Strymon El Capistan

If you want a tape delay there are a couple of options... the real deal or this. This is zero hassle. Tape is a nightmare. Believe me I had a Space Echo, a Watkins CopyCat and way back a unit that used a small 'cassette' type tape, who's name I can't remember, and probably just as well! It was dire.

With the El Capistan you can get some super lush sounds. All completely tailored to what you need. And no repairs or tape requirements. It is a joy.

I'm personally using it to feed into a Strymon Bluesky to get drifty ambient tones and sound on sound loops - a bit like Frippertronics.

The standard delays are great though and very versatile - but I am a fan of the long delays available with the sound on sound feature: up to 20 seconds before the repeats come back, slightly or radically degraded. Sweet and rocks my boat.

Overall, top quality product with no compromises in engineering. Solid. Gig worthy and ready.

This unit has not only changed my overall guitar sound but the way i play as well.
It is feature rich and extremely versatile. Aside from Time, repeats and Mix, the "tape age" dial controls the tone allowing for bright digital delay sounds to very dark/warm analogue delay while the wow & flutter dial allows you to recreate the deliciously manky sound of a worn and loose tape. The tape head switch gives the option to select between fixed(16th, 8th, and 4th notes), multi(creates the sound of using different combinations of tape heads:1+2,1+3,2+3 - I understand only vaguely how this is working but it sounds great and quite different from the fixed mode), and Single. I haven't used the Single option much but the "C" setting provides a loop function; tap to start the loop tap again to start a second loop, hold down to clear the loop. I found this to be quite messy when performing but it does allow you to harmonize with yourself quite nicely and i can accede to the messiness being down to unfamiliarity with the unit.
There is a second set of controls that are accessed by holding down both footswitches; the time dial controls the units reverb feature in this setting. I haven't used many of the other hidden controls yet but will no doubt experiment some more in the future.
If i lost this i would seek counselling and, when i had dealt with the loss, buy another one. If it was stolen i would form a vigilant death squad to get it back.
If i had an underground bunker stocked with provisions to weather the Apocalypse the El Capistan would be the third thing to go into the supply cache; after my guitar and amp and before water.

This product is for sure great in all aspects BUT...
The sound remains a bit cold overall in my opinion. Maybe it has to do with the internal eq of this pedal. I play mainly Jazz related music and the sound I am able to obtain so far is more fitting a more modern-jazz/ contemporary sound. It sounds good on my ES-335 in that context but on my hollow-body Sadowsky guitar it doesn't do favor to the guitar.
I have used several similar compatible pedals over the years and could somehow get a more warm sound out of them. I am still looking for that 'sweet spot' after 1 year and haven't found it yet.
I'd say that this is perfect for a studio musician. If you are looking to add some warmth to your personal sound, I'd compare this pedal with other products.
I rate it 5 stars because of it's 'perfection' but if I was the manufacturer, I'd look for some options to warm up the sound, to make it suitable for a wider range of guitars.

Probably the best delay pedal I have ever used. I used one in the studio last year and was really impressed by a) the range of sounds you can get out of it and b) the overall sound quality, which is amazing, thanks to an incredibly powerful processor, which Strymon seem to use in most of their pedals, to do one thing really well. I just got one for gigging, and the compact design makes it easy to fit on any board.

The tape age/crinkle controls let you dial in anything from a pristine digital repeats to a degraded/in need of service atmospheric delay sound. The El Capistan is ideal if you want to create ambient/highly textured sounds. You can make it sound more like a reverb than a delay, and it actually has a built in spring reverb setting, which is one of the secondary functions that every dial has, accessed by holding down both foot switches while turning the dial. Every setting is very reactive, yet refined thanks to the high sound quality.

So many sound possibilities for a fairly simple interface. Best delay ever! Worth the cost, you really get a lot of quality for your money.

I have always been a fan of the 1960's tape and disk echoes. However, they are large, heavy and need a lot of upkeep. And I've always disliked the sound of digital delays, as they usually sound very too clean and clinical.

I love that the El Capistan has Tap-Tempo, and the pedal has a pretty small footprint, taking less space on my pedalboard. I also like that the most useful features are accessible right at your fingertips, and that the tweaking settings are easily accessed by the secondary functions.

If you are looking for a vintage sounded echo, with GOBS of MOJO, then this is your pedal. It has emulated the charm of a vintage tube-driven tape echo, with the size, reliability and price of a stomp box.

I give my new favourite pedal 5 Stars, as it ticks all the boxes. Don't settle for less!

The Strymon produces convincing tape tones, but without all the hassle that comes with an actual tape machine.

I had basically narrowed my choices to this Strymon and the Catalinbread Belle Epoch Deluxe. I preferred El Capistan for two reasons. Firstly, the Strymon does NOT include an EP3-like preamp. For me this was an advantage, since it means that you can use a separate Echoplex to colour your sound even if the delay is off.

Secondly, the ability to shape the sound is amazing. The El Capistan can convincingly recreate a new, brighter tape or an old and darker tape. And with much less maintenance and more consistency than real tape. Add options to mimic an imperfect tape or dirty machine, and this pedal certainly doesn’t sound sterile or "digital". I’ve never used actual tape, but owning this, I don’t feel the need to try either.

The many knobs and settings do take some time to get used to, but Strymon provides a detailed manual with examples settings to help you get started and understand what each dial is used for and how they interact.

After going through numerous different delay pedals (DL4, Hazarai, Aqua Puss etc) I ended up biting the bullet and pulling the trigger on an El Capistan and I'm very glad I did!

The options can appear overwhelming at first, especially if you're not familiar with the operation of real tape echo units, but after a bit of time immersing yourself with the pedal it becomes quite easy to dial in the sound you are looking for. Saying that, I've found a couple of settings that I tend to use 99% of the time and just use the tap tempo option.

There are a second bank of options that you need to press both pedals simultaneously to access but again these are 'set and forget' in most scenarios. The trails option is a very nice feature also although this takes the pedal out of true bypass mode - however, the buffer is very good in Strymon pedals so this isn't really an issue.

The MKII units (the ones Thomann stock) also have the ability to accept a TRS input via an internal switch - you just need to remove 4 screws and pop the back off, only takes a couple of minutes.

As with all Strymon pedals I've used, the build quality is fantastic.

I am using the pedal mainly with a Fender 57 Custom Champ (which does not have an FX loop) and I am satisfied with the overall sound created by the pedal. I encountered no issues with using the pedal in front of the amplifier. What I found very useful is the built-in spring reverb functionality of the pedal, which allows me to use only one pedal with my amp if I only intend to play clean.
The production quality is very good, as is usual for strymon.
The handling of the pedal can be learned very quickly.
I recommend the pedal to anyone who is looking for a vintage sounding tape echo pedal (with the basic options) that is easy to use.