The Ecoplate Reverb c. 1980

Ecoplates are great reverbs and sound much different then EMT plates (which is a welcome option to have)! There’s a large (4’x8′) version at the studio where I do most of my sessions and I use it all the time.

Question for the experts: Did all Ecoplates come standard with remote controllers? Or are there hand crank only models as well?

Thanks!

I cofounded the rock band Counting Crows and play bass on all of their hit records. I bought Bruce Swedien’s ranch in 1999 and inherited his Jim Cunningham Ecoplate which sits in the attic of my studio building and works beautifully, thanks to a saint by the name of Benno who is the repair and service technician for Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles. Benno took the brain of my plate into his care for a couple of weeks and fixed and updated it. It’s a famous plate I’m told because among other things, it was used on the snare on Thriller by Michael Jackson. I spoke with Bruce about 10 years ago because I wanted to give it back to him but neither of us could figure out an affordable way to get it out of my attic! Anyway I’m here to say that the Echoplate is a thing of beauty…it’ll make a sneeze sound like an ABBA record.

Jim Cunningham was a tech at United Western Recorders and was charged with tweaking and modifying equipment to be a little better than the versions competing studios had. He experimented with EMT 140’s and tweaked and brightened them up. Eventually he made his own, with cold rolled steel he felt was superior to the EMT, and his own electronics.
The particle board cases have eyehooks so they could be suspended to minimize pickup of ground vibrations (traffic etc.) which they were suseptible to (like EMT’s). United Western had an upstairs room with several plates hanging.
I have the very first production model of the Ecoplate 1 for sale (i’m the original owner, direct from Jim Cunningham), in a package with a 2nd ecoplate 1. There are a few spare parts, and some little bit of documentation. They need some work.
For years they were my favorite reverb (I had Lex’s and EMT 240’s). There signal to noise was not as good as a current convolution emulation, which is what I’ve been using for several years now. So mine are stored in a shed under my living room, down a little bit of a hill inaccessible to vehicles. It usually takes 4 people because in the particle board case the 8′ by 4′ x 16″ unit weighs about 400 lbs, unless it’s disassembled.
8 years ago there were three channels (from 2 outs of each unit) working. I think most of the problem is the little tiny wires from the pickups going onto the bnc connectors.
I’d rather not spend the time to check or test them further.
I’d entertain offers – you move, 30′ up a 20 degree grade hill and 100 feet to parking in the Santa Cruz California Mountains
Try me at catalogueordering@yahoo.com, which I check every few months maybe- I’m not in a hurry.