I love vintage gear, but the problem with vintage gear is that time passes it by and the new replaces the old. As demand fades so do resources for repair and replacement. Fortunately for lovers of old tube guitar amps there is sufficient demand for them that availability of tubes and transformers and other parts is ensured for some time to come.
Regarding vintage Echoplexes, it's a little more problematic because they are far more rare than guitar amps.
There seems to be sources for things like:
New heads
New motors
Pinch rollers
Belts
General electronic parts
There are numerous places you can get these parts for your Plex and also people who do repairs. Now I'm not advocating that you get spare heads and a spare motor, but I do think you should get a couple of belts, have your pinch roller rebuilt, and have two or three tape cartridges on hand.
Which brings me to...
Whats the deal with tape manufacturers?
Tape. Analog Magnetic Tape. To paraphrase Frank Zappa, tape isn't dead, but it doesn't smell too good either. Without it, your Echoplex, or even a new Fulltone TTE for that matter, is just a 5 pound doorstop.
In 2005 Quantegy, the last remaining manufacturer of magnetic tape, shut down and for two years no new tape was made anywhere, which was bad news. Recently two new companies started up manufacturing tape, which is good news. RMG International, and ATR Magnetics. There is no way to tell how successful they will be or what prices will be like, or even if they are making tape that can be used in an Echoplex. I am working to find out. The sources I've listed on my links page for the lubricated tape I use don't indicate who was the original manufacturer. The two remaining Echoplex tape cartridge manufacturers, The late Mike Battle's Tubeplex and Mike Fuller won't reveal what brand or which formulation they use in their cartridges. You can't blame them, they're in business to sell tape cartridges, not support Do-It-Yourselfers that, well, want to do it themselves.
Which brings me to...
What Kind Of Tape To Use In Your Echoplex:
Here is a brief history lesson: Before the advent of digital recording the main recording media was magnetic tape. A need arose for a durable, reusable tape formulation that could be used by radio stations for endless tape cartridges, as well as mass produced popular music on cassettes and 8 track tapes. Compromises were made in fidelity to achieve long life, and the result was called lubricated tape. Not lubed as in WD-40, but a substance layered on top of the magnetic material of the tape itself to protect it and the head it passed over from wear. This is the kind of tape you should use in your Echoplex. You should NOT use mastering tape such as Ampex/Quantegy 456, even if you can find it, which is doubtful. Mastering tape is the highest fidelity tape formulation there is, but it is also the most abrasive. Some recording engineers have dubbed it "Sandpaper tape". In a master tape that is ok because it doesn't pass the heads that much during recording, but in an endless loop device like the Echoplex that is A Bad Thing.
Since I have no life, I did some calculations: The Echoplex runs at 3.75 inches per second. A two minute tape contains 37.5 feet. Running about an hour, the length of the average bar set, the tape will travel 1125 feet, almost a quarter of a mile. That means during the average three or four set gig about a mile of tape will have traveled along the tape path. That's a lot of contact between tape and head, and obviously proves that the least amount of abrasion is the most desirable, and that lubricated tape designed for endless loops is what you want.
I've said before, don't use vintage Echoplex cartridges filled with old tape, even if they are NOS. Tape deteriorates over the years, and even if it didn't the formulations used 30 years ago are decidedly inferior to modern tape. Keep the old cartridges, because they can be refilled.
Regarding cartridge availability, Mike Battle had been selling new cartridges for some years, but he recently passed away, and it is unclear weather his Tubeplex site will be selling parts or cartridges anymore. The Tubeplex cartridges are still being sold on Ebay, Antique Electronics, and other places, see the links on my main Plex page. Tony from Orbit Electronics has engineered a tape cartridge for the Echoplex made out of metal, it's pretty cool.
Click here to see why Mike Fuller only sells tapes to owners of his TTE.
So, what's a poor Plex owner to do?
This:
Buy as many new tape cartridges as you can afford.
Get your old cartridges refilled with new lubricated tape. There are several places that will refill old cartridges, I might start doing it myself.
Buy a couple of reels of the proper lubricated tape and learn to refill them yourself. An 1800 foot reel of tape will give you 48 two minute reloads.
Where to get tape:
Joa and The Cart Guys sell reels of lubricated tape. A bit pricey, but that's the law of supply and demand.
I found several cases of Fidelipac radio station endless loop cartridges at a local tape supply company at blow out prices. These contain the proper type of tape for your Echoplex. I've seen them on Ebay for reasonable prices, do a search on Fidelipac.
In a pinch, use tape from old 8 tracks. I've done this and it works. It's the right formulation, and that thrift store down the street from your house has a whole box full for fifty cents apiece. Look them over and reject the ones that are really worn, or contain disco music.
I've said in in these pages elsewhere, but it bears repeating here: Get your Plex biased to the new tape cartridge when you install it for the best fidelity. Once you do, unless you change tape formulations again you won't have to have the machine rebiased. See the main Plex page for links on how to do this.
A couple of final points:
You will get dissenting opinions about using mastering tape in your Echoplex. A lot, if not all the companies that do cartridge reloading will claim it's fine and will do no damage. I disagree, and I think my reasons are valid as stated above.
I'm not trying to scare anybody, and I don't think the end of the world is around the corner regarding Echoplexes. However it is a good idea to be prepared, and even if you eventually sell your Plex, the extra backup stuff will increase the resale value considerably over the other guy that is selling his old worn out EP-3 with the tangled up tape.
See my main Echoplex page for links to all that was discussed here.