Echolette
Echolette was one of the most famous European manufacturers of vocal and instrument amplifiers and effects devices in the 1950s and 1960s.
History of KLEMT / Echolette
In the mid-1950s, at the suggestion of the orchestra musician Hans Bauer , the Klemt company began manufacturing a four-channel mixer amplifier for instruments and vocals. Arthur Klemt originally founded the company in Olching near Munich in the 1930s under the name Radio Klemt . Sales, repair and maintenance of radio and later television sets allowed supra-regional growth with branches also in Bremen and Hamburg.
The devices, initially in small numbers, were made by hand at Klemt. From 1959, Echolette was the trademark for all amplifiers and effects devices from this company. All trademark rights to the name Echolette belonged to Hans Bauer, who sold the Klemt products very successfully through his own company Echolette-Vertrieb based in Munich. The model range quickly expanded to include the tape echo and reverberation devices of the NG series, loudspeaker boxes, bass amplifiers, instrument boxes and microphones.
The microphones were manufactured by AKG Acoustics and Sennheiser and given the brand name Echolette by Bauer. The loudspeaker boxes were not manufactured by Echolette either, but by the Berlin company Isophon .
History of Dynacord Echolette
In 1969 Echolette was bought by the Dynacord company , in which Bauer in turn acquired shares. Since then, the Klemt name has disappeared from the Echolette logo. Devices produced in the 1970s initially came on the market with the same design under the name Dynacord, until around 1981 all newly manufactured devices were only produced under the brand name Dynacord.
Bauer sold his shares in Dynacord in 1981. Dynacord retained the rights to the Echolette brand. This has been part of Robert Bosch GmbH since 2006, together with its previous owner Telex Communications . The brand name Echolette was initially no longer used.
Return of the Echolette brand
In 2016 the Echolette brand returned with the MK I, a two-channel guitar top using all-tube technology and an accompanying loudspeaker box with 2x12 "speakers.
Milestones in amplifiers and effects devices
- Echolette M40 "Gold Cage" (1959, four-channel amplifier for vocals and instruments)
- Echolette NG51 "S" (1960, tape echo)
- Echolette Showstar (1962, guitar amplifier)
- Echolette ME I (1971, " Leslie " rotary loudspeaker with tweeter rotor)
- Echolette ME II (1971, " Leslie " rotary loudspeaker with tweeter and bass rotor)
- Echolette ME IV E (1978, rotary loudspeaker " Leslie " with tweeter rotor and transistor "Space-Sound")
See also
- Le Frisur (The cover photo of the doctors album shows an Echolette tape echo effect device)
