Univox EC-80A Echo Chamber Tape Delay

Easy enough to use in terms of knobs and switches. People need to understand that when new, these boxes probably sounded really nice. But after years of sitting around humid garages, with already delicate tapes growing old and cheap (to start with) electronics getting moldy dusty and crusty - what can one expect? Mine sounded terrible to start with. No rating here for these reasons.

Sounds good now. At first the sound was really distant and weak. I had to replace the felt buffers under the tape in the cassette cartrige ($3.95 in supplies at a craft store). After that it sounds great. But as a guitar player steeped in stuff like Radiohead and Pink Floyd, the echo quality wasn't really what I wanted. But I give it good marks for being good at what it does.

Here is the trick I found: My singing voice is just okay. When I sing through digital mixers and tinny sounding effects, I'm even worse. Worse than that. But with my analog Mackie mixer and this Univox, my voice gets all the benefit of womb-like tape softness. If you are self-conscious about your singing voice, try one of these Unibox vocalmakers. It cleans up even better when mixed in the effects loops of good mixers. The difference when used from guitar to vocal is wonderful. Imagine the opposite of Bruce Springstien. If you don't like it, sell it for the 60 bucks it cost you.

If my car is in as good of shape mechanically as this box in twenty years, I'll eat my Les Paul. Can't blame an old and defunked company for natural and universal errosion of elemental materials. Things fall apart.

Aparently customers didn't support Univox enough to keep their factories running. I called their customer support phone number from 1971 and I met a fishmonger named Vue. I asked him if he had any used instruments he would sell.

I like it like a mother-in-law. I'll keep it for studio vocals, but never use it live for guitar. If I ever get depressed, I'll unwind the tape and hang myself with it.

I have a history with these tape echos that I would like to share with any who are interested,if you have the time that is.
In the past I've had nothing but bad luck with these boxes,first I found one for $20.00 can.but with no cartridge.
Then I scoured all the ads in Vintage Guitar mag. to find a cartridge.
The only way I could get one is to buy a complete unit,(pre Aaloge man)& when I finally got it,the machine it did'nt work!But at least I had my cartridge.
The tape only lasted a few weeks & it separated,I thought well I could use fresh tape from a cassete & replace the old tape.WRONG!!!
It never worked & I tried & tried.
A few years later Analoge Man was advertising new cartridges for the EC80's.
I was excited to say the least,I ordered 4 cartridges.
When I got them they didn't work,none of them.
I was back to square one.
I called Analoge Mike & he told me that his tapes work for all the other machines that he had & that my problem was probably due to poor head alignment.
I tried & tried to get
them to work to no avail,I finally said #*&% it through it all in a box & forgot about it for
another 4-5 years.
A few months ago I found an EC80 at Gar Gillies shop that he took on a trade,sure as $*&+ it didn't have a cartridge,I took it for $5.00 & ran home to try it with the new tapes.
DIDN'T WORK!!!!
I finally got my own computer 2 weeks ago & tried to get info on the unit on the net.
I did a search & found this more hits from: http://www.univox.org/restoration.html - 4 KB
It mentioned the Dictaphone cartridges needed to be modified to work in the EC80 by trimming off some of the plastic.
I dug through my basement to find the other parts of the old original tape cartridge & compared the new ones to it & behold they were slightly different!
I took toenail cippers & trimmed of the excess plastic & tried it & it worked OK,
but not as good as I remembered originally.
So I swapped the little reel of tape that resides inside the cartridge frome the new one to the original one & it worked much better.
If you had no luck with the new cartridges from Analog Man & still have the old houseing from the original cartridge,try swapping the reel from inside,it might work for you.

Regards,Roy Boltz.
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Posts: 268 | From: winnipeg , Can. | Registered: Aug 2003 | IP: Logged |

Roy Boltz
Plexi Palace Squire
Member # 3374

posted April 11, 2004 12:32 PM
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By the way, the above poll is not intended as a knock down of Analog Mike in any way,He's a good guy to deal with.

Pretty dang easy. Just plug in and play with the dials.

