Making a Tape Echo the Traditional Way

[Juan Nicola] was inspired by the musician hackers of old and turned a reel-to-reel tape recorder into a tape echo for his guitar with a built-in valve amplifier (video in Spanish).

The principle is to record the sound of the guitar on a moving piece of magnetic tape, then play it back shortly afterwards. This signal is mixed with the live input and re-recorded on the tape further back. The effect is heard like an echo, and this approach was very popular before digital effects became readily available.

[Juan] installed a new pickup on his Grundig TK40 and managed to find a suitable mechanical arrangement to hold everything in place. He has since updated the project by switching to a tape loop, allowing infinite playback time by reusing the same piece of tape over and over.

Turning tape recorders into echo effects isn't a new idea, and we've shown a few over the years, but each one is slightly different!

Both versions are shown after the break. Automatic translation of YouTube closed captions can be useful here for non-Spanish speakers.