Danelectro DTE-1 Reel Echo

Manual doesn't give away too much, but easy to use if you have used a delay before. Wish the cool looking 'Capstan' like knobs were weighted so they felt as good as they look!

I've used this pedal with Peavey Classic 30 and Cornford amps and various guitars, it does effect the tone whether on or off, but only in the same way Echoplex's do anyway. Heres the deal... under no circumstances even think of using a battery with this pedal, it will sound cheap and nasty, however, with the right power supply (300Ma Regulated)the tone improves enormously and the whole unit can sound really quite classy.

Obviously it's not as good as a real Echoplex, but then i've heard Echoplex's that aren't as good as an Echoplex, if you see what i mean!

It nails a good early Buddy Holly and a class 'Jeepster'esqe Marc Bolan. Can't seem to get a convincing Eddie Cochran yet, still keep trying.

Basically it does what it say's on the box, sounds 'like' a tape echo, without the hassle... Top behaviour!

Seems Ok, but i don't beat pedals up.

N/a

I record and produce all sorts of styles, but predominately Indie/Rock and Dance, some Blues/Jazz. This is a fun piece of kit and that's the point.. It's supposed to be fun!

I have studio echo's old and new and this funky little box has a smile factor everytime i, or someone else, uses it. It will never replace my analogue delays and it's not as versatile as the Line 6 Echo Pro, but it is a third of the price, (Don't pay over #100) and it does what it does well 'AS LONG AS YOU DON'T USE A BATTERY'!...So some hassle then..ahem!

Its easy to get going. The manual doesn't say much, but its echo - pretty straighforward.

I've read all the reviews here. I will say it is noisy - it has a really loud "white noise" hiss to it when turned on. I haven't used a real tape echo personally, but I'm certain this thing doesn't produce any more noise that those units do - or perhaps it was even designed to have a tape like hiss to it. What really prompted me to write this review was one thing I noticed but didn't see in other reivews. Battery life - this thing killed the new battery that came with the unit within 1 hour of its first use. The tone goes downhill dramatically but yet the jewel lamp glows bright red. But when I put in a new battery - the rough tone was gone. So what I'm saying is, don't even bother with a battery - you better plug in the AC adapter. I got the Danelectro chromatic tuner and they almost say flat out to only use the AC adapter. I think this would be true for the reel echo too. I like the sound of the unit overall. I can set the controls up and nail Brain Setzer's tone on "Sleepwalk" really close. You can't emulate this with a standard echo because it must roll off the high frequencies on each echo like tape does for it to sound right (50's style). Its a good match with my Fender Blue Jr. and 63' Gretsch double anniversary.

Fine so far.

?

Too expensive! The only reason I finally gave in was the store were I bought it from (MF) - gave me a Danelectro Dan-O-Matic pedal for free with the purchase of the real echo.

Pretty easy to use. Plug in and go. I like that it doesn't need a wall wart.

Not that great for such an expensive unit. Kind of ironic but this pedal uses state of the art digital technology to emulate the imperfections of analog. It hisses a bit and the echo can make a popping noise depending on how you hit the button to engage echo. I don't think the delay time of "sound on sound" is long enough to do anything useful musically with. Really I think it's only usefulness is as an enhancement for reverb (I mix it in with the reverb from my
Fender Super reverb) It does give a very vintage sound in this mode and it's what I use it for most. Rockabilly and surf sounds.

Good so far

Not bad but a bit pricey for what you get. If I had it to do over I'd wait till these were selling used on ebay and pick one up there for 50 bucks.

So so. It is modeled after a tape echo so if you are used to delay pedals this seems just a bit weird. Too much turning of any knob causes dramatic effect. This is good or bad depending on your preference.

Sound on Sound: is simple. Hit echo and get your loop, then hit sound on sound to play over it without recording. VERY NICE FEATURE. Hit echo again to shut everything off. Loop ends when you shut it off. No fading off like a Boss.

Left Mix knob: Should be set to middle if you want to hear both signals at the same time. Some have commented here that Sound on Souns doesn't work. I suspect they had the mix knob turned all of the way up.

Does infinite repeat better than my Boss. Quality does not disentigrate unless...

Lo Fi ...unless you use this knob. The repeats start to diminish and even infinite repeat will not go forever (it does what it says it does).

Warble: It also works. Warble is something I really hate about tape. It is good if you like that sort of thing. The warble on this unit kind of takes the randomness out of the tape malfunction. I just kept it OFF.

Tone: Solid State or Tube. I didn't take it apart, but I suspect there is only a resistor and capacitor in there causing a tone knob effect here. Change is subtle. I think tube probably sounds better, but I could have been tricking myself. It seemed subtly warmer.

Speed Range: Full on digital, easy to use. Will not speed up like a tape or slow down. It isn't as bad as the Boss it will not repeat a bunch of CD skipping fragmented crap when you change the time. It repeats once or twice and then changes the time with no hassle.

