This space-saving echo delivers a digital version of the classic tape unit.
Immersive, lush delay textures that sound fantastic in small doses or super-wet settings. Clever consolidation of Space Echo controls. Fun to use. Sturdy.
No independent bass and treble settings.
$259
Boss RE-2 Space Echo
boss.info
As good as digital emulations are today, there’s not much engineers can do to approximate the tactile experience of interacting with vintage hardware. Few devices illustrate this divide quite as effectively as tape echoes. Take it from a masochist who knows—tape echoes are intrinsically infuriating machinery. They break often, sometimes spectacularly, always expensively, and generally at the most inconvenient possible time. Think of your most-disloyal-ever significant other: Chances are, your fave tape echo will beat them hands-down for unreliability.
The problem, as any experienced tape-echo user knows, is that these lumbering analog hulks are instruments in their own right—with functionality and feel that that can become foundational parts of a playing style not easily replicated in the digital domain. This is especially true for the original Roland RE-201 Space Echo. It invites on-the-fly tweaks ranging from playful polyrhythms to time-smearing, oscillating mayhem. Its capacity to double as a mix-stage instrument in the studio also makes it extra-invaluable to many player/recordists. And it’s pretty hard to replicate the intuitive, hands-on experience of working with its well-spaced knobs and their unique taper, layout, and sensitivity.
Boss’ RE-2 ambitiously attempts to distill the RE-201 experience into a compact digital format. But unlike the RE-20 pedal or the new RE-202, which utilize larger, more full-featured layouts that approximate some interactive thrills of the RE-201, the RE-2 fits all that functionality into a standard-sized Boss enclosure. Inevitably, that requires a hidden function or two—like the digital preamp and twist functions, and the assignment of (optional) expression pedal functions. But what Boss accomplished here in terms of delivering a Space Echo vibe in a pedal for space-conscious players is impressive. And in practice, it’s a fun and inspiring unit.
Seriously Stuffed!
One great thing about any Boss pedal is the seared-in-the-prefrontal-cortex familiarity of the form. It enables you to approach any compact Boss pedal with a lot more confidence. That sense of assuredness comes in handy with the RE-2 because there are a fair number of controls to manage. Packing that many control options into such a small space is not an enviable task. But Boss, to their credit, made the essentials—reverb, echo volume, intensity (repeats), tone, repeat rate, and a wow and flutter control—easily accessible via clever concentric knobs. The critical 11-position mode knob is vague and hard to read in low light, though. So, you’ll probably want to keep a printed copy of the head-combination matrix handy—or just navigate the multi-head sounds by feel.
Space constraints mean that some classic Space Echo features are hidden or consolidated into simpler controls. The very flexible bass and treble controls on an original (and the RE-20 and RE-202) become a single, if effective, tone control here. And the instrument-volume preamp control is a fixed analog preamp emulation option that, nonetheless, adds a discernible element of warm saturation.
Putting Heads Together
Much of the Space Echo’s allure is down to the painterly way you interact with it. And despite the RE-2’s size, you can still get pretty creative on the fly. With the pedal’s three virtual heads, it’s easy to create complex rhythmic textures that don’t collapse into a chaotic, odd-metered, miasmatic mess. The tap-tempo function adds a measure of additional control. It’s fun exploring these compound echoes, even if they lack some of the hiccup-y, polyrhythmic potential of virtual tape echoes with more playback “heads.”
Some players ignore the original RE-201’s spring reverb. But for this reviewer, it’s an essential part of the Space Echo sound that I love using on its own. It’s represented on the RE-2 by a nice spring emulation that complements the echoes in seamless fashion. Although it doesn’t have quite the character of the RE-201’s spring, it still sounds cool by itself.
The Verdict
Fitting all the functionality and feel of a Space Echo in a compact Boss Pedal is impossible. But if you drop the comparisons to the RE-201, the RE-2 is an engaging, flexible, and very practical delay with a lot of personality. Delay-soaked settings sound beautiful, rich, and immersive. Even players that have never touched an original Space Echo will still find a lot of expressive potential and utility here. The fact that the RE-2 makes so much of the Space Echo’s essence accessible in a small pedal is no small victory. I suspect that even a lot of jaded Space Echo purists with an interest in downsizing will find reason to celebrate.
