Electro Harmonix Adrian Belew Echoflanger Limited Edition

General

Adrian Belew is not just any guitarist with a flair for unusual sounds. After his time with Frank Zappa and David Bowie, he collaborated with the Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club, and during those years he discovered the EHX Echoflanger as an integral part of his signal chain. With this little box, he managed to create sounds that no one else had thought of: the steel drum guitar in “Genius of Love”, the elephant in King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk” and the rhinoceros in his own “The Lone Rhinoceros”. The Echoflanger later appeared under other names such as Polyflange and Polychorus, but the original remained his secret weapon for years.

Extra modes

This limited-edition reissue combines the original functionality with slightly more modern technology and two extra modes. In addition to the classic Filter Matrix, Flange, Chorus and Slap Back modes, there are now also Slap Back + Filter Matrix and the Flange + Chorus combination, based on the intermediate setting that Belew himself once discovered on his vintage unit. From a crisp comb filter with a metallic ‘chime’ sound to floating chorus and flanger tones and short reverberating echoes: the Echoflanger offers a wide range of modulation effects, with the ability to go beyond the usual via the feedback control, right up to self-oscillating sirens and rumbling sounds.

Easy to set up

The Feedback, Rate, Width and Tune controls let you precisely adjust how strong, fast and wide the modulation sounds and where the centre of the sweep lies, whilst Volume controls the output level. The Blend switch on the rear panel determines whether the dry signal is blended in for recognisable chorus and flanger sounds, or omitted for a more pronounced vibrato-like tone. Thanks to its stereo outputs and true bypass with mechanical relays, the Echoflanger fits just as well into an extensive stereo setup as it does on a simple mono pedalboard, and the included mains adaptor ensures you can get started straight away.