Boss releases the RE-202 Space Echo pedal

February 1, 2023 · 4 sources

The Boss RE-202 Space Echo is available now for $399.99, alongside the compact RE-2 at $249.99¹. Boss, which MusicRadar describes as the offspring of Roland, presented the RE-202 as an advanced recreation of the sound of the RE-201 Space Echo of the 1970s and 1980s, with three footswitches and extended features¹. Roland introduced the original RE-201 in 1974²³.

The RE-202 carries the controls of the original with a 12-position mode selector¹. It adds a fourth virtual tape head that Boss says unlocks five additional sound combinations, twice the delay time of the original, tap tempo and memories for saving presets¹. Guitar Player reports 127 presets can be saved in the pedal, reached over MIDI in and out via Boss TRS/MIDI cables sold separately³. The pedal has true stereo inputs and outputs, with a switch for guitar- or line-level signals, and the dry signal can be muted for parallel setups and recording³¹. A saturation control adds tape-like compression and preamp coloration, and a switch selects new or aged tape conditions³.

Guitar Player lists the RE-202's controls as saturation, wow and flutter, mode, bass, treble, reverb volume, repeat rate, intensity and echo volume, with footswitches for on-off/Warp, memory/reverb on-off and tap tempo/Twist³. The review calls the pedal too large for some pedalboards⁴.

Guitar World, in a guide published on 7 February 2023, called the RE-202 "newly released" and described it as designed to recreate the original RE-201⁴. That date follows MusicRadar's 24 March 2022 report that both pedals were available¹.