What wonderful devices !!! I'm inspired to start hunting one down. Thanks so much for posting this very thorough and informative video.

yeah thanks for doing this video. i just found out this type of effect existed...what a unique sound even from model to model. i'd love to be able to make something like this. the guys who did should be proud as punch of themselves.

This was really great! Thank you so much for all the great information, I’d love to have one of these units, they sound so rich and full. This has really been such a great video, I never knew about these, you really open my eyes. Enjoyed seeing all the different units at the end, I wish everyone would do that so if you see one at a junk store or garage sale, your eyes go to it right away. Thanks again. Buddy

Thanks so much for this video. This is the most informative video I've seen on these. I think due the difficulty in reproducing these you don't hear a lot about them. Great sounding units

Uncle Doug sent me here.

Very informative look into how these machines work, and good overview of the range of makes and models. Thank you!

Thank you for the great and informative video. You are always welcome to the Tel-Ray Oilcan Addicts forum.

Great video ! I am here because i discovered 'oil can' delay from SA Collider pedal and your video is very educational. Cool machines :)

Thanks for making this video, I love learning about vintage technology.

This is awesome, thank you for this information! This is what the internet was made for.

This video is incredible! Subbed!

Uncle Doug also sent me here. Great info and video.

Excellent video. Thanks!

Great info. Sent here from Uncle Doug. I had a Morley Oil Can pedal back in the day.

Thank you for doing this bro. I’m super into physical time based effects (tape delay, spring reverb, etc) so hopefully I can get a real oil can delay one day. Until then, it’s the Adineko guitar pedal from Catalinbread for me

Love the watery sound of these old units.

That's sure a nice crunchy biting, hairy tone. Sounds great. I's sure like to bump into one these, broken at a garage sale.

I just ran across 3 of these fender delay units and sold them on eBay. I still have one more I may get up and running. It works, just no delay

They build pedals that mimic the sound of the oil can. I have a CB Adineko on my board since I got it. Love the atmospheric trails and blurry repeats. As for a real one, I liked the looks of the Tel Ray Echo-Ver-Brato, the blue one. I bet it costs a pretty wallet to score one of those.

Great presentation of an effective and apparently rare device. I would like to have had a seat at the table when the engineers were designing this. I enjoy seeing a piece of technology that did not exist become a fully functioning device - especially old stuff. Engineers and designers did not have software or the internet to rely on. Most would have been fortunate to have an air conditioned environment and a slide rule. 121:45 Fender knobs on a Gibson amp? My eyes are burning. :-)

Uncle Doug sent me :)

Beautiful!

Insane! I love it.

I bought a Gibson version of this device in 1976 for 20 dollars at a garage sale. It looked like a small amp head wrapped in brown Tolex ( slightly different than the one in the video ). I loved it....I knew one other guitar player in town who had one of the first Roland Space Echoes but they were very expensive. I used it for about six months at home and then formed my first band. WARNING the Gibson unit has a tube preamp in it that uses a 300VDC B+ supply for the tubes. These units came with a 2 wire power cord that had an unpolarized plug. Imagine my surprise when the first time I went to sing into a microphone with my guitar in my hands at the amazing blue burning flash that jumped from the mic to my lips. I didn't keep it for long after that. Pretty rad unit though! Oh to be fourteen again :)

wow, thank you so much!

Man this thing is pure Rock & Roll

Oil can might be my favorite delay effect. It still sounds futuristic after 60 years to me

I just love this! I've always been a delay junkie and a gadget junkie as well. So this sends me into overload. Do you have a discography of records or artists that we can reference as "power" users (and abusers) of these things? It has such a unique sound, no doubt further aggravated by the drag spring. It's great to know the history of Morley too. Just simply great history. Thanks so much, and Uncle Doug, thanks for sending me into this oily rabbit hole, I owe you bro.

I had one of the Morley pedals bought used early 80's. All I have left is the metal plate with the "echo speed - fast - slow" on it. Note the metal carrying handle. This thing was the size of an entire pedal board.

Wow,great "slap-back" 50s' sound!

Thank you!

And to think, back in '82, I worked at a 2nd hand music store that had a few of these 'oil cans' for a steal!

Very cool.

Excellent comprehensive run-down of all known oil can delays. I'm charmed by the use of grillcloth scrap on some of these heads, and the name "vagrant" on one of the later tel ray originals, which, probably sarcastically, even features the full address of the company on the front of the unit! (were vagrants hanging out front of the company office or something, repeating themselves?)

As the pedals run around $200,I'm assuming a person could build his own solid state version.Great vid;I noticed the use of a shaded four pole motor that was commonly used in kiddie record players from the '40s through the very early '70s.

Have you tried, or heard of anyone successfully trying, to add a provision that varies the motor speed? It would seem to me that changing speeds (particularly slowing it down) would create an even more haunting effect.....provided it doesn't run the risk of burning out the motor in the process! These units are fascinating, and I can't believe that I somehow missed them when they were originally produced! I'm the right age to have at least one kicking around my basement......but then again, I'm primarily a bass player! LOL Great video...thanks for putting it together!