I am not really sure about this unit. I am from the digital age, but I admire old things. This is an oxymoron product. It is a tape echo simulator with no variable on-the-fly speed control. Yet it has a nasty click when engaged (possible patched end of tape loop simulation)? The clicking is very noticable and would sound like total crap if it were enhanced by your amps reverb. Some may be looking for this sound but I was not.

I expected analog delay with minimal noise and long delay times 2 seconds or more.

This unit is pretty good, but could use a bit of tweaking. As a sissy Delay pedal it is ok (clicking).

As a tape echo it is ok (no variable speed)

As either one or the other it is no contest. The delay time is too short for a machine that doesn't know what it is to cost this much. I'd get Danelectro delay, Digitech, DOD, or Boss before I'd pay for this.

It isn't a bad pedal, it just doesn't live up to it's promise in its price range.

I just demoed it at Guitar Center.

Never had dealings...

It is half-delay, half-tape echo...simulator.

I could REALLY get into this pedal. I loved the sound on sound, but hated the clicking. Lo fi control was a fun novelty, but a waste of a good pot. Tone and Warble switches are nice addition, but a waste of switches for my use. (After eliminating all of the things I would not use we are left with a digital delay pedal).

If they put all of these cool additions on it they should have made it analog so one could adjust the Speed Range. 1.5 seconds is not long enough for sound on sound.

I'd recommend a used Digitech PDS series delay over this one.

This is not a bad pedal, but it is too big, overpriced for what it doesn't do, and just can't make it's mind up what it is.

Demo this before buying. It teeters on the edge of something useful.

Good variation in sounds as echo/delay goes. Tone control, Tube/solid State switch and warble all very effective with highly descernible differences in sound. It really can replicate those old and wonderful tape echo's, Copycat, Echoplex, Roland Space Echo! It did however take some to work out how to get 'sound on sound'to work, the instructions not being too helpful here. It's only when you happen to look at the base of the unit, that all becomes clear! But hey, who really actually uses SOS?

I use echo/delay as a sax player, as a major part of the sound. The sound produced by the Reel Echo is truley excellent. Only proble is that the volume/mix button is a bit erratic. The effect doesn't fade below the dry sound too progressively as the knob is turned anticlockwise meaning that the echo tends to scream a bit sometimes. The sensitivety can be adjusted however by using the tone control to get round this problem. Overall it is great, giving real presence to sound.

Haven't used it enough yet but, like all digitally based delay pedals it has a veracious appetite for 9v batteries and a power pack is a must. Using a power pack does introduce some hum and I am yet to try Danelectro's own low hum pack. I wouldn't use any FX pedal without a back-up and this one is yet to prove itself but, I'm sure it will.

Not owned it long enough and have no previous experience of Danelectro.

I have used many echo/delay units over 30 years and this is my favourate so far. At just under a hundred pounds it is excellent value for money if it proves to be reliable. I have seen it selling for #120 around the web sites, at which point, it has to compete with some really good delay pedals so it needs to remain at sub #100 prices. Nevertheless it really does imitate theose old tape echo's and offer something a bit different. I was shocked by its size at first but soon got to like that aspect. It appears heavy and robust but is it 'beer proof'? The slider for the delay time is excellent much like the old Echoplex, making it very quick and easy to change the delay setting. Overall I really like this pedal? box?

the sound on sound is so simple my cat could figure it out. RTFM

1. set the feedback to maximum (or close).
2. set the delay time, preferably to something long.
3. step on the ECHO footswitch, and play a phrase to fill up the buffer.
4. step on the SOS footswitch, and play over the top of your repeating phrase.

the delay time slider adjusts the buffer-length, not the sample-rate, so you can't get realtime pitch shifting by adjusting the d.time slider. I don't know what they were thinking here. almost seems like they put the lowpass filter *behind* the buffer.

maximum setting on the feedback knob sounds like it's 100% exactly.

the overall tone is nice. the lowpass filter is not as sharp as I'd like. I didn't try the warble. the 'tube' switch had no audible effect.

the unit I played through was a guitar center demo model, and it had a nasty bounce in the footswitch, and the battery cover was wearing out.

they always respond to my emails personally and promptly. more often than not they include undocumented technical information.

I play what they call "post rock". we "post rock" types need the sample-rate adjustment on our delays - buffer-length just doesn't cut it. for now I'm going to stick with my old Ibanez EM5. it has a nice (though fixed) lowpass sound, and it can do the pitch shift sound.

I am going to keep looking for a 1) digital 2) affordable 3) SOS capable 4) delay pedal with variable samplerate however.

If you read the other reviews on this you will see that it is not difficult to use except for the sound on sound feature that I could never get to work. The manual is a bit lacking in information but it is not that difficult to figure out how to use the pedal. I found the sound to be very lacking in analog authenticity. I have owned a number of real tape echos and a number of good analog delay pedals and no matter what I thried with the Reel Echo, it sounded like an inexpensive digital delay. I was very disappointed and finally took it back to Guitar Center and got a refund.

The paragraph above describes what I thought about the sound.

Didn't own it long enough to form an opinion on this, but I own two other Danelectro pedals, a Cool Cat Chorus and a Daddy-O Overdrive and both of them have performed well and sound good.

