Roland RE-501 Space Echo

Very easy, no manual needed !

Globally good sound !
I use with Marshall JCM900(w/5881tubes) & Mesa Boogie Mark IV
US1975's FenderStrat & Ibanez PM120 PatMetheny, and vintage effects (EH ElectricMistress, TC01 Elec.Chorus, MXR DynaComp..)
Not very noisy for an old analog reverb, very distinctive.

It is more than 25 year old,
No problem !
just clean the head when bandwith & noise is too much

Never had to call

Overall very efficient & sounding effect.

I use the 501'er gear for 4 years now. It's very simple to use because of the distinguished degign. I am not a profi user but if you pull up the cover all patterns are described and so i had no prob to connect it. Please make shure that you you the balanced output and input or you cannot get that "what comes in goes out".You habe to use an symmetrical preamp such as APHEX 124A.

Sound quality is perfect. Please make sure to demagentize and clean the heads of the unit periodically or you won't have the sound that the unit is able to give you.So, if balanced the sound is superb for all instruments or gears you connect it. A little connection setup of mine:
Logic 7 OSX -> Mackie ONYX -> Aphex 124A -> RE501 -> Avalon VT747SP -> Direct IN.
You see all is balanced and you should it do that way or the sound quality will descease.

Take care and clean the unit and you will be satisfied a long time.
It's my favorite gear on delay in a handy format. (AKG BX 20 -> very clumpsy).

You need a technical professional if something fails on the gear. But that the truth for all electronic units. So i can say that you have to find vintage Support Centers (in every bigger town) for maintainance. It was very easy for me to find a guy that changed all botties.

My rating is 10. Very superb sound. Take care of the stuff and you will be satisfied with the RE 501. Cleaning and demagnetizing is "state of the art" on all analog gears. Cleaning units: Nackamichi DM-10 and Head Cleaning Fluid.

It's quite refreshing to have simple hands on controls and not pages of editing parameters to get lost in. As soon as you start to tweak the controls you will find a warm and pleasing sound. The RE-501 has it's manual stapled inside the lid, easy to keep tags on.

I use the RE-501 with a Gibson SG and I also put my synths through it. The RE-501 is not as noisy as earlier Roland tape echoes but is noisier than a digital echo/delay. The chorus is classic Roland stuff and has a very warm feel. The echo and sound on sound are great quality for tape echo. The spring reverb is as it says and can sound quite spacey.

Mine hasn't broken down yet. Keep it well serviced and it should last a long time.

Roland !

I use it for ambient music and spacey things. It does the job well.

501 is very simple to use. Once you get the hand of it the posibilities are endless. You can grab a sound and use both hands to manipulate, delay, feed back etc and use combos to make signature delays. The Sound on Sound feature was weird at first but timing is the key here, you can switch between both SS and normal delay to produce some out of this world effects for Reggae dub music

Basically I'm running as an effect, thru a desk to produce live dub.

Thats the beauty of it, if the tapes old it can sound scratcy but it just shows character. You will always here where the tape is joined so sometimes it wont grab the signal you wanted but this is slight. Its perfect for live dub. You can get wicked phat snare drops combined with the chorus. Also the Bass & Treble and fatness and warmth to all your sounds. It an awesome and underated machine.

They dont make em anymore and you realistically cant emulate them with digi stuff, thats just my opinion. You can get tapes from Melbay Music in Australia they re on the web

Play Reggae Dub.......absoulutly a must if you are looking for an authentic sound wether snare gat or vocqals. Vox with chorus is devastating

THIS IS OLD SCHOOL EASY......EASY TO USE...MINE CAME WITH DIRECTIONS UNDER THE HOOD, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE NOT NEEDED.......

I AM USING IT IN THE LOOP ON MY BOARD....FOR VOCALS AND VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS....its a tiny bit noisy.....but the warmth outwieghs the noise in a big way.....the chorus is nice.....the echo is great...the reverb is warm too....ITS a good tool to have along side the digital effects....anolog is like an old friend

i have been using it in the studio for the past 2 months pretty regularly.......no problems......

I AM LOOKING FOR REPLACEMENT TAPE FOR IT,,,,,,,,ITS THE ROLAND RT-1L TAPE IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS WHERE I CAN PURCHASE THESE, PLEASE EMAIL ME soulofrec@AOL.COM

OVERALL I THINK IT IS THE BEST PIECE OF GEAR I HAVE PURCHASED IN A LONG TIME, I FEEL LIKE I GOT A REALLY GOOD DEAL ON IT (bought it from a friend) I RECORDED VARIOUS STYLES OF MUSIC AND FEEL IT WORKS ALL THE WAY ACROSS ALL GENRES.......

Easy to use, very old-fashioned front panel, but laid out intelligently with Chorus, Echo (6 "modes" to choose from, basically different type echo), Sound-On-Sound and Reverb as effects, and a bass and treble tone control. You can very easily get nice effects with little effort. Remember, this is no high-tech latent machine, controls are quite basic. Has balanced in and out, direct signal on/off and cancel remote switches via front panel or foot pedals. Also has repeating or single sound-on-sound control and intensity and repeat rate controls.
Note that this unit uses an echo chamber tape, which must be loaded into the top of the unit through guides very carefully before use. It uses tape which runs over heads similar to a tape deck. Getting that tape loaded properly for the first time can be tricky, but after that it's a breeze.

For some reason, depending on how I use the unit, (for example, whether or not I go direct in-out or use the SEND and RECEIVE on my amp), the reverb can get noisy, but I think it needs some attention by a Roland tech. I don't quite know the history of this particular unit, and it may have been slightly mishandled for a time. When I got it, there was no tape in the cabinet, for example. The overall sound, though, with its analog tape system, is nothing short of wonderful, a really nice change from the digital effects currently out there. The echo has a very nice "this is really my playing I'm hearing back here" kind of sound. With digital, you just don't get that! The reverb and chorus are typical good quality Roland stuff. Digital delay and reverb is a definite must for anyone attempting to get great effects and the overall battle is clearly won by digital, but having the option to use a tape echo like this one can add nice analog "warmth" to your sound. I give this category a "9" but analog is purely a personal thing, so some might agree strongly while others laugh.

Well, here it gets complicated. Using a tape loop, this baby is anything but totally dependable, but if you have a backup tape, you'll have no problems relying on the echo to work, and the chorus and reverb don't even use the tape, so no problem there... just don't open the top while that tape is spinning over the heads, or you'll find yourself winding tape for ages!

They're very good people at the Richmond B.C. offices. I went there in person some time ago to get a new tape for the unit. They were helpful and made it clear to me that the tapes were no longer in production so I should grab as many as I could afford.

It's worth a look for anyone interested in trying some "vintage" (can you call this thing vintage? I'm not sure!) sounds and effects. I've had a BOSS digital delay and I've owned a JC-120 head so I'm fully aware of how Roland's digital dealy and chorus sounds in pedals, and I'd say this type of unit will be great when I finally get a new processor for my guitar. It should complement it very nicely. I've been using the unit constantly since I got the tape in there, and that speaks volumes about how much fun it is. If you get the chance, TRY ONE!