Re: Incredible News Archive Findings (Led Zeppelin)]

[TangerineMan <tangerineman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> As someone who grew up in the digital age, I find it amazing that people
> would go through the trouble to do setups like that....not that it is
> complicated, but still......it's more than just plugging into a pedal and
> playing. Was this commonly what people used for delay effects at the time?

I thought it might be a delay unit as well when I saw the photos... Good
call, Risto.

Yup, this is how they would do echo and delay back in the day...

The Roland "Space Echo" was a famous tape-based analog echo and delay unit
produced between '73 and '88 (and still used today). A lot of latter-day
artists like it for the usual reasons ("analog = warm and natural; digital =
dry and artificial") See:

http://www.vintagesynth.com/index2.html

I remember some friends rented one for a gig in around 1986 (I was a lowly
roadie)...

Jimmy didn't use the Roland unit, but the technology was the same: one long
loop of tape running past a record head and one more more playback heads a
bit further along. Jimmy's gadget of choice would appear to have been the
Maestro Echoplex:

http://www.superpage.com/riffs/desc_maestro_echoplex.html

See also the comprehensive gear descriptions at Achilles Last Stand:

http://www.led-zeppelin.org/reference/gear/index.php?m=jimmy-led-zeppelin

Now, profuse apologies to the pundits at R-O, but this doesn't look anything
like the reel-to-reel machine seen in those Frankfurt photos. Unless he
acquired the Echoplex after 1970, and until then used a rudimentary setup,
say, with two garden-variety R2R machines hooked together...

I assume he used it for the bow solo and with the theremin. Or were some
effects controlled by Rusty or whoever back at the soundboard?