Anybody get one of the new Space Echo pedals?

Got one, because...

ECHO ECHO ECHO SPACE.

Range report follows:

One of the new features sort of is meh - the only verb that sounds right is the original trashy spring in moderate amounts. All the rest get a bit washier than I'd like and there's no sub-adjustments.

A *big* plus though is you can preview the changes to the settings when you have to jump through the boot up options. It's a VAST improvement over the old one, especially when there's LEDs showing what mode is on or not. It's not unplug/guess/repeat/pray like the older model.

That goes double for the LEDs showing which head is active in which mode on the 12 dial switch. OK, I have the positions memorized on my units, but...it's nice to glance down and be sure.

Out of box it ships with the "short" delay initialized, i.e. the standard 201 1s length, tails on (which isn't true of the original unit, when you hit the bypass, it bypasses the echoes period, they stop BUTT cold with no fade).

Preamp is a pleasant little "just sounds better" and I'm happier with it on than off, as expected. Saturation control just adds "more" - it won't ever get to overdrive on its own unless you hit it REALLY hard, and even then it's mild - just like the original units in that regard.

The "tape age" switch is interesting - it doesn't sound quite "right" on "new" and gets the proper melt into the background on "worn." I've always been ambivalent on the Space Echo loops myself - if the heads are clean, the transport is running right, as long as the tape is good still, I'm happy. Changing tapes isn't a radical swap providing everything is clear and maintained on the OG units and you haven't been running the loop for 5000 hours.

EQ controls are more active than the OG units or the RE-20 - it *will* get a LOT brighter if you want that.

Wow & flutter adjustment will NOT get you into chorus-land like most modern takes on it. It's within what you CAN get on a vintage unit, not seasick warbling. The control is MUCH more pronounced on the longer delay time setting (past 1s) as would be expected on an actual tape going bad.

The fourth tape head option is grand, it's something I always meant to do with my 301 but never got around to modding it for an extra head.

The biggest kudos, I suppose is that once I had settled on the reverb being the standard trashy spring is it was just use the thing. Twist the knobs, make it go, boom, it sounds like me and a Space Echo.

Is it a radical upgrade to the RE-20? It's an incremental one, but if you LOVE the Space Echo family, I doubt you'd be disappointed.

I'm not selling my RE-20s, this won't replace them.

The warp and twist modes are slightly different-sounding between the two. The 202 sounds closer to manually twisting the tape settings, but I've grown fond of the RE-20s's reliable chaos too.