simulations. Tape echo is relatively high fi on short repeats. It cuts bass as well as some treble on longer repeats. The character changes a bit depending on delay time. The sound of the warble or wow and flutter kind of depends on the unit, how much drag, etc. Tape units also are easy to bring into self oscillation, and will pitch shift when you change the delay time while playing. The same holds true for many analog and digital delays.

The Danelectro Reel Echo actually doesn't do most of those things. It doesn't cut bass on successive repeats (although it will cut treble via the LoFi knob), the "Warble" switch sounds like fast chorus rather than a real tape echo warble, it will not self-oscillate, and will not change pitch as you change delay speeds, but rather will stutter, like a scratched CD. The delay on the Boss PS-3 does the same thing.

It's ironic that a pedal marketed as a tape echo simulator can actually do almost none of the tricks that a tape echo can do. The one tape delay trick it CAN do admirably is that Sun Records slap-back delay. It has the same je ne sais qua and warmth of those old Scotty Moore and Luther Perkins guitar tracks. I've heard the Reel Echo referred to as the king of slap-back echo pedals, and that may be true. It's very good at that.

But, even though it misses the mark on sounding like a tape delay on most settings, it still sounds very good. Judicious use of the LoFi knob is key here, but you can really create some lovely ambient soundscapes with the Reel Echo. I normally leave the Warble off because I don't like chorus. The Tube setting cuts too much treble, so I usually have it set on Solid State, and adjust the LoFi knob to taste.

The Sound on Sound isn't that useful because of the 1.5 second delay time, but it's fun to play with.

One criticism of the LoFi knob is that, although it sounds lovely, it cuts to much volume from the repeats. I am sure it could have been engineered to cut tone without cutting so much volume. Still, if dialed in properly it sounds great. I personally like warm sounding repeats, even if that isn't what a tape echo sounds like.

One thing I'd like to try is running it stereo. The delay can go 100% wet, so you could run one side dry, and the other side as the delay, and run the delay side through whatever you wanted - modulation, overdrive, compression, EQ, etc.

Seems very well built and very solid.

Overall, it's a great sounding delay with some basic design problems. Danelectro should re-engineer and re-release this pedal with independent high and lo cut knobs (that cut tone only, not volume), and a delay that will self-oscillate and pitch shift at appropriate settings. Oh, and with a more intelligent Warble. At the very least, make it a vibrato (pitch vibrato) rather than a chorus. I love the look though - don't change that.

Despite all that, I'm going to keep it because it sounds great. Just don't buy it thinking that it's an Echoplex doppelganger, except for slap-back delay sounds.

instructions suck, But if you have common sense you can operate it

I have been trying to get a certian sound for quite some time and with the reel echo and a ts-808 I got the rockabilly sound to a tee

get the power inverter... a must

I play anything from Johnny Cash to George Thorogood to Brian setzer and for the rockabilly and old sun record stuff it works well.
I have been playing for about 8 years and I play through a fender hotrod. I play a gibson es-135, a epi wildkat and a gretsch 5120.It is way hot when you play it with a tube screamer, it brings a good combo to the table

Easy to get a good sound out of it. The instruction manual could be a little better but who really cares.

Sounds very, very close to an Echoplex but way cheaper in price than an Echoplex. This will help you get Eddie Van Halen's guitar sound and also, Eric Johnson's guitar sound.

Built like a tank! Great Quality!

I love the sound of an Echoplex! The Reel Echo is way cheaper and more reliable. Worth every penny!

I dig this thing. It's prety easy to dial in. Very versatile delay.
Sound on sound feature....who cares. Never heard anybody do anything that interesting with that trick. Waste of a button to me. Rather have a little real estate back. LOVE the big knobs, slider is fun, but far from rugged.
EASY to make your sound fit in the band mix on the fly with that lo fi thingy.(Tone knob)

I Love the sound. Both "Tape" & "Solid State" have their use's, and that lo fi knob is just beautiful. I've owned a DM-3, a DM-2, an
AD-9, a Memory man, a DD-3, I could go on forever...
This pedal's versatility makes it my new choice.

I am completely enthralled with the warble feature!!!

I never realized how much some type of modulation on JUST THE REPEATS clears up your tone while still adding HUGE depth.

With my Vox AC-30 and my tele, Teese Compressor, Voodoo lab sparkle drive and this I'm pretty friggin happy.

I hate Boss's buffering. on or off the tone gets Bossified.
This Dano affects the tone a little to, but it's way more Organic than boss.
The only better delay I've tried was the memory lane. but they aint cheap. And I'd still keep this for some things....

Those foot buttons are not my favorite. It's pretty heavy duty,I like the looks, (Slider looks questionable for reliability,)
Battery eater.

Duno.

You can pick these up cheap. Listen, I play many styles and I'm pretty friggin wailing. Chicken picken, U2, Pink floyd, this pedals reel cool. (Heh.) I started in music at 6, I'm 34, my dad was a pro before me. If you need that sort of info to trust me.
I'll go 9 because it's a little big, and I dont like the slider, also, True bypass woulda been cool. ( How come nobody makes an option of 1 high quality switchable buffer on the output of the delay you can use or not(TB...or not TB!!!). (Delay is last in chain, and that would drive a long cable.)