This is where Danelectro really gets a failing grade. I sent them two emails asking about the sound on sound feature and after not receiving a reply, I tried their non toll free number and you get trapped in a voice mail jail. There is no way to talk to live person. I left my message and that wasn't responded to either. This experience has totally turned me off of Danelectro products. Even though I own two of their products now, I seriously doubt I would ever consider buying another if they don't feel customer service is important. If they don't care about me, why should I care about them?

As I said earlier, I was terribly disappointed and took it back to Guitar Center who cheerfully refunded my money.

I just bought the Danelectro "Reel Echo" today, and I must admit I liked it. It was easy to get into, except for the "Sound on Sound" function, which was confusing, oh, and it pays to have a fresh battery handy.

It certainly sounds very authentic, apart from the absence of the "spaceship" effect, which is a very strange ommission in a so called "authentic" re-creation of an original tape echo. I am a bit dissapointed as well. It does sound very good if you like "surfy" type guitar tones.

It seems to be fairly well constructed, but I personally wouldn't use such a pedal like this on any stage, it's just to breakable looking! I'm not that convinced by the dodgy looking "speed" slider.

I may just take this back, because the "sound on sound" function just did not impress me a lot, and I bought it because it seemed like a great idea to me. However when I finally got it working I thought it was useless. Robert Fripp would throw this one away, I think!

I play on a recreational level, a lot of fiddling and widdling in a quasi "psychedelic" manner (not all that good though), but I'm not sure this pedal is for me. I've used quite a few analogue delays over the years, including an old Ibanez tabletop unit (which I still use), but this does sound cleaner than that. I also have a Korg "stage echo" tape device, which still works. This unit I think is a resonable recreation of the tone, especially the "warble" function. I think this unit is for die hards mainly, I don't think its all that great, oh well!

Besides the Sound On Sound function, which was a royal pain in the ass to get working, the effect itself is just turned on via a light-duty stomp switch, and once you get the hang of adjusting everything it's pretty good functionality-wise.

I'm one of the old-school guys who's coming from a real Echoplex to this thing. I got rid of my Echoplex because its time had just come, and I need something reliable right now. I use this in conjunction with a few other pedals and effects through a 65 deluxe reverb or a princeton chorus. Personally it sounds better in the deluxe. The tube option really warms it up. I hear people saying that the unit is noisy - well, I've owned an Echoplex for quite some time and those things aren't exactly quiet, so this will suffice. Won't go and say it sounds like an Echoplex, although it does recreate the sound if you tamper with it enough and matches it pretty close to the real thing. what I'll need to do now is try it with headphones to really hear the detail of the effect at close range. Seriously, it;s an ugly-ass effect box that looks like a cheap toy, but being that it matched up close enough to my picky-ass ears and had echoplex-like versatility, it works fine for me. now try to get Eric Johnson to try this thing (yeah right).

This is dependable. I could really do without the cheap-ass box like I said before, because original tape echos have on off switches that you do by hand and leave running throughout. We all know that the heads on those things got really dirty quickly, and you don't deal with that here. Reality though, it's too bad you can't just hook up an external stomp switch to the back (without having to actually connect the wires inside to a new switch) so you can limit the amount of times you step on this cheap aluminum box, therefore saving it some years (or months, who knows - just got this 2 days ago).

I'm sure they're fine...they're still in business which is a plus for a vintage analog guy like myself. I'm sure if there was a problem they'd fix it (though don't quote me on that)

Overall and to sum this up, it's a cheap box with an Echoplex-like mimic. If you've had an Echoplex before we all know one thing: it uses a tape. A very flimsy recording tape which is unprotected from dust and crap (especially if you leave the cover off for whatever reason), and the worst part is, they're tape delays. Shit breaks. I'm actually satisfied with this thing, being that I brought my Echoplex to the Guitar Center and did a side by side comparison at the store and really honestly could not tell the difference when you tweak it right. Obviously this is not a pro pedal by any means, and if I were richer I probably would have gotten a vintage MXR Analog Delay or a Hughes & Kettner Replex, but for what I do I guess it works. I'm sure sooner or later I'll run into the flaws that everyone talks about. I truthfully never really even used the sound on sound function on my Echoplex so as aggravating as it is told that it is to get working, I'm sure I'll never even give a shit about it. As a cheap version of an Echoplex; it does the job, and I'm not going to complain. I think $150 is a bit pricy for this thing being that it is a Danelectro, but oh well. My friend bought a Danelectro distortion pedal a few years back when they only had 3 pedals on the market and he still uses it to this very day exclusively so it must say something about the product, right?

Sound on sound function is a little funky but everything is pretty easy to figure out and use.

It sounds better than any of the other imitators out there but I really wish it did the whackey rocket ship thing with the increase and decrease of the delay time. It doesn't even come close ! But for just a pure echo pedal it sounds good.

Never had a problem with Danelectro.

??? OK I guess ???

I tried the Line 6 delay and this one is alot warmer sounding minus all extras that the line 6 gives you. It's a good solid warm delay pedal. I play all styles of music and I am still searching for the ultimate delay, this one comes close but no cigar !