SIB Echodrive clone: has anyone ever made one?

[ibarakishi]

Has anyone ever traced a red SIB Echodrive on here or elsewhere? Always wanted to try one but didn't know if anyone makes them or could make/trace them. They seem to sound amazing on just about anything that is plucked or bowed, but cost crazy money due to entering cult status for whatever reason.

[digi2t]

From a gutshots view, it looks to be a PT2395 delay with a 12AX7 buffer. Could be more, could be less. If anyone has one to lend us for a trace, we'd be down for that. Unless we find one for sale dirt cheap.

[ibarakishi]

From a gutshots view, it looks to be a PT2395 delay with a 12AX7 buffer. Could be more, could be less. If anyone has one to lend us for a trace, we'd be down for that. Unless we find one for sale dirt cheap.

If anyone has insight to help or add further info, it would be great. Ive seen other pedals that seem to do similar things from way back like Echo Nugget, etc. but again, crazy prices that im just not understanding other than "X person plays one so we know you will pay this for it" mentality. If they are not a pain to build and not too out there for price, then i would really like to try one and am sure a few others on here would probably be interested as well if making them in a batch would help anything.

also can't remember what the delay times were on for the echodrives, but if i remember right they were a bit longer than what ones that followed offered as well. could be off on that though, haven't looked in a long while

[ibarakishi]

surprises me no one here has access to one of these to take some photos or open one up

[Jero]

Pulled from TGP "...PM starfish for the schematic, or do a search through his posts/for echodrive..." this was from several years back however

I'm pretty shocked there isn't anything about these on diystomp

[ibarakishi]

i don't have an account on either site, do you Jero? I found some posts on TGP of the user 'starfish' talking about the echodrive but its from way back in the late 2000's like you said, so i don't know how useful thats going to be. He seems to have been active up until around 2017 maybe? at least from what im seeing. i can make and account and try to contact people over there to bring information over here on ilf if that helps. it surprises me no one here has either a blue or red one. would be really interested in either honestly

[ibarakishi]

also found this on the sib facebook page, the owner posted this photo of the guts open. sorry for size. not a great photo, but something nonetheless:

[ibarakishi]

here is another photo in a white enclousure found on the facebook page:

[ibarakishi]

here is another of the guts being populated:

[ibarakishi]

and finally one in a green enclosure guts:

[imJonWain]

Well just from the images posted there were two revisions that had different delay circuits and probably had other differences. The 2x MN3005 version would have a much shorter max possible delay vs the PT2395 version but maybe the PT2395 was setup for a shorter delay range?

I would assume based on the PCB layout the MN3005 version was first and they switched to the PT2395at some point since it looks easier to build. It'd be neat to trace the circuit.

[imJonWain]

Well just from the images posted there were two revisions that had different delay circuits and probably had other differences. The 2x MN3005 version would have a much shorter max possible delay vs the PT2395 version but maybe the PT2395 was setup for a shorter delay range?

I would assume based on the PCB layout the MN3005 version was first and they switched to the PT2395at some point since it looks easier to build. It'd be neat to trace the circuit.

[ibarakishi]

from what i understood a long time ago (but have no idea how it progressed and possibly changed over time) the blue ones were BBD based, and the red ones were PT2399. If i remember right they both shared the same tube preamp stage, was just the delay that was different. don't remember exact times, etc. for delay time. but i could have that all wrong, as its just what i remember from years ago. the red ones are the only ones i know from recordings i really enjoy (and seem to take distortion/drives well) while the blue ones i am not really familiar with how they sound from recordings/albums other than random youtube videos. Would really be interested in either one, both seem to have a strong following for their own reasons

[ibarakishi]

i would just buy one to have somebody rip apart and trace for everyone, but with prices on reverb/ebay going upwards of a thousand usd and actual prices from sib before they dropped off the planet being around 7 or 8 hundred usd for a single echodrive, its not going to happen anytime soon. they don't seem overly complex from what little i can tell

[imJonWain]

I don't think so either. It's got a 12.6V transformer so ~16VDC rectified for Vcc. 12ax7 heaters possibly on 12.6VAC in series or maybe on DC, I see a voltage regulator or similar on the left as well as a bridge rectifier and they don't look connected on the DC sides. I'd guess the delay section is a standard affair and is in between a tube input stage and output stage with a clean/non-delay mix in parallel. So possibly a Valvecaster type circuit with a delay between the stages.

As cool as it'd be to pick one up and put the schematic out there with what these sell for it's easier for someone who wants to sell PCBs to justify it. I have no idea if these actually sell for what people are trying to get for them though?

Are any of the other SIB circuits interesting?