Boss RE-2 Space Echo Delay and Reverb Effects Pedal
The world-famous RE-201 Space Echo effect makes its return in compact-pedal form with the BOSS RE-2 Space Echo! Offering authentic multi-head tape echo effects with expanded delay times, the beloved spring reverb sound, and a ton of control over effects parameters, the RE-2 Space Echo sounds amazing with guitars and keyboards, as well as drum machines. An external footswitch/expression pedal input gives you creative hands-free control options, and the true stereo signal path is perfect for multi-amp rigs and studio mixing applications.
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Create, layer, and jam with the BOSS RC-1 Loop Station and BIC cable! Enter the I Love Pedals giveaway now and come back daily to increase your odds!
Boss RC-1 Loop Station Looper Pedal
The RC-1 Loop Station is the most intuitive looper pedal from BOSS. Its compact layout provides all the essential functions—record, playback, overdub, and undo/redo—encouraging instant creativity right out of the box.
The BIC 10-A cable from BOSS delivers uncompromising performance that faithfully transfers every nuance of tone and adds a vibrant touch with color options inspired by the brand's most iconic compact pedals.
The National New Yorker lived at the forefront of the emerging electric guitar industry, and in Memphis Minnie’s hands, it came alive.
This National electric is just the tip of the iceberg of electric guitar history.
On a summer day in 1897, a girl named Lizzie Douglas was born on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi, the first of 13 siblings. When she was seven, her family moved closer to Memphis, Tennessee, and little Lizzie took up the banjo. Banjo led to guitar, guitar led to gigs, and gigs led to dreams. She was a prodigious talent, and “Kid” Douglas ran away from home to play for tips on Beale Street when she was just a teenager. She began touring around the South, adopted the moniker Memphis Minnie, and eventually joined the circus for a few years.
(Are you not totally intrigued by the story of this incredible woman? Why did she run away from home? Why did she fall in love with the guitar? We haven’t even touched on how remarkable her songwriting is. This is a singular pioneer of guitar history, and we beseech you to read Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie’s Blues by Beth and Paul Garon.)
Following the end of World War I, Hawaiian music enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity. On their travels around the U.S., musicians like Sol Ho’opi’i became fans of Louis Armstrong and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, leading to a great cross-pollination of Hawaiian music with jazz and blues. This potent combination proved popular and drew ever-larger audiences, which created a significant problem: How on earth would an audience of thousands hear the sound from a wimpy little acoustic guitar?
This art deco pickguard offers just a bit of pizzazz to an otherwise demure instrument.
In the late 1920s, George Beauchamp, John and Rudy Dopyera, Adolph Rickenbacker, and John Dopyera’s nephew Paul Barth endeavored to answer that question with a mechanically amplified guitar. Working together under Beauchamp and John Dopyera’s National String Instrument Corporation, they designed the first resonator guitar, which, like a Victrola, used a cone-shaped resonator built into the guitar to amplify the sound. It was definitely louder, but not quite loud enough—especially for the Hawaiian slide musicians. With the guitars laid on their laps, much of the sound projected straight up at the ceiling instead of toward the audience.
Barth and Beauchamp tackled this problem in the 1930s by designing a magnetic pickup, and Rickenbacker installed it in the first commercially successful electric instrument: a lap-steel guitar known affectionately as the “Frying Pan” due to its distinctive shape. Suddenly, any stringed instrument could be as loud as your amplifier allowed, setting off a flurry of innovation. Electric guitars were born!
“At the time it was positively futuristic, with its lack of f-holes and way-cool art deco design on the pickup.”
By this time, Memphis Minnie was a bona fide star. She recorded for Columbia, Vocalion, and Decca Records. Her song “Bumble Bee,” featuring her driving guitar technique, became hugely popular and earned her a new nickname: the Queen of Country Blues. She was officially royalty, and her subjects needed to hear her game-changing playing. This is where she crossed paths with our old pals over at National.
National and other companies began adding pickups to so-called Spanish guitars, which they naturally called “Electric Spanish.” (This term was famously abbreviated ES by the Gibson Guitar Corporation and used as a prefix on a wide variety of models.) In 1935, National made its first Electric Spanish guitar, renamed the New Yorker three years later. By today’s standards, it’s modestly appointed. At the time it was positively futuristic, with its lack of f-holes and way-cool art deco design on the pickup.
