Paul Elliott about his Roland RE-101 Space Echo

“Another classic bit of kit that I won't part with. As with the Wurli, most decent studios have a Space Echo. Most have a 201 because it has the spring reverb - I would definitely grab a 201 if one headed my way, in fact I’d love a 501 for sure but the prices have gotten silly, so this little beauty will have to do! The RE-101 is just the tape delay minus the reverb and chorus and this one sounds great! It's got all the spaceship sounds, slapbacks, dub feedback you’d ever want or need and the tape breaks up really nicely on this unit. Even though there are better delays out there, I always lean on the space echo as it just has a brilliant sound and is a super tactile, easy to use fun machine!

This was another ebay find, back in the early days of ebay. I contacted the seller and asked how much he wanted and to my surprise he wanted the grand total of £100 - what a steal! I rocked up at his place and out came an older, smart looking dude. He invited me in and began to wax lyrical about the space echo. Turned out he had owned it since new and it was part of his guitar rig back in the day. He hadn't used it for many years, but had kept it clean and had original spare tape loops that he threw in too. I confused him a little when I told him I didn't actually play guitar and really wanted the space echo to make spaceship effects and weird noises, but he was cool and knew I was excited to take it off his hands, so I did before he decided it was worth more money!”

- Paul Elliott