Today I bought a Fender Dimension IV Sound Expander which uses the Tel-Ray oil can unit with a spring to create the vibrato effect. However, the speed is not adjustable, just on or off. It's fully functional, but a bit noisy, so I'm hoping to figure out how to lubricate it.

Thanks!!!

That thing has an electrostatic disc that looks much like a big hard drive disk. Hard drive is magnetic though. Has writing rewriting heads that constantly write and wipe..

Very cool...the old Ampeg Reverborockets that have an echo control knob Do they have anything like this in them ? Mine doesn't do anything like this and wondering if it's not working properly RR 2 Thanks

Thanks for this video. I've just finished restoring a Fender Echo Reverb 1 which is an Adineko 1001 in a different cabinet. Either someone had put foreign oil in it or the old oil turned Amber over time. After a good cleaning, 3 prong power cable, fresh LB65 oil, and new capacitors, it sounds amazing. However, the motor gets pretty hot and I'm concerned about that. Does your motor get hot?

Holy.. yea it's not for no reason the older recordings have unattainable qualities.. they used stuff so amazingly indicative of the time! Even that sweet Epiphone amp!

There ara three heads correct? Read, write and erase. The erase head must be the key.... and what they put in/on the anodized aluminum disc?

From reading the patents it shouldn't be too difficult to reverse engineer one, and I'd like to make one, though I might have to try a different type of rubber than 'graphite imprrgnated', one thing I have not seen is what kind of voltage is being applied to the electrodes

Do you have any idea which old songs featured this delay?

You missed the Fender Dimension IV. I have one of those and it is pretty cool but limited in usability.

Forgive me, but do these require any kind of bias oscillator? Just because I've seen a variety of these performing differently, sounding like poorly biased record heads... since it's different, was there any way to sneak or approximate a bias oscillator in the drum spinning?? This may be the key to getting it to work better... since even as far removed from tape as it is... it is still basically the same and maybe we're built before they even understood this principle?

Hello, I watched a video of Uncle Doug repair a Morley oil can device. I recently found a Morley EDL in the wild, bought it and brought it home. When I got home I found that the delay knob was seized up. I asked Uncle Doug if he could fix it for me and he referred me to you. I consider myself handy but this is well outside my area of expertise. I there any way you can help me salvage this machine? Please and thank you!

Can you say approximately what RPM the wiper pulley turns.

since you mention the LB-65 oil as having conductive particles in it....have you even tested it with a meter to see if you get a reading with the probes ?....any resistance reading.....>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Could be the same liquid they used in a DeArmond Vibrato unit in its capsule since it had to be conductive too to ground out the electrode when the liquid washed up on the electrode to complete the circuit.......

Do any of the units have a knob to change the speed of the motor I figure the slower the motor the longer the delay time but since it doesn't hold the charge long the slower the speed the more regeneration you'd want to extend the repeats.i really wish they would remake these things maybe design them with a bigger disc and multiple heads variable speed put a reverb tank in with it maybe pair it with a rotary speaker or some kinda vibrato or tremolo probably would cost so much to make that no one would be able to afford it.but really someone needs to start making old germanium transistors and bbd chips so the good old pedals can be made affordable

I wonder if a modern hard drive could be configured to work like this ??. Z.K.

I wonder if anyone has tried to make a plate reverb with a smaller more portable plate

Do they charge a Fee to belong to the telray oil can board??? They ask for a credit card

Do You Repair These I have a Fender 3 oil can Echo and reverb That I got at a garage sale. :-)

Who makes the modern emulator ‘copy’?? Caitlin something or other?

I wonder if anyone has built one from scratch these days. I would buy one.

DK, I have the parts to restore one, the Fender Variable Delay Echo-Reverb. The pots and cap latest date date is 1968. My research has brought me to your channel which I’m just now exploring. Great stuff. On my unit the chassis has been molested. No new holes, just clipped wires and it has what appears to be a failed attempt at a high gain preamp. The transformer appears good and It had no oil can. However, I have acquired a NOS oil can and a second one sold as is for parts. I don’t know what dual 12AX7 schematic was intended to be used. The two unknown value trim pots on the rear are missing. Any guidance, pictures of guts and and advice would be appreciated. Offline I’m at gmail as quayhog53.

channeling Link Wray ..... come in Link Wray .... over.

I came across a Standel Duette 2 in PERFECT condition (caps,dropping resistors ,and cord replaced/fuse added)other than the scratched disk. Was hoping you might know of a source. I’d DEFINITELY be interested. Here’s a short clip of it during an occasion when it was sort of working well. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oLN6f6mAxq3WfWg.html

good lord, no pedal sounds like this at all, they just dont get the 'mechanical quality' nor the right 'fluidity' of them, wish they were still around

Sounds pretty bad ... :/