I just love this thing, it really adds a very cool vibe to the sound. Mine has one of the original tapes which further emphasises the tape quality. The echos are not too clean and a bit warbled in a way that just can't be duplicated with digital. I have a new tape too and it pretty clear on the first repeats then trails off with the highs cut more and more. The self oscillation is just great as well. You don't even have to plug in anything to get it to self oscillate, just turn up the repeat and delay fully clockwise and it takes off. Then you can vary the delay knob to go down low or back up, each time you go up and down it adds more components to the sound. The best way to describe the sound is a UFO effect from old time radio shows.

One tip I will give you guys. Don't throw away an old tape cause it doesn't work, most of the time the felt pads behind the tape are worn and crushed down to the point that they will not hold the tape against the head anymore. Just put some new felts from a cassette tape or something over the old ones until the tape is supported again. That may be enough to get the tape going again. You may also have to adjust the record head so that it is aligned with the tape. These are old, you really need to be into this kind of stuff to get the most out of it. It is not just like a stomp box that you just plug in and use without a though.

N/A

I play lots of blues rock, ambient jazz, and also do home recording. I play guitar bass keyboards and drums. I have successfully used this thing on all my instruments.

Like the man said. Plug in play situation. Theres no work to be done. I got this unit a year ago, and its pretty weird. The echo has that early 70s thing about it. Its not simple enough to say its just 'echo'..theres a funny ring to it. Interesting box.

I always thought this thing sounded good! Ive had people disagree, or tell me its not even worth the $50.00 street price. I think I would still disagree. Not just because I own it, but I have fath in any tape echo pedal/box. I cant say that about the BOSS crap out there. I use a Fender Super amp and a 72 les paul deluxe. Nothing special, but it sounds fine even without a tube amp.

Every time i turn it on, it works fine. Ive had it for a while now, and its never screwed up on me. The tape is actually the original 72` cartrige. Pretty impressive. Only suggestion i can give is turn it on, let it sit for 10 minutes-let it warm up like a tube amp (even though this pedal solid state).

Never crossed my mind to get help..never broke down on me.

My style is Yes like--steve howe sound and a little jazz thing going on. But thats not important. If this box were stolen, i would go out, and buy a new one for $50.00. Its a cheap enough box when you come by it. When you turn the echo knob while your hitting strings, the pitch will go up and give a pretty cosmic sound.

Pretty damn easy: Echo Volume, Balance, Repeat, and Delay knobs. Two inputs, hi and low, and two outputs, hi and low. Uses an old HIPAC endless loop tape, about 120 seconds.

Lately, I've been using this thing with my Marshall rig, a 1959SLP reissue 100-watt Plexi head with a Marshall 1960TV extra tall cab w/ 25-watt Greenbacks. I use several guitars, but the main ones that this amp sees are my two Gibson Les Paul Customs, a 1978 Silverburst w/ Tom Andersons and a 1969 Black Beauty.

Sound quality is fucking amazing....when you can get it to work....apparently, Eddie Van Halen used this unit to get his delay and self occilation during and at the end of Eurption. Jimmy Page apparently used the shit out of one, as well. Extremely warm, analog tape echo. Very fat and easy to create great sounding experiemental sounds.

I don't give things a 10 very often, but this deserves it in Sound Quality.

Terrible reliablity, of course. Welcome to the world of tape delay....the only reason why we have digital and analog delay pedals is because the human race could never get a reliable design for this technology; really, let's face it: tape sounds better. Anyway, the faults of this unit are basically having to do with the tape. The tape that was in it was pretty messed up, so I spliced some cassette tape into it. I worked for a little while, until it started to mess up again. I soon realized that endless tape has a delicate balance that MUST NOT be disturbed, or else you're screwed. Thus, my quest has begun for replacement tapes. I NEED REPLACEMENTS...if you are reading this, I will pay really good money for some if you have them...

This is non-applicable. Univox hasn't existed in almost 20 years.

I was using this thing for cleaner music, nothing really hard or distorted except for the occasional Van Halen or Zeppelin song. I ran it through my hard rock rig (a 5150 II with Marshall cabs), and it sounded great, but muddy with what I play with that equipment.

If you own any replacement tape cartridges for the Univox EC-series of tape delays, please contact me immediatly. I am in dire need of them...I have to hear THAT SOUND again......