Klemt Echolette Echolette S

Strait forward writen in german and english on controls other then that its like any other tape echo you play with it till you find what you want.

i have 2 67 marshall plexis 1 is a 100 watt another is a 50 small box i also have a laney plexi from about 68 and a 65 vox ac 50 i have others but thouse are the main amps. i have serveral different speaker cabs vintage 30s greenbacks and goodmans to name a few.
73 gibson les paul a couple of ibanez a strat and a rickenbacker 12.
lots of efects ect ect.
the point being is this the unit is dead quiet and for a tube device in a chain that says alot.it does not have a slider head so thats a limit but the sound is superb.
i like 60s bands mostly but modern aplications can be considered, mostly in the studio though you can haul it around but its kind of rare so dont beat it.

german engineering is great but they do have a way of packing lots of stuff into a small space this has caused them some trouble at times.
the unit is reliable but it does have a printed circut board and tubes are running close to components so there is heat but it hasnt killed this unit in near 45 years.
all components are the very best and the workmanship is the highest.
the case comes off to expose the entire units guts so service is tight but not so bad.

as far as the company is concerned i know it folded into dynacord and reports are that they are as helpfull as they can be.
there are companys that recondition heads and other companys that copy pinch rollers and still others that rebuild electric motors.

It is a superb unit that makes other worldly sounds.
it is a testement to german engineering at its best and it can be used at any voltage btw.
it has 100% real sound it is as natural as one can find, nature wont produce a more natural sounding echo.
it doesnt get any better as far as sound quality is concerned.
every quality studio should have one.

beutifully laid out, i love to just use the tubes to warm up sharp-sounding synth sounds. the delays are classic warm dub.
i have to agree with my pre-reviewers, no hum problems.

the tubes alone are worth what i paid for mine. it always sounds great (provided you use good quality tape and a well-spliced loop). as mentioned before, i often use it as a preamp for daw recording. my favourite artists are eno, cluster, early krautrock stuff, dub etc. ; i.e. i require warmth. this is one of my tools to get an analogue sound onto the daw - another is recording thru my trusty old denon hifi tape deck. forget about saturation simulating plug-ins. they sound merely ok, not inspiring.

considering its age-i guess you can call it that.

you can constantly download o.s. updates from their site :) (actually i had to have mine overhauled by my technician, who said it was a bitch to get at its innards, - he managed, but you should have experience for any such repair work)

i use it on keyboards and guitar, sometimes on voice. ever since i worked with it at a studio, i fell in love with it and went searching on ebay. yes, i'd get it again. liked it better than the copicat, but what was nice about the copycat was the open tape loop that you could manipulate. with the echolette, you have to open the lip if you want to mess w/the tape.

Anything you wish it had?
i wish i had two of them- for stereo.

Rock and Roll
40 yearsUnfortunately they are not for sale anymore. If they were Yes I would buy another.
I love its raw unrivalled sound
Yes. the english copycat and it won hands down
The greatest echo chamber ever made

It is easy to operate. You have several options for creating different sounds.Tweakers rejoice!!! This is a 100% analog multi-head tape echo reverb delay unit with several pre-amp tubes. You get several knobs and four buttons for choosing between short delay and long delay...sound on sound type effect...etc.

This unit is far better sounding than any echoplex, roland space echo, watkins copycat, Tel-ray, Ecorec, or similar unit that I've ever heard. I've been a guitar player and studio engineer for over 34 years. The Klempt Echolette is best suited for guitar and vocals. The best description I can give you of it's sound is that it sounds like THE VOICE OF GOD...it embelishes any sound so well while maintaing your signal 10 time more intact than if run through an echoplex. The tubes in the unit make the signal real warm yet highly defined...you hear every nuance of your playing. The noise is almost non existent and there is no audible hum or interference.
What is also great is that the Echolette can creat several kinds of effects by just tweeking the knobs. It's best effects are reverb, delay, and echo. The fact that it was made in Germany says alot. German engineering is wonderful...you don't have the interference problems that you get with other unit such as the echoplex becuse you have a metal chassis that acts as a faraday cage protecting your signal from rf interference. It is known to have been used by Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Slash (for the 2nd recording of sweet child o'mine), the Beatles, and several more. This is one of the industry's best kept secrets...unfortunatly these units are hard to find in America and are not well known outside of Europe. It was very well known in England and Germany. Parts are available in only a few places in america...such as tape...one of them that I know of is at Mercury Magnetics in Seattle, and a few places in Atlanta. If you can get your hands on one of these units DO IT!! It will one of the best investments you'll make. Just remeber to use it in the effects loop of your amp or mixer.

As I said before you can get replacement parts in a few places in America...one of which I already named. The unit is so well built I have never had to replace anything except for the tape...the tubes last forever...I'm still using the original telefunkens that came with it. You will however have to clean the insides such as the heads and pots at least once every 6 weeks to keep it sounding 100%. Cleaning only takes about 10 minutes.

The company closed in the 1980's with the advent of digital reverb and delay which in my opinion lack feel and warmth. It was in West Germany.

I play and recored all kinds of music. I've recorded Warrant, The Matadors, and The Stone Roses among others. I have been in this industry since the dinosaurs ruled the Earth, the Echollete is worth going to the ends of the Earth for...If your lucky you can find it in America for under $600 since alot of people here don't know about it or have ever heard about it...especially the younger crowd. This is TONE. If it were stolen I definitely would try hard to find another one. God bless you all and I hope this was of help.