There’s buckle rash and the finish on the back of the neck is rubbed clean off in spots, but that just goes to show how well-loved this guitar has been.
Memphis Minnie had finally found an axe fit for a Queen. She was among the first blues guitarists to go electric, and the New Yorker fueled her already-upward trajectory. She recorded over 200 songs in her 25-year career, cementing her and the National New Yorker’s place in musical history.
Our National New Yorker was made in 1939 and shows perfect play wear as far as we’re concerned. Sure, there’s buckle rash and the finish on the back of the neck is rubbed clean off in spots, but structurally, this guitar is in great shape. It’s easy to imagine this guitar was lovingly wiped down each time it was put back in the case.
There’s magic in this guitar, y’all. Every time we pick it up, we can feel Memphis Minnie’s spirit enter the room. This guitar sounds fearless. It’s a survivor. This is a guitar that could inspire you to run away and join the circus, transcend genre and gender, and leave your own mark on music history. As a guitar store, watching guitars pass from musician to musician gives us a beautiful physical reminder of how history moves through generations. We can’t wait to see who joins this guitar’s remarkable legacy.
SOURCES: blackpast.org, nps.gov, worldmusic.net, historylink.org, Memphis Music Hall of Fame, “Memphis Minnie’s ‘Scientific Sound’: Afro-Sonic Modernity and the Jukebox Era of the Blues” from American Quarterly, “The History of the Development of Electric Stringed Musical Instruments” by Stephen Errede, Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL.
In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.
Featuring torrefied solid Sitka Spruce tops, mahogany neck, back, and sides, and Fishman Presys VT EQ System, these guitars are designed to deliver quality tone and playability at an affordable price point.
Cort Guitars, acclaimed for creating instruments that exceed in value and quality, introduces the Essence Series. This stunning set of acoustic guitars is designed for musicians looking for the quintessential classic acoustic guitar with fabulous tone all at an exceptional price point. The Essence Series features two distinct body shapes: The Grand Auditorium and the OM Cutaway. Whatever the flavor, the Essence Series has the style to suit.
The Essence-GA-4 is the perfect Grand Auditorium acoustic. Wider than a dreadnought, the Essence-GA-4 features a deep body with a narrower waist and a width of 1 ¾” (45mm) at the nut. The result is an instrument that is ideal for any number of playing styles: Picking… strumming… the Essence GA-4 is completely up for the task.
The Essence-OM-4 features a shallower body creating a closer connection to the player allowing for ease of use on stage. With its 1 11/16’th (43mm) nut width, this Orchestra Model is great for fingerpickers or singer/guitarists looking for better body contact for an overall better playing experience.
Both acoustics are topped with a torrefied solid Sitka Spruce top using Cort’s ATV process. The ATV process or “Aged to Vintage”, “ages” the Spruce top to give it the big and open tone of older, highly-sought-after acoustics. To further enhance those vintage tones, the tops bracing is also made of torrefied spruce. The mahogany neck, back, and sides create a warm, robust midrange and bright highs. A rosewood fingerboard and bridge add for a more balanced sound and sustain. The result is amazing tone at first strum. 18:1 Vintage Open Gear Tuners on the mahogany headstock offer precise tuning with vintage styling. The herringbone rosette & purfling accentuates the aesthetics of these instruments adding to their appeal. Both acoustics come in two choices of finish. Natural Semi-Gloss allows the Sitka spruce’s natural beauty to shine through and classic Black Top Semi-Gloss.
A Fishman® Presys VT EQ System is installed inside the body versus other systems that cut into the body to be installed. This means the instrument keeps its natural resonance and acoustic flair. The Presys VT EQ System keeps it simple with only Volume and Tone controls resulting in a true, crisp acoustic sound. Lastly, Elixir® Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze Light .012-.053 Acoustic Strings round out these acoustics. This Number 1 acoustic guitar string delivers consistent performance and extended tone life with phosphor bronze sparkle and warmth. The Essence Series takes all these elements, combines them, and exceeds in playability, looks, and affordability.
Street Price: $449.00
For more information, please visit cortguitars.com.