On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Echoplex EP-3 (serial no. 9503)
Mike Battle American
Steve Miller
Not on view
Les Paul’s experiments with simultaneous playback and recording on reel-to-reel machines introduced the sounds of tape-based “echo” to popular music in the late 1940s. However, these sounds were not available to the average musician until engineer Mike Battle invented the Echoplex in 1959. Battle’s design features a moveable second play head, allowing artist to easily adjust the timing and length of their delayed sound. Steve Miller created the swirling synthesizers and cascading guitar parts on “Fly Like an Eagle” (1976) with this Echoplex. Battle’s device inspired many other effect units, including the Univox EC-80A Echo Chamber and the Roland RE-201 Space Echo.
Technical Description:
Solid state circuitry; echo and "sound on sound" modes, echo sustain and volume controls, sliding tape head to adjust echo delay time, foot switchable echo on/off and playback controls
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