chromaticblues
1199 posts
Mar 27, 2012
8:50 AM
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Someone gave me a mid 60's Fender echo reverb unit. I guess these are called oil can units. I know absolutly nothing about these! Does anyone here have one or had one or ever play through one?
Anything? This needs work and I'm just curious whether it's worth it or not.
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HawkeyeKane
809 posts
Mar 27, 2012
10:32 AM
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If this is what you're talking about, then no I haven't, and I haven't heard any harp player blow through one either.
But there is an old school blues guitar player I know in the next county who has one. He uses it with his 5F10 Harvard and his ES-175. It sounds pretty tasty with the guitar, but it's hard for me to say whether it'd be a good harp device or not. However, I have read that the Tel-Ray technology in it is damn near impossible to fix if it goes south.
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Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Mar 27, 2012 10:59 AM
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chromaticblues
1200 posts
Mar 28, 2012
5:12 AM
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Yes Hawkeye that is the same one.
It looks like nightmare inside! The guy that gave it me told me last night that it works just not very well. I told him I'm affaid to plug it in! Someone has worked there magic on it that should never work on electrical equipment and I know it will take alot of work and research to make it right. My question is: I just don't know if it would be worth the time and trouble.
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HawkeyeKane
810 posts
Mar 28, 2012
10:57 AM
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I saw one online that was going for $250. Minimal description on it said it was in excellent condition and it worked well. So if it were me, I'd set myself a limit of $250 and make a call on it depending on whether the estimate to fix it exceeded that or not. I'm guessing it only has a two-prong power cord? Maybe just try upgrading that to a three-prong supply and then try plugging it in with an amp you don't care too much about. Be a safer way of finding out how well it works.
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Hawkeye Kane
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chromaticblues
1201 posts
Mar 28, 2012
12:06 PM
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Your right it was never upgraded to a three prong chord. People call them oil can units and this one has no oil in it and the lid is only half on. It looks like someone tried to work on it and gave up.
I haven't been able to find any usefull information on it. I'm going to just leave it alone and keep researching. I thought for sure there would be someone that specializes in vintage outboard reverb and echo units.
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HawkeyeKane
811 posts
Mar 28, 2012
1:26 PM
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I found this post on a surf-rock guitar forum:
"This is a Tel-Ray oilcan effect. High-maintenance, and there's probably a dozen people on the face of the planet that actually know how to fix 'em when they die. Years ago I made a Tel-Ray website but it was a few computers ago and I can't remember the password to it anymore haha so it hasn't been updated in years.
http://www.geocities.com/tel_ray/
They are really cool and unique sounding effects when they work, but they sound nothing like spring reverb and are not really a sound you'd associate with surf. It would work REALLY well for Euro-instrumental stuff as it is an echo and not a reverb, it works for rockabilly too, but they are very limited in the sense that delay time is usually just a couple of presets that you can't adjust.
Also, the oil they run on (not a PCB carcinogen as some bozo spread all over the internet in the mid 90s when I was getting into these things...but not something you'd want to handle with bare hands and store in your home, either) requires a commercial license to purchase, and it ain't cheap, and you can only get it in big quantities. A buddy of mine had bought some and was selling $20 refill portions of it online through my site for a while but too many jackasses would complain that "the oil didn't work" when in fact a million other things were wrong with their Tel-Rays, so he decided it wasn't worth the effort."
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Hawkeye Kane
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