Roland RE-5 Digital Space Echo

Uncommon Roland RE-5 Digital Space Echo in good working order and excellent condition.

It’s… very interesting…

These units were made in Japan the late 80s. Similar to the RE-3 which was more common: the RE-5 has more controls and more input/output options on the back. From our limited experiments so far this is an interesting bit of kit capable of layers of crystalline echo and some wild digital glitches if pushed.

Plugging a guitar into the mic input and driving the input sounded pretty cool (but I had just been testing a bunch of snarly vintage silicon fuzz boxes so my ears may not have recovered). Will try it with a drum machine too and get a YouTube demo up. The ‘reverse echo’ setting is more of an 80s reverb, but has its uses.

For now this Roland RE-5 YouTube demo (not the unit for sale) gives an idea of what it can do – thanks to the uploader:

Note that this is a Japanese model so the labelling for the small knobs inside the drop down front panel is in Japanese (however, the labelling on the sockets on the back is not – go figure). It is pretty simple to work out what does what by turning and listening, in fact maybe more fun that way… (and also the above youtube demo features a unit with English labelling)

The unit is in good condition with only very minor scuffs to the casing and one small dent at the top of the front panel (see photographs). It is in good working order – please note that there may be some crackle from a couple of pots here and there – but nothing that affects pots you may wish to twiddle while playing – this can be cleared by use or with switch cleaner.

This is a Japanese model so 100/110v – it will need a step down transformer for use in UK/EU. We can supply high quality UK-made transformers if required – contact us for prices