|
|
 |
1970's Watkins Copicat MK III Solidstate
Year: 1970's
Brand: Watkins
Model: Copicat MK III Solidstate
Class: Echo-Delay
Owner: Chris Rasco
     
The Watkins MK III Copicat tape echo was the first solidstate unit. When I hooked this one up, there was no echo at all. These are generally reliable units, but once the caps begin to fail this through the bias frequency off and there will be no echo.
2022-10-25: After a good cleaning an lubrication, everything was moving. I lapped the heads with 1000 wet paper to remove light corrosion, cleaned and polished them, and built a new loop for testing. The three play heads were working, but the unit was not delivering any guitar echo. The sustain control appears to have no effect, swell seems to work as it should. Will replace the on board caps and retest.
2022-10-27: I replaced all of the electrolytic caps. After that the echo began working, but very distorted and the sustain has almost no effect. I'm working on ordering the correct loops as I am testing with one I made. While waiting I'm going to check the polystyrene caps in the oscillator circuit.
2022-11-04: I found a broken circuit trace while troubleshooting the sustain function, repairing this fixed the sustain. I also replaced the two 1600uf 64 volt caps in the main power supply with four 1000uf 63v caps. The unit is much more quiet. I changed the cord to a standard IEC plug in the back of the unit. I also added 1/4 jack to the back for the foot pedal and main output. The foot pedal jack can also be utilized as a wet output. After installing the correct WEM tape loops, the fidelity is much better than my DIY test loop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © HewittsGarageStudio.com, all rights reserved |
|
| | 
