Gurus Amps Echosex 2

The Gurus Amps Echosex 2 is an echo delay pedal that recreates the Binson Echorec, the vintage Italian echo machine that used a rotating magnetic drum instead of tape to produce its repeats¹²³. Where a tape echo drags tape past heads, the Echorec recorded to and played back from a metal drum, and the Echosex 2 brings that design into a pedalboard-sized box. Pedal of the Day called it "an incredible recreation of one of the most famous echo units ever created, the Binson Echorec"¹.

Gurus' stated goal for the project was to create an alternative to buying an old, expensive, unreliable and very rare original unit, while keeping the musicality and creativity of the old Binson Echorec 2° intact⁴. Development took more than a year, during which Gurus measured, tested and compared the pedal against more than 20 real vintage units⁴.

What it is based on

The original Binson Echorec was an early Italian-made echo machine that used a magnetic drum instead of tape². Binson produced several iterations over the years, including the Echorec 2, the Echorec Baby, and eventually six-head solid state models⁸, and the Echorec 2 was also sold under other names, including Sound City Echo⁹. On That Pedal Show, Dan and Mick described the Echorec as "an analogue magnetic drum echo unit (as opposed to tape), made by Italian company, Binson"¹⁰.

The Echosex 2 carries over the features and controls of the original Binson Echorec 2° T7E model¹¹⁴. Gurus positioned it as a way to get that sound without hunting down and maintaining a rare vintage unit. The pedal sits alongside other Echorec-inspired pedals on the market, such as the T-Rex Binson Echorec, and Gurus later built on the same circuit with the compact Foxgear T7E Baby, which Guitar World's reviewer noted is based on the Gurus Echosex 2 T7E but loses that pedal's integral valve¹².

Volume, modes and the side dip switches

The Volume Echo knob sets the overall output volume when the Echosex is engaged¹. Beyond that, the pedal's head and mode controls shape the character of the repeats.

The three modes cover the main behaviors of the original drum echo: Echo for standard repeats, Repeat for self-oscillating style feedback, and Swell for a building wash of sound. Delicious Audio's buying guide describes the pedal as having "a full 4 Heads combination, stereo engine, and three modes (Echo, Repeat, and Swell)" plus the dedicated Swell footswitch¹³.

The four dip switches on the side give access to secondary settings¹:

• A factory setting
• An Effect Fade-Out setting
• A -10dB Tube Preamplifier setting, for use with keyboards, active pickups and more¹

Delay time and sound

The delay time range runs from 60ms up to 660ms¹. On the Echosex 2° T7E, the Motor Speed Adj feature lets players increase the overall delay time, reaching 740ms⁴. For comparison, Premier Guitar noted the 660 ms available on the Echosex 2 when reviewing the smaller Foxgear T7E Baby⁶⁴.

On how it sounds, Pedal of the Day's reviewer wrote:

The same reviewer found the unit to be "an excellent preamp" and praised its versatility, "making this unit excellent not just for guitar, but other instruments and studio work as well"¹.

Who makes it, and where it came from

The Echosex 2 is a Delay Echo effects guitar pedal made by Gurus Amps⁵¹. A 2019 UK review listed it at £329 GBP⁷. The Volume Echo knob sets the overall output volume when the Echosex is engaged, and four dip switches on the side enable further manipulation and characterization of the pedal¹. Gurus describes the pedal's sound as spaced-out, 3D and sci-fi¹.

The pedal has also been compared directly against the original hardware: That Pedal Show pitted a real Binson Echorec against Echorec-inspired pedals including the Echosex, with the vintage Echorec and the Echosex both loaned for the episode by Tony at Sound Gas¹⁰.

Questions