Electro-Harmonix EchoFlanger

I should start off by saying I have a vintage polychorus, which is essentially the same circuit as the Echoflanger. Having reverse engineered the Echoflanger and Polychorus. The differences are aesthetic as in PCB design and enclosure paint job. Only real difference is the use of an NE571 compander in the polychorus as opposed to the NE570 in the Echoflanger. Essentially the same circuit.

This pedal is not as easy as say, a one knob boost. or even your standard distortion pedal. However, its fairly intuitive to use.

I have been running this with an Ibanez guitar forget the model name. Various amps a 1960's watkins Scout, a 1970's sound city concord, and even some crappy solid state bass amps. I have too many pedals too mention but I usually use this pedal in the chorus setting for its versatility. It likes distortion, loves my modded rat and modded DS-1.

It nails the radio friendly unit shifter sound ofcourse. Does "My Bloody valentine" well too. I use this pedal for feedback noise modulation and experimental drone stoner stuff. Aswell as psychedelic solos. The chorus/vibrato really cant be beat for its crazyness, my MN3007 based Clone of the EH Clone Theory gets close, but not quite, my modded small clone, when you play with the cd4047 clock, gets close, but just doesnt have the soundscape available with the polychorus/echoflanger. The flanger is hard to tell apart from an elec mistress, the circuits are almost identical. The filter matrix is the same. The double track is a very short delay, the best way to describe it is chorus without the pitch shift. Good for thickening up solos when you dont want any pitch shift.

The bad stuff, the pedal is not true bypass and does what is commonly known as "tone suck" and volume suck (probably due to the percieved treble loss) when in bypass. Now I true bypassed my polychorus and was greated by a HUGE volume drop. I decided instead of increasing the gain of any of the gain stages or tacking on a gain recovery stage on the output. I would return the pedal to "stock" and just use a clean boost at a set level in a true bypass box loop. Which also has the added benefit of a feedback loop, which makes for great noises.

This is by far my favourite Chorus pedal and I have tried/built alot of chorus pedals, I would buy it for that effect alone. The rest are just a bonus.

It just loses a point for not being true bypass.

This pedal has been around for decades, and I imagine it will be around for decades to come. The paint decal comes off ridiculously easily (clearcoat your pedals EH!). Other than that the chassis is pretty sturdy, good quality jacks, carling SPDT footswitch, good quality metal film and carbon film resistors throughout, 2 coveted SAD1024A BBD's. Impressive CD4053 switching between 4 different effects. I feel confident gigging without a back up. Mainly because I know this pedal inside out and know it isnt going to crap out on me any second.

It gets an eight for the delicate paint job and sheet as opposed to diecast enclosure.

Reliable enough, but could be better.

Never dealt with EH directly.

I recently got some EH "B-stock" (Flanger Hoax) with a proxy dealing directly with EH/new sensor. Fast shipping, cheap and the "b-stock" was due to a hairline scratch in the finish. I am not going to rate personally, but I have heard nothing but good things.
Wont give you any help with vintage stuff though.
Why should they?

If it were lost or stolen, I would get a fatwa issued!

At risk of pigeon-holing my style i play Grunge-punk-stoner-doom-psychadelic-metal-Garage-blues-noise-experimental-melodic-triphop.

:)

Yeah this pedal fits my style...somewhere.

Anything I wish it had?
A cruise missile?
What more do you need?

Does it help make music?
You can sit your guitar next to your cranked amp+speaker and twiddle knobs on this thing, add a drummer and a bassist you could create a whole album. (well almost)


If you find one, I recommend picking it up. Buy yourself a true bypass box and a booster (or build them) and start getting lost in modulation.

Very easy, like most EH pedals, just play with the knobs till you get the coolest sounds.

It has 5 knobs:
1)feedback
2)rate
3)width
4)tune
*5)mode---------a)filter matrix *The fifth knob has 4
b)flange switching options
c)chorus
d)slap back

it has also a BLEND ON switch.

