Dynacord EC-280 Electronic Echo

Well, the Dynacord EC-280 is not very straightforward. There are 4 echo buttoms, each with their own sound, a bit simelar to the tape echo heads.The Echo also has "Return", "Duration" and "Speed" + a "Volume" for the "Echo site. All these work great and in combination with the 4 Echo buttoms some very weird spacy echo sounds can be achieved. Then there is also the "reverb" site of the which can be engaged with the toggle switch. The reverb is not comparable with a spring reverb, but is cool. there are also 4 "reverb" settings/buttoms. If you push wo buttoms at once, you can bypass the "reverb and only use the chorus, which can be used on both "channels". There are two inputs, one Output and a Delay output, which is what it says...a Delay output. You play a not and hear it after a second or so...very weird.
You have to get used to usage of the effect, but once you figure out where all the buttoms and knobs are for it fun to play with

Well, the Dynacord EC-280 is vintage, so it's not silent. It sometimes "hisses" and clearly has a mind of it's own. So far it hasn't let me down.
I can go with the Echo from "The Shadows" to "Man or Astroman?" sounds. The repaets are fantastic. I don't use the reverb side alot, since it's too "two-dimensional" for me. I hooked the Dynacord EC-280 up with my "64 "AA 864" Fender Basman Amp with a 2x12 Jensen cab. It sounds very nice and vintage. It makes my Fender Jaguar and Jazzmasters bloom. But, when I hook it up with my RI-Fender reverb tank. (Guitar-Fender Reverb-Dynacord EC-280-Fender Bassman" it's really showtime. Then the sounds are unbilieveable! From Instro Surf to Spy-fi, Euro-Instro and space weirdness.....

Well, so far so good. I opended the unit to clean up some dust it aquired over the years, but it's solid built.

I haven't gigged with it and I'm not sure I would. I keep the Dynacord EC-280 for home usage.

Well, Dynacord is still arround. But the EC-280 is at least 25 years old and it's rare. So I'm not counting on Dynacord for customer support. I guess a good Electronics engineer might be able to fix it, should it break down (I hope)

I wasn't really looking for such an effect since I didn't even knew it existed in such form. When advertising my old Shaller Wah-fuzz on a local 2nd hand site, I got the chance to trade it in for the Dynacord EC-280. I did not hesitate for a second. I play Instro Surf/Euro Instro in two bands and the Dynacord is superb for this music. Ofcourse it's not a state of the art effect, but the vintage/low-fi vibe of this thing makes up for that big time!
For me it's the closest thing to a tape Echo I came by so far. I also have a Dan-Echo and perhaps more reliable, but it can't make the sounds the Dynacord EC-280 makes.
Too bad it didn't came with the foot-switch, but I might be able to fix one myself.

Very easy to use, knobs have clear descriptions. Big switch determines whether it is an echo effect or a reverb + echo effect. Also semi-independent chorus effect. Two inputs, two outputs of which one is wet-only and the other one is dry/wet mixed (there is a dry/wet knob to set the mix to your taste).

This unit rocks. It is noisy, old, lo-fi and so spacy, cool, extreme and out-of-this-world!

Very wild sounds, feedback can be set so high that volume increases with echo's, this can end in terrific noise chaos. Now turn the delay-time knob, and you have the ability to change the pitch of the noise. More crazy effects possible. Also very cool: if feedback is on edge of creating chaos, soft guitar playing will keep delay normal, while hard playing will start the machine in self-oscillation and cool pitched noise. When much feedback is applied without the self-oscillation, echo's will change pretty drastically after 3 or 4 repeats. And the repeats can really be set to (almost) indefinitely, minutes or hours no problem.

Input can easily be overdriven by setting the gain knob high with just a guitar directly in the input. Gives nice dynamic distortion (responds very well to picking dynamics), but it is quite harsh.

Max delays not very long (guess: 200-300 msec).
Reverb is very lo-fi, and is always combined with delay effects.

Also has a more or less independent chorus effect. The effect intensity can be set in combination with the effects described above. But the speed of chorus effect (pitch modulation) is dependent on the delay speed. When delay speed is low, dramatic siren-like pitch modulation can be achieved.

Works for approx 30 years, so I guess OK. Never gigged with it.

I don't think you would want to bother Dynacord nowadays with these ancient units.

Great for all experimental music. No lexicon-quality effect, but gritty lo-fi with unparalelled character. Also very rare, I have never seen any other than my own, except for some German studio-inventory listings on the internet. See www.modezero.com/dynacord-ec280.htm for pics and even MP3's of it's sound. But don't think that's all you can do with it :-)

For character it should have a 10 rating, but because its lo-fi-ness I'll give it an 8.