Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

With a little cash left over from my birthday I decided I'd treat myself to a 70s solid state WEM Copicat.

My old man used to have one back in the day and spoke fondly of it and from the demos I've heard it sounds really cool, if slightly limited in scope. Also the fact it's only a mono effect makes it a bit different from the digital delays I'm used to.

So, anyone here used/own one? An earlier valve model? Or even just any old tape echo? Love to learn a little more about these devices as information regarding the Watkins Copicats in particular seems to be rather scarce on the Internet.

Since nobody seems to have one (or at least can be arsed to comment ) I've made a shitty little demo of the Copicat.

As expected it's noisy, there's wow and flutter (if you set the tape up incorrectly then it's really bad), the tape can get caught, cranking the feedback control distorts the signal etc. Basically it colours and mucks the audio up to quite an extent - obviously if you want transparency a digital delay is the way to go. It's also rather limited (3 delay times), but they are all useful and sound great so it's not really a deal breaker.

Finally mine is later solid-state model - no idea how the valve version fares.

Which model is it?

I've got the Guild model (iv). The plastic grills need replacing and case is a little beat up. But, it sounds great to me.

If you set up the tape wrong and use the third button, it distorts like mad, but doesn't have many echos. I've got an EC-80, EC-100 and the copi cat. The copi cat's my favorite.

I'll try to put up a little demo and pic of mine later tonight.

Sounds cool OJ-thanks for the demo... would it be possible to do another one (maybe with drums) that has feedback set to max? I've got a BBD pedal, and a early 12-bit delay unit which both have their unique feedback dampening sound, so I'd love to hear how the sound changes/dampens with tape...

With feedback maxed, it goes totally into oscillation and sonic inihillation. You wouldn't be able to tell what was what!

atkbg wrote:With feedback maxed, it goes totally into oscillation and sonic inihillation. You wouldn't be able to tell what was what!

erm... yeah, that's exactly why I want to hear it!

sonic inihillation, comin' up......
http://74.94.128.189/juno-cat.mp3

Juno6 arp, then I brought up the swell and sustain.

http://74.94.128.189/080124.mp3

A little thing I did a bit ago. kinda messy, but hey.

atkbg wrote:Which model is it?

I've got the Guild model (iv). The plastic grills need replacing and case is a little beat up. But, it sounds great to me.

It's a UK mkIV - so it's also solid-state like yours. In fact I believe it is completely identical except for the use of the Guild brand name that I assume was soley for the American market. Here's what my model looks like:



Again mine is a little beat up too but it still seems to be fully functional. Funnily enough I've seen both vavle and varispeed models of the Copicat sell for around the same as the solid-state one. Quite interesting that.

atkbg wrote:sonic inihillation, comin' up......
http://74.94.128.189/juno-cat.mp3

Juno6 arp, then I brought up the swell and sustain.

http://74.94.128.189/080124.mp3

A little thing I did a bit ago. kinda messy, but hey.

very cool! (tho I couldn't quite pick out the effect on the second example-I guess it was kind of in the background?)

Tape delays are the s**t! I have a Dynacord Super76 which is a tape delay and spring reverb in one box. It doesn't matter what I put through this thing it always sound lovely.
The first time I tried a tape delay it was a Copycat and I became addicted at once. Before that experience, a delay was just a delay to me.

Yeah. The on second example, it was used on the wurli and arp, just limited. I guess just showing that it can be used for distortion with a little reverb/echo.

OJ: Mine's just like that exept that it has Guild (and is deffinitly not in as good shape!)

Sexor wrote:Tape delays are the s**t! I have a Dynacord Super76 which is a tape delay and spring reverb in one box. It doesn't matter what I put through this thing it always sound lovely.

I've got the Super S65, which is lovely as well and full of fantastic tubes.

This site has a lot of info and introspect on the copicat.

http://www.amp-fix.com/copicat1.htm

Sounds nice that, OJ. Good acquisition. A friend of mine has been gigging with the same Marshall amps, Gibson 335 and WEM copicat for 3 or 4 decades. He loves them - says the tape echo is more than a little clunky now but has a sound nothing else really does. I have the RE-20, and it's very good, but not exactly the real thing.