Foxgear Steve Lukather Echosex 3

The Foxgear Steve Lukather Echosex 3 is a signature delay pedal that emulates the vintage Binson Echorec echo unit, the magnetic-disk echo machine made famous in the 1960s. It was released in 2023 as a 10th Anniversary Edition, built around the multi-awarded Echosex line that Foxgear (with its Italian design roots at Gurus) has made since 2014¹². Steve Lukather of Toto has used variations of the Echosex since the line first launched, in the studio and live, with Toto and with Ringo Starr, touring worldwide¹.

What sets the pedal apart is its front end: a hi-voltage tube preamp section that Foxgear says faithfully reproduces the Binson Echorec preamp¹. The signal path is 100% analog, and the power section was wholly redesigned so the internal tube runs at 262V, the same territory as the old Binson Echorec units²³.

An Echorec-style delay with a tube preamp

The Echosex line exists to capture what a Binson Echorec did: warm, vintage echoes from a disk-based machine rather than a tape loop. Guitar World describes the Lukather signature as "an emulator (and then some) of a vintage Binson Echorec echo unit"². Where the original Echorec offered multiple playback heads, the Echosex 3 takes a simpler approach, simulating one Echorec playback head whose delay time can be adjusted¹.

The Echo control sets the delay time from 35ms to 730ms². That range covers the ground a player would want from an Echorec-style unit:

• Short settings, around 35ms, give the quick slapback echo suited to rhythmic shuffles.
• Longer settings, up to 730ms, provide the extended repeats used for lead playing.

MusicRadar's review found that spread practical, writing that "whether you want short slapbacks for rhythmic shuffles or longer delays for soaring leads, this will cover nearly all bases well"³.

The tube preamp is the other half of the design. Foxgear describes it as a hi-voltage tube preamp section faithfully reproducing the Binson Echorec preamp¹, and the redesigned power section runs that internal tube at 262V, matching the operating voltage of the old Binson units². For a player, that means the pedal colors the signal even at short delay times, in the way an Echorec's preamp did, rather than acting as a clean digital delay.

The Lukather signature and the 10th anniversary edition

The Echosex line dates to 2014, and for its tenth anniversary Foxgear decided to mark the occasion with a signature pedal¹. On the choice of artist, the company's own account is direct: "It made perfect sense for us to produce a signature version for the Echosex 2 and the first name that came to us is Mr. Steve Lukather"⁴. The result is the Echosex 3, a 10th Anniversary Edition built on the Echosex 2, with Lukather's settings marked on the pedal²⁴.

The signature edition was released in 2023 as a 10th anniversary edition. Gurus said it "made perfect sense for us to produce a signature version for the Echosex 2," and the first name that came to them was Steve Lukather's¹²⁴.

How Steve Lukather uses the Echosex

Lukather's association with the line goes back to its start. He has used variations of the Echosex ever since it was first launched in 2014², and Foxgear notes that since then he has used it on all of his songs in the studio and live, with Toto and Ringo Starr, touring intensively around the world¹. The endorsement predates the signature pedal: Gurus Amps said back in 2017 that Lukather used the Echosex 2° T7E for all of his soloing parts⁵. He has also used the compact Echosex Baby in the past³.

By the time of the signature edition, the pedal had become a permanent fixture rather than an effect he switches in and out. Lukather describes it as always on and a big part of his sound¹².

How it differs from the other Echosex pedals

The Echosex family spans several formats, and the differences matter if you are comparing them:

The Echosex Baby is the tubeless option: its preamp uses a Class A FET designed to reproduce tube behavior, without the tube of the larger Echosex⁶. Pedal of the Day found it delivered the same kind of warm, classic vintage echoes in a smaller box⁶. The Lukather Echosex 3 sits at the other end: full-size, tube-driven at Echorec voltage, with the anniversary redesign and the signature artist's settings printed on the enclosure.

Questions