To get acquainted with your new Belle Epoch, let’s first plug it in by itself, without your other pedals. Start off with a
clean sound from your amp.
Set the Mix to noon, the Echo Sustain and Sway/Mod at minimum, and the delay time, Echo Delay, anywhere you
like. Now play and try various settings on the Tone/Record Level knob. Notice when set low the repeat is very wispy
and quiet and when set high it is very dense and loud with a bit of gritty distortion. You’ll come to appreciate this
control the more you get to know your Belle Epoch. You can set your echoes for background ambience or you can
set them to be loud, punchy, and in your face. This is much more effective than a simple traditional “tone” knob and
is exclusive to the Belle Epoch.
Now explore the Echo Sustain knob. In the first half of its rotation, you’ll get a fixed number of repeats with a
perfect decay. Then around 1:00 to 2:00 you can dial it in so that the repeats go on almost indefinitely without
building up. Beyond that point and you’ve entered the self-oscillation zone! Now start twisting the Echo Delay knob
to really start having some fun. But beware! It might get loud! Turn the Mix control down to avoid exploding your
amp or to avoid getting an eviction notice!
Now dial in a bit of Sway/Mod and listen to the random tape warble on the echoes. A little dab will do ya with this
control! Try setting the Mix control all the way down so you only hear the dry signal and compare the sound and
touch-sensitivity with the pedal on and off. You may decide you always want it on! You can turn the Mix control all
the way up to hear the echo signal only too.
This may be all you need to get up and running but do come back and read the rest of this guide to get more
insight into the fabulous Belle Epoch!
• The Echo Delay control “lags” just like the slider on the Echoplex! When you turn it the delay time takes a
moment to “catch up”. When doing self-oscillation soundscapes, this gives you a totally realistic and authentic
Echoplex response! It really feels like you’re moving a tape head laterally across the tape instead of merely
rotating a knob!
• We paid close attention to the sweep of the Echo Sustain (repeats) control, going from a single repeat all the
way to self-oscillation madness. There is a wide sweet spot for dialing in repeats that can float without building
up into self-oscillation. You’ll find the sweep of this control allows you to get the echo sustain sound you’re
going for quickly.
• The Sway/Mod (mod?) control allows you to adjust the amount of random wow and flutter characteristics on
the
repeats.
• We reproduced the behavior of the EP-3’s Record Level control with the Tone/Record Level control. You can go
from light and airy repeats all the way to thick and grungy repeats. This knob essentially gives you control over
that all important first repeat - it can be thin and quiet, great for adding ambience without the echoes stepping
on your dry signal or it can be big and gritty, louder and dirtier than your dry signal, great for rhythmic echo
solos.
• The Mix control uses authentic EP-3 mixing circuitry to go from totally dry to totally wet. This is the same as the
“Echo Volume” control on the EP-3.
• An internal trimpot allows you to preset the Belle Epoch’s gain and volume, from unity all the way to an incred-
ible, loud, fuzzy boost. Hit your amp hard if you want for amazing saturation from the discrete preamp.
