Strymon has continued its assault on the compact stompbox market with the EC-1 – a tape echo delay pedal that takes inspiration from an iconic vintage unit.For its past few launches, Strymon has steered away from the larger form factors popularized by its more feature-packed pedals, and directed its attention towards developing a more pedalboard-friendly design.To that end, Strymon has so far championed this compact approach with the UltraViolet Vintage Vibe, Brig dBucket Delay, and Cloudburst Ambient Reverb.
Now, it has further doubled down on its new design ethos with the EC-1.The main headline here – apart from the fact it’s the firm’s smallest tape echo pedal to date – is that the EC-1 takes inspiration from an actual Echoplex EP-2.As Strymon explains, the EC-1 was initially intended to be solely based around the dTape algorithm from its El Capistan unit, but that changed after it came into possession of “an immaculate Echoplex EP-2” that had been modded by renowned gear guru, Cesar Diaz.
One of the most sought-after Echoplex builds – which goes for upwards of $1k on the vintage market – the EP-2 was once used by Jimmy Page and Andy Summers, and preceded the EP-3 variant that was championed by Eddie Van Halen, Brian May and more.Diaz – who worked with names such as Stevie Ray Vaughan during his career – tweaked the tube preamp of the physical EP-2, though, and helped tap into the warmer tone and frequency response of the latter model, resulting in a �.