AMAZING SOUNDS out of this box!!!!

This is the pedal used by kurt cobain for the song Radio Unit Shifter and so many others from the In utero album amd Nirvana discography

Basicly this pedal is ver similar to the polychorus and the polyflanger. They are slightly different from each other.

You can get too many sounds out of this unit, too many options. Its cool for all kinds of experimental music too.

*By using the filter matrix you can get some metallic-like sounds
which are really cool.

Like most EH vintage pedals the echoflanger is built like a tank and thats why most of them are still working properly today. THEY WERE WELL MADE!!!

Never needed it.

well, this pedal is really hard to find. If you are lucky and find one and at a reasonable price of course, dont think about it. BUY IT!!! You can get too many sounds, you can do too many things with this machine. I LOVE IT!!, I will never lend it and never sell it either. I love EH vintage pedals. They all sound TERRIFIC

It doesn't get any easier than this. Flick a switch and turn a knob
and "see" what happens...

This thing has the greatest sounds...I've been around the block as far
as effects go. Midi this'n that, blah frickin' blah blah. The best thing about it is it has its own "boost". That is to say, when you
switch it on, even with all of the effects turned down you end up
amplified and "harmonically colored" if you will. Very distinctive
sound.

I've used mine on and off over the last 24 years. It has NEVER had
a problem. Before planned obsolescence perhaps? I always use it now...
no backup.

Never needed to...

I play rock 'n roll...whatever...I use it all the time with lefty (strung righty) Fenders. '96 Jag-Stang, '96 Mustang and a '90 American Standard Stratocaster into the EchoFlanger then into a '97 Mesa/Boogie
DC-3. If someone stole it I'd either offer ransom or buy a Polychorus.
Evidently there is no difference other than the name. I think my favorite feature is the fact that it still works after all this time.
When I bought it in 1978 I honestly was not aware of anything else like it. When I heard it, that was enough for me.

Very simple and easy to use. There are four basic settings which are Filter Matrix, Chorus, Flange, and Slap-Back echo. Each are fully editable via old fashioned analog nobs(don't you love those?)

You can get some crazy vibrato with this thing, or you can go for a smooth chorus. There's a wide span of sounds. If lots of distortion is added it can be a bit noisy, but what vintage analog pedal isn't? You can easily achieve some good Kurt Cobain emulations with this. He actually used one live. A good studio recording of this pedal can be found on frienly radio unit shifter off of the In Utero album.

It has never let me down. I'm not going to say that it will never fail, but it's pretty sturdy.

NA

It's an awesome analog pedal. Quite rare too. It has some cosmetic damage, but nothing major, just a few paint scratches. I really love this thing but it doesn't really have a spot in my rig. All of it's effects are covered by other units. You can't really compare it to any other pedal it's very unique. I own other vintage E-H pedals including a Clone, Mistress and MemoryMan and this thing basically does eveything that those do, just not all at once. It has been one of my favorite pedals, but I have to set it free, (I'm also in debt).

I have an original Echo flanger pedal......a/c powered.....I say around 25 years old.....everything is there and working
I'd like to sell it......what's the going rate for this pedal....

Great sound

Just plug inand enjoy

Way too easy

Steller, Amazing. Allot of the bad reviews that people give EH pedals come from dorks that turn it on, stomp it, and expect a miracle. As with any piece of equipment, you have to experiment. I realy love this pedal. Nirvana in a box!!!! Superb chorus, and amazing metallic sounding slapback echo. The posibilities are limitless!!!!!!! As far as your brain can tweak it!!!!!!!!!!

No problems yet, I accidentaly broke my blend swith off. Gob bless radioshack. Theese things are like old cars, you can fix em' yourself!!!!!!!! ROCK ON E-H

I called for a schematic and they sent it to me for free. They always answer my e-mails!!!

