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Echorec Rewiring Procedure

Binson Echorec‘s are notorious for their poor quality internal wiring. Over time the wiring insulation breaks down and ‘sweats’ releasing highly corrosive gases which eat into the copper conductor in the wiring and any adjacent chassis metalwork or components within the unit. It can cause a real mess and it all needs to removed and replaced if there is any chance at all of getting the machine up and running properly.

Not all Echorec’s exhibit this problem though and the wiring used in the them—which was originally manufactured in Italy for Binson—was reputed to be top quality. The problem is confined to units manufactured during the mid 1960s. Unfortunately during this period a large batch of wire was defective and the problem was not detected immediately as the wire appeared to look okay. Binson only became aware that the wire was degrading later on, after two or three years, when units were being returned to their factory for servicing. However, during this period their production had rolled on and they had continued shipping out Echorecs. Quite a few units were put on the market as this was building up to the peak of the Echorec’s popularity.

Rotten wiring from the mains power inlet on a Binson Echorec (click image for a closeup of the horror!)

This wiring job is one of the most difficult, time consuming and intimidating repairs you’ll ever tackle—it’s not for the faint hearted. It’s a big job and will take a week or so to complete. You’ll need great reserves of patience and resolve to complete it to the standard it deserves. It’s many times more complex than servicing a typical guitar tube amp as all the wiring will need replacing as well as any dried out electrolytic capacitors and resistors that have drifted or become noisy. That said, they’re well worth restoring as there is nothing that comes remotely close to the rich, complex swirl that these incredible machines generate, especially this latest tide of little stompbox ‘Echorec’ pedals based on budget digital delay chips. The combination of Binson’s magnetic drum and tubes creates a delay is truly unique and magical. They are very special machines.

Choose The 'Right' Kind Of Wire

This might seem obvious, however that initial decision about what kind of wire to use dictates whether the job goes smoothly and effortlessly, resulting in neat and tidy wiring you’ll be proud of, or making a complete pig’s ear of your Echorec. Firstly, make sure to use reasonably thin gauge multi-strand single core wire. I recommend 16 × 0.2mm with external diameter of 1.6mm and PVC (PolyVinyl Chloride) jacket. You’ll require two meters (2m) of each of the following colours: red, black, white, yellow, brown, orange, green. Thicker wire than this is not recommended as it will put undue stress on fragile metal parts such as solder tabs on tube sockets, transformers and the solder tags on Binson’s proprietary circuit boards which are remarkably fragile and brittle and inclined to snap off with even the slightest amount of bending. Additionally, thicker gauge wire is more difficult to route and you’ll more than likely find yourself battling with it to keep it sitting nicely in position.

Non-braided coaxial wire — Non-braided, rather than braided, shielded coaxial wire makes the wiring job much easier.

Secondly, within the Echorec there’s also a substantial amount of screened single-core coaxial wire. This screened wire reduces noise pick-up and carries low-level audio signals from/to the input/output jack sockets, tape heads and channel selector switches. The Binson wire is thinner than typical instrument or microphone cable, which is normally around 6mm diameter, and several different colours (white, red, blue, green and yellow) are used. This is to make wire identification easier. Ideally the wire should be 3.5mm diameter with a 16 strand inner-core (16 × 0.1mm) and 28 strand screen (28 × 0.1mm). Additionally, it’s desirable that the screen isn’t braided, like the wire shown in the photo, otherwise a great deal of time will need to be spent tediously picking the braid apart with some kind of pointed tool or a small screwdriver. This type of screened wire isn’t easy to find though and I’m still looking into finding a supplier. You’ll require approximately two meters (2m) of each of colour.

Dissassembly

The Echorec will need to be completely disassembled to gain access and perform the rewiring job. There are quite a few parts so take photogtaphs as you go along and keep nuts, bolts, knobs and other small items for each stage of disassembly together in small labelled plastic bags. Order of dissassembly is as follows:

Unscrew four bolts underneath Echorec and remove it from it’s wooden carry case. Watch out for the two aluminium spacing bars between the Echorec and the case as these will drop out now they are no longer secured by the bolts.
Unscrew the single self-tap screw the secures the lid and remove it.
Remove plastic oil bottle and clear plastic lid covering drum and heads.
Remove the memory system (plate with the drum and heads), First unsolder the wires to the heads by unscrewing the four nuts at each corner of the plate. These are usually cemented in position, however can be loosened with a little isopropyl alcohol.
Unscrew the self-tap screws around the edge of the back and rear panels then remove them
Remove knobs, light bulb covers, perspex front panel and nuts securing pots.
Unscrew all jack socket washers, the screws on the mains socket and self-tap screws on side panels.

The Rewiring Procedure

Replace one wire at a time. Take great care not to dislodge rotten wires as they’re extremely fragile and will easily disintergrate or become disconnected and if that happens then you’ll need to begin referring to circuit schematics which will just add to this painstaking task. A little brush, like an artist’s paintbrush is also very useful to sweep away the small fragemnts of jacket sleeving that will constantly drop off the cables as it falls apart. No matter how careful you are these old Binson cables will slowly disintergrate making a mess everywhere. It really is a labour of love to restore one of these machines.

When you have removed one wire, measure it and then cut a new piece of wire to the same length. Strip the ends of the new wire, tin them lightly with solder and then replace it. I worked through methodically replacing the single conductor wiring, starting around the mains transformer and power outlet. then went onto the coax. Heat-shrink sleeving can be used to cover the any ‘live’ mains power connections from the the mains inlet to the on-off switch potentiometer, however I prefer to use the more old-fashioned, ‘Hellerman’ rubber sleeves.

More coming at some point. I just wanted to get as much information online as quickly as possible as this is a tricky job.

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