Dynacord Echocord Studio - Super-Slow Varispeed

Full set of photos and demos of this machine to follow – it’s undergoing final calibration and will be thoroughly soak tested and tweaked over the next 2-3 weeks. Expect delivery by mid December.

The super-slow varispeed motor option offers the full functionality of regular speed uses, but with additional super-slow speeds for longer, darker, dirtier repeats. This can get properly gnarly when pushed into distortion at slow speed – it should be noted that at the slowest speeds very little fidelity or feedback happens – this is for special effects only rather than regular use.

Can be further modified with jack output (instead of DIN socket) and wet-only output option; has an IEC mains socket.

The below info and demos are from a previous unit we sold:

These are incredible and very complex machines – germanium transistor-based – with many components across several boards that have now drifted out of tolerance. As long as the disc surface is good, it’s possible to get them running reasonably well with a couple of solid days’ work, but as nearly all the caps and transistors are steadily-failing, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll need to dive back in again and change more components. The only way to be as sure as possible of reasonable reliability is to change pretty much every component on every board. Fortunately for the next owner, Doctor Huw’s a perfectionist; he’s spent a great deal of time working through each circuit, painstakingly-matching transistors and replacing caps. The result of lots of incremental gains is truly-stunning: this is a superb vintage echo that stands next to the very best in our studio. The additional time developing the super-slow varispeed mod has been worthwhile – it’s a stunning effect.

I’d been searching for a Dynacord Echocord Studio for years, and after picking up a couple it’s taken many more months for us to find time to get one working and ready to sell. The price does not reflect the amount of time that has gone into the rebuild, and the hours of testing and tweaking to get this machine to run as well as it can. But it’s a point of pride that we can resurrect a rare and fascinating machine like this and get it back out in the world making music .

As you can see from the pictures and demo the basic principle is a series of heads resting above a spinning disc metal disc, attached to which is a ferrous oxide-coated recording surface (not unlike a floppy disc).

We’ll add more information about the controls and technology driving this amazing piece of kit as soon as we can but if you have any questions please get in touch.

UK/EU 220v unit.