Unsolicited Review of the BOSS RE-20 Space Echo
In the late 90s a friend lent me a Roland 201 Space echo. I had it in my possession for quite some time. Maybe 8 months or so. I was doing a lot of home recording back then and got to know it quite well. When I returned it I replaced it with a BOSS DM-2 that is still on my board.
The DM-2 really is worth all the hype it gets. It’s an incredibly warm and tape-y sounding pedal and it has gotten a TON of use in my live and recording applications. Recently I found myself pining for that old space echo sound and started checking them out online. I quickly learned that the going rate for a Roland RE-201 Space echo is somewhere north of what I could justify spending on one. Not to mention the cost associated with keeping one up and running. I turned my focus to emulation pedals.
The Boss RE-20 won me over immediately with it’s physical appearance. It definitely captures the esthetics of the 201 with its control layout and color scheme. After a little more poking around and listening to demos I decided to take the plunge.
I have to say this pedal has surpassed my expectations by quite a wide margin. Far too much time has passed for me to be completely objective in comparing the RE-20 with the 201 but I will say that my initial thoughts were – and still are – that the RE-20 doesn’t quite nail the essence of the 201. There is some magic in hearing a guitar coming off magnetic tape that I don’t think will ever be matched completely by emulators. I still recall recording my guitar directly into my brother’s Pioneer reel to reel and being astounded by the tone and 3-d quality of what came back. Any machine with this at its heart is going to be hard if not impossible to beat.
That said, the RE-20 is VERY warm and analogue sounding. Next to my DM-2 it’s a little clearer and more detailed but it’s nearly as warm. Using the tone controls on the RE-20 to add a little bass and roll off a little treble I can get remarkably close to matching the tone of the DM-2. The tape head responses of the Re-20 are very close to those of the 201 as I remember them – it’s just that the RE-20 lacks the depth, warmth and roundness of the real deal.
What I really like about the RE-20 is that it reminds me of so many vintage BBD-based analogue guitar delays. At certain settings the unit’s delays harken back to those old green MXR and blue DOD pedals (the ones with the AC switches and power cords) and many of the other old analogue desktop/rack units of the 70s/80s.
The pedal feels very analogue in its operation too. The way the controls are laid out and the way they operate is very old school and it really is like having a few new/old analogue delays to mess with.
While I don’t feel it quite captures the magic of the 201 super closely, it does cop the somewhat cheesy (and cool) essence of some of those cheap cassette-based echo machines of the 70s that I remember so fondly. The reverb on the RE-20 is pretty trashy and if you dial a little of that in with some medium length echos you can get that cool shrieking seagull sound that the old Univox EC100s used to produce. It’s pretty awesome.
Outside of the BOSS TU-3 tuner I picked up a few years ago The RE-20 is one of the only band new pedals I’ve purchased in EONS. There’s definitely some music in the pedal and I’m already working on some parts for some spacey instrumental soundtrack-y stuff that I’ve been recording.
Four Stars!