I would buy the company if I could!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah...that's where this puppy shines, ease of use. There's no patches, presets...just knobs, ahh, beautiful knobs. (i for one feel there should be more knobs in the world today) I have no manual for it..since i bought it used, but there is really no need. You have 5 knobs, one selects the type of effect, which include flange,chorus,filter matrix, and slap back,and the others shape it. There is a feedback knob, rate, width, and tune, if you've used a flanger, or chorus pedal before these controls will be familar. Its easy to get the sounds you want, once you learn the pedal..i've even been able to change sounds during performance. The only reason i give it an 8 here is because it does take a while to get used to, and can be hard for beginners to analogue effects to understand. The thing still amazes me, and i'm constantly finding new sounds/uses.

Well, if you're looking for a pristine effect..don't look here. The unit does color you're tone quite a bit, and the 2 prong (versus newer 3 prong) plug makes it noisy, but that's what is sooo great. I wasn't looking for a rack quality efect unit, i wanted analougue..that's what i got. The flange on the unit is quite nice..sounds like a Boss BF-2, but a little rawer. The chorus is also great sounding, not necessarily wet, kinda has a metallic ring to it, but its got that analogue chorus sound. The filter matrix is good for those hollow sounds, and is also good if you want you're guitar to stand out. (solos or whatever) The slapback is quite cool, errie, and metallic again...kinda wished it had more delay time. The best aspect about the pedal though is its ability to act alive. I mean it...this thing scares me. If you're not careful (or don't care like me) the chorus setting, and slapback, will whip-up some great choas sounds. This was the selling point for me...chaos. It does the whole delay feedback thing PLUS adds the modulation of the chorus. I would also like to note i used it for bass as well as guitar (as well as vocals,drums...etc.), and it sounds great on both. Granted the freqencies were designed to use with guitar, but it has a dry out jack that could be used by a bass player, so as to not lose your low-end. It also has a neat blend switch, which seems to make the effects more pronounced.

After i had it for awhile, (4 months), it started making a cracking noise. took it to the guitar store, told me it was loose solder joints, (i have a Big muff Pi that does this too) Anyways, i got it fixed and it hasn't failed me yet. The reason this rating's a little low is because it is old, and you never know. It should be noted though that the housing is indestructable...no wimpy plastic here.

Who knows. Does New Sensor fix these things? That'd be cool

This pedal is awesome, if you like analogue. You get alot of sounds out of one pedal, i like that. It fits many needs, and plus...it looks so damn cool. I play music..i never know what i'll be doing next, so it's great for everyone. Honestly, the only people who won't like it...are people who don't like analogue effects (some don't) My only wish list would be...a better bypass, and more time on the slapback, to make it sound more like a Memory Man, other than that, i'd buy one again in a heartbeat.

All E-H pedals are simple to use, I's say. This pedal is EXACTLY the same as the PolyChorus and PolyFlanger. All have the same internal circuitry, but some have slight differences cosmetically-- that's it. EchoFlangers have chorus, flange, filter matrix, and slap back (double attack or double tracking on PolyChoruses).

Mine is very quiet, and strangely louder than a dry clean sound. In other words, once I turn on an effect, it's louder than my clean sound. I dunno. As mentioned in the PolyFlange review, the PolyChorus and the EchoFlanger were both used by Kurt Cobain. All effects are terrific. There's a "blend on" switch which makes almost no difference on my unit. As for the knobs, there are 5. One is effects mode (chorus, flange, etc.), the other 4 are as follows: Feedback, rate, width, and tune. You can get some out-of-this-world sounds from different knobs combinations. You gotta try this thing for yourself!

Mine is in beautiful shape and even came with it's original box. I don't expect any problems with it (and I've had my share of problems with E-H pedals).

Never dealt with 'em.

E-H made the most outrageous pedals ever made!! They are unmatched to this day. I only own E-H pedals, save for a Boss DS-2 which I never use.