SUSTAINABLE
COMPONENTS
ECHOMATIC
REVIEW BY SAM HILL
STREET PRICE $199.99
The first time I was truly
mesmerized by a guitar
player came courtesy of
Mike McCready during
Pearl Jam’s Binaural tour
circa 2000. I’ll never forget
him weaving his fluid lead
lines in and out of Stone
Gossard and Eddie Vedder’s
aggressive and raw rhythm
guitars. The entire band
played with an energy
previously unmatched by
any musical group I had
ever witnessed, and there
was one sound in particular
that had me hypnotized. A
few measures into “Nothing
as It Seems,” McCready
ended a bluesy lead line
with a sound that could
be described as a cross
between a dying whale and
a ghost. I knew very little
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GEAR REVIEW
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about the science of electric
guitar signal paths at that
time, and I was absolutely
perplexed—I’d never heard
anything like it. That sound
reemerged throughout the
night, and some months
after the show, I delved
more fully into guitar and
discovered how he achieved
that haunting effect—an
analog delay on the verge
of oscillation. Pedalboard
pictures from that era
show him using the Boss
DM-2 and DM-3. Hoping to
capture a similar magic, I
purchased a vintage DM-3
and instantly fell in love
with its bubbly echo. It had
a tone that was warm yet
clear, creating a welcome
stew of sound that easily fit
into many musical contexts.
Sustainable Components Echomatic
Why do I bring this up,
you ask? Because the
moment I plugged into the
Sustainable Components
Echomatic, those memories
flooded my mind.
As the name suggests,
the Echomatic is made
using sustainable wood,
a principle the company
is founded upon. Combine
that with its pink knobs
and incredibly bright pink
LED and it makes for one
handsome devil of a pedal.
But be warned, this pedal is
big—it feels like a miniature
brick. When you’re not using
it to conjure up sweet delay
sounds, you could throw it
at Harry and Marv to deter
them from breaking into
your house on Christmas