Deluxe was kind of an experiment: I
wanted to see if I built an exact EP-3
circuit, part-for-part, including the
22-volt power supply, but physically
replaced the finicky tape with a digital
delay line, how close could I get to
the mojo of the actual EP-3? A lot of
designers take a different approach:
they disregard the audio path, and put
all of their development into the DSP
to make a “tape delay,” but I always
suspected that the real mojo was not
just the tape, but also the circuitry and
componentry. So what we’re doing with
the Belle Epoch Deluxe is reproducing
‘70s-era technology for you—including
the types of capacitors, power
supplies, and transistor-based amplifier
circuits within. So, Epoch Mania!
And that leads us to the Epoch Pre.
There is already a market out there for
EP-3 based preamps, and so when I
decided to jump into that arena, I once
again just did what I thought needed to
happen. So the Epoch Pre represents
my exploration of this idea, and I took
a no-compromise approach to it.
TR: I love that you guys didn’t stop
at merely recreating the EP-3 exactly,
which was quite a feat in itself, you
kept going after that goal had been
achieved, adding rotary and filter
effects and a couple of Deluxe Memory
Man-based settings, among other
things. Why wasn’t making a perfect
pedal rendition of a vintage EP-3
enough for Catalinbread?
HG: The initial goal of the Belle Epoch
Deluxe was an uncompromised take on
the EP-3 circuitry. That was my goal. I
didn’t set out to make a feature-laden
pedal. I just wanted to get the EP-3
sound, which is partially the delay, and
partially what it does to your entire
signal chain, so it’s more than just
the echo portion of what it does. You
think of stories of Eddie Van Halen
and other players from the ‘70s. They
used the EP-3 not just for the delay
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TONE TALK //
The Devil’s in the Details: A Chat with Howard Gee from